Lant Pritchett – Why do good intentions and good policies lead to bad outcomes?

Welcome to Episode 67 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre.

Today’s guest is Lant Pritchett. Lant is described as a ‘Rock Star’ of the aid world. He is an American development economist, famous for challenging contemporary beliefs on development. Lant recently spoke at the Australasian Aid Conference, hosted by the Development Policy Centre, on why great intentions and great policies don’t always lead to great outcomes – he speaks about the importance of contextualising development approaches, or in other words, why we all can’t just adopt Finland’s education policies.

What works in one spot, may fail to work in another, if it doesn’t account for the real, lived experience of locals and the nuances of the social, economic and political system – it sounds rather obvious – we’d all agree that development approaches need to be relevant for the local context – but it doesn’t always play out in practice.

Lant’s views are challenging, and often controversial, and he delivers each point with his characteristic humour and light-heartedness, which made for a fun conversation.

Once again, this episode is from the Development Policy Centre, a leading think tank for aid and development based at the Australian National University. We’re thrilled to be working with the Development Policy Centre, and continuing to be the leading media platform dedicated to aid and development globally.

The Development Policy Centre is hosting the Pacific Update from 24-26 June in Fiji, and the PNG Update from 20 – 21 August in Port Moresby. I’ll be attending both conferences, and hope to see many of you there! Abstracts are now open for both conferences, so we’d love you to submit a paper on a topic relevant to aid and development, and hopefully share your ideas and experience with our community! You can find more info at devepolicy.anu.edu.au

Enjoy,
The GWH Team