Reflections by a Civil Servant on development problems (speech given on the Closing Day of the Conference)

Abstract

A government official now stands before you and has the difficult and rather hazardous task of speaking at the closing session of a very high level symposium, which he has not attended and of which he has not read the papers. And yet I hope that my remarks will have some relevance for you because they come from a policy advisor who has to carry out development policy, who has to assist his ministers and work with his colleagues in drafting and formulating development policy, and who knows the tremendous frustration of having to deal with an increasingly complex international and national society without a sufficient basis in modern science and development research.