There were simply no hard choices left for economic policy makers. However, the euphoria has proved short-lived. Not only are large parts of the developing world still mired in slow or negative growth, but poverty levels remain despairingly high and income gaps with the North visibly wider. There is no denying the negative side, in which many of the world's poor are becoming poorer. It is time, once again, to talk seriously about a development policy crisis.
Globalisation is a complex phenomenon marked by two opposing forces.
On the one hand, it is characterised by massive economic expansion and technological innovation. On the other hand, there is increased inequality, cultural and social tumult and individual alienation. Globalisation has not been a neutral process. Its growth has not had an equal effect everywhere that would result in improved living conditions for the great majority of peoples. On the contrary, at the global level the distribution of the fruits of growth among rich and poor countries is more polarised today, with a ratio of 60 to 1, than it was in 1960, when the ratio was 30 to 1.