Recognition, diagnosis and the roots we refuse to uproot. Every development intervention begins long before the first dollar is spent. It begins long before the baseline survey, the feasibility study, the logical framework, the theory of change or the implementation plan. It begins with a decision so fundamental that it is rarely recognised as a decision at all. Someone decides what the problem is. Everything that follows inherits that decision. The evidence that wi

Understanding, legitimacy and the politics of recognition. I never doubted the value of expertise. Throughout my career I have worked with economists, engineers, statisticians, agricultural scientists, health specialists, planners and policy makers. I have been one of them. I have spent decades conducting research, teaching, writing, advising governments and leading development programmes. I believe in expertise. I believe in research. I believe in scholarship. What I

What counts as evidence in development? I am a mathematician. Numbers make sense to me. Equations make sense to me. Econometrics makes sense to me. Models bring order to complexity. They require assumptions, they test relationships, they reveal patterns that would otherwise remain hidden. If the assumptions are sound, the mathematics follows. If the mathematics holds, the conclusions can be defended. Precision matters. Measurement matters. Evidence includes measurement. What