Notice Board

Presenter: Alexander Darku, Associate Director, Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, and Associate
Professor, Economics Department, University of Lethbridge

International development approaches (models and practices) have taken sharp turns and twists since the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) focused their attention on the developing world in the 1950s. These top-down approaches were supposed to improve living standard in the developing world by promoting broad-based economic growth that reduces poverty levels significantly. In this presentation, I critically analyze the approaches and evaluate their impact on the developing world using the instructive experience of the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. Given the abysmal results, I propose a bottom-up development strategy that has the tested and full potential of creating broad-based economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving the well-being of people in the developing world.