The UK White Book on Development: a critical review

TAPELLA, ESTEBAN; RODRÍGUEZ BILELLA, PABLO

The International Dimension of EU Policies

Roskilde University

Lugar: Roskilde, Dinamarca; Año: 2005; p. 111 - 115

In this chapter we shall attempt to analyse some aspects of the document “Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century. WP Report on International Development” , published by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in November 1997. After the dark night of Iraq invasion with the participation of British troupes, it is necessary to re-analysis to what extend this document is still the UK agenda. Looking to this document can allow us to get an idea about the main discussions within the UK government and its implication to other developed countries and international institutions, particularly the policies for promoting LDCs processes of development or poverty ‘elimination’. The WHITE PAPER (WP) has become a core document on foreign affairs and international policies regarding world poverty, being under permanent discussion by different institutional actors, and its international relevance cannot be denied. Thus, the main objective of our analysis is to find out the arguments and discussions in the UK government agenda during the late 90’s in relation to questions of poverty. We wonder if the UK government offered an alternative policy to the traditional ‘economic-growth’ and ‘trickle-down-effect’ strategy, as well as is the WP is a realistic attempt for eliminating poverty. We sustain that the WP Report represents an important step forward on the path to achieving the International Development Targets, but it is very ambitious and it has too many contradictions regarding its goals and methodologies to achieve such objectives.