WASHINGTON, September 29, 2010 — World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick today urged a rethink of development economics to make it more useful to policy makers and announced a reorientation of World Bank research so it taps more effectively the experiences in developing countries through “Open Data, Open Knowledge, Open Solutions”.

In a speech ahead of the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Washington, Zoellick said the global economic crisis had made the need for a rethink of development economics even more compelling. Development knowledge should become “multi-polar” to recognize the rising importance of developing countries as new poles of growth and experience.

“There is a new opportunity, and certainly a pressing need, for dynamism in development economics.  Software has brought new tools; the Internet has brought new communications; rising economies have brought new experiences,” he told an audience at Georgetown University. “We need to listen and democratize development economics.”

“Even before the crisis there was a questioning of prevailing paradigms and a sense that development economics needed rethinking,” Zoellick said. “The crisis has only made that more compelling.”

Related Links:
+Press Release: Development Economics Needs to Better Help Policymakers, Zoellick Says