Briefing Paper 39. Evidence, economics and exclusion: super actors, civil society and citizen debate in the post-MDG paradigm

International development is being reconfigured. As the MDGs approach their end point, with debatable impact, it is not only the aspirations of development that are under review. The organisational forms and international partnerships through which development is delivered are changing.

This paper examines the reconfiguration of what counts as development in Tanzania. It shows how the policy prioritisation of a private sector-led ‘Green Revolution for Africa’ is promoted by a configuration of policy elites, political interests and big business supported by scientific institutions. As ‘evidence’ and science come to play a key role in legitimating a particular version of social transformation, political debate and poverty focused policymaking risk being pushed to the periphery.