Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World

C COUNTRIES ARE CITED RELATIVELY OFTEN as examples of development success. These countries exhibit policies and institutions that could be adapted for less successful countries in the developing world, thus constituting “role models” of development. Role models need not have been successful across every dimension (growth, poverty reduction, democratization, etc.). Nor are they required to be bereft of periods of failure and crisis; indeed their ability to overcome adversity and to move successfully forward constitutes a critical element of their success. This Policy Brief highlights development strategies and lessons from a global sample of country cases of the developing world: East Asia and the Pacific, the emerging Asian giants, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. It reflects the diversity in development strategies: the “disinterestedgovernment” political economy of China; the “Washington Consensus-based” reforms of China and Ghana; diversification strategies of Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); the dynamic orthodox-heterodox strategy of Malaysia and Vietnam; the effective natural resource management of Bahrain, Botswana, Oman and the UAE; the social sector emphasis of Costa Rica and Tunisia; the democratic political system of managing diversity in India; and so forth. The approach challenges many existing schools of thought. The findings are summarized under the following six themes: orthodox versus heterodox policies; the importance of capability; primary exports, diversification and financing; managing diversity; the role of institutions and governance; and human development.