International development

International development or global development is a wide concept concerning level of development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications such as developed country, developing country and least developed country. There are however many schools of thought and conventions regarding, which are the exact features constituting development of a country.

Historically it has been largely synonymous with economic development. Recently it is also often used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development as well as other concepts like competitiveness, quality of life or subjective well-being.

International development is different from simple development in that it is specifically composed of institutions and policies that arose after the Second World War. These institutions focus on alleviating poverty and improving living conditions in previously colonised countries.

History

Although international relations and international trade have existed for many hundreds of years, it is only in the past century that international development theory emerged as a separate body of ideas. More specifically, it has been suggested that 'the theory and practice of development is inherently technocratic, and remains rooted in the high modernist period of political thought that existed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War'. Throughout the 20th century, before the concept of international development became a common word, four aspects were used to describe the idea:

World Development (journal)

World Development is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering development studies. The journal was established in 1973 and is published by Elsevier.

According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2011 impact factor of 1.537.

References

External links

World Development Indicators

World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates. This statistical reference includes over 800 indicators covering more than 150 economies. The annual publication is released in April of each year. The online database is updated three times a year.

Accessing the data

The World Bank’s Open Data site provides access to the WDI database free of charge to all users. A selection of WDI data is featured at data.worldbank.org. Users can browse the data by Country, Indicators, Topics, and Data Catalog. WDI is the first source listed in the catalog and can be accessed directly via Data Bank.

The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) provides the macro-economic datasets free of charge for registered members of UK higher and further education institutions.

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA). The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system.

The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty. However, according to its Articles of Agreement, all its decisions must be guided by a commitment to the promotion of foreign investment and international trade and to the facilitation of Capital investment.

World Bank Group

The World Bank is not to be confused with the World Bank Group, an extended family of five international organizations:

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth or pertaining to anywhere on Earth.

In a philosophical context it may refer to:

In a theological context, world usually refers to the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred. The "end of the world" refers to scenarios of the final end of human history, often in religious contexts.

World history is commonly understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia, from the first civilizations to the present.

World population is the sum of all human populations at any time; similarly, world economy is the sum of the economies of all societies (all countries), especially in the context of globalization. Terms like world championship, gross world product, world flags etc. also imply the sum or combination of all current-day sovereign states.