The shift to global development

Global development is increasingly referred to as a paradigm for development studies, as well as in relation to policy and practice. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed in 2015, relate to all countries and highlight how change is needed beyond just the Global South for a prosperous and more sustainable planet. A global scope, related to development challenges facing the whole world, potentially marks a significant geographic shift. The practice and study of international development has long been associated with that part of the world variously referred to as Third World, Global South, industrialising, developing etc. and with aid underpinned by charity from Northern countries to those in the South. A classic focus of development policy and study has been how the South could become ‘developed’ like the Global North. Calls for a global development focus are not entirely new (e.g., Hettne, 1995). Yet the replacement of the 2000–2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were overarchingly oriented towards development challenges in lower-income countries, with the SDGs has accelerated such calls (e.g., Gore, 2015; Leach, 2015).