Broadening the development agenda for the SDG world

Richard Jolly argues that the adoption of the SDGs as a universal agenda must bring an end to development studies focusing only on developing countries. Development should now be about all countries, an approach which can strengthen the analysis of problems in the North by learning from experience and analysis of countries in the South. Future priorities for development need to be framed by five fundamental objectives: universalism, sustainability, human development, inequality and human rights. These objectives are all embodied in the SDGs even if not always with deep commitment and Jolly briefly discusses each of them. The current neglect of human development contains a clear message, namely that human development theory, techniques and applications need to be better integrated into development teaching as well as into policy studies and consultancies. This would be an important step towards offsetting the narrow applications of neo-liberal economic teaching and policymaking and the narrowness of austerity policies being promoted across Europe today.