“more competitive,” and it emphasized performance in the design of
its assistance programs.^74 The UNDP also played an active role in the
implementation of the PRSPs sponsored by the IMF and the World
Bank, and it became much more attentive than before to economic
growth and trade.^75 Through programs like the Growing Sustainable
Business Initiative and the United Nations Capital Development Fund,
the UNDP emerged as one of the linchpins in the new strategy of
collaboration between the UN and the private sector.
A number of factors may explain this evolution toward a more
consensual vision of development. The new attitude of the Bretton
Woods institutions can be attributed, in particular, to the lessons drawn
from the Asian crisis, which was “deeper, longer and harder” because
of the austerity policies pursued by the IMF.^76 With their credibility
tarnished, the international financial institutions became less arrogant.
Their stance was also influenced by the coming to power of many
center-left governments in Europe and North America at the end of the
1990s. Leaders of these governments were more favorably disposed
than their predecessors toward international development objectives.
On the other side, the UN system was strongly influenced by the
success of developing countries that had liberalized their economy.
Observing that “the past 25 years have seen the most dramatic reduc-
tion in extreme poverty that the world has ever experienced,” the
UN came to the conclusion that markets and globalization could be
hugely beneficial to development.^77 On the left, some have argued
that this change of attitude resulted in fact from a “widespread mood of
resignation” engendered by two decades of pro-market “global intel-
lectual hegemony.”^78 Whatever the case, the evolution of development
(^74) UNDP,Development Effectiveness: Review of Evaluative Evidence, New
York, Evaluation Office of the UNDP, 2001, p. 12 (www.undp.org/eo/
75 documents/der2001.pdf).
Murphy,The United Nations Development Programme, p. 310; Mark Malloch
Brown, “Statement by the UNDP Administrator at the Conference on the
Review of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers,” Washington, January 16, 2002,
p. 3 (http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/january-2002/mmb-conference.en;
76 jsessionid=axbWzt8vXD9?categoryID=593045&lang=en).
Joseph E. Stiglitz, “The Insider: What I Learned at the World Economic Crisis,”
77 New Republic, April 17–24, 2000, 56–60, p. 60.
Annan,In Larger Freedom, p. 11.
(^78) “Jordan Valley Declaration: Time for Mobilizing the South,” South Centre
High Level Policy Forum, Dead Sea, Jordan, 14–15 January 2003, Geneva,
South Centre, 2003, p. 3 (www.southcentre.org/info/southbulletin/
186 Left and Right in Global Politics