International Development Strategy for the 1990s

Abstract

The 1980s came to be characterized as ‘the lost decade of development’. The goals and objectives on the International Development Strategy (IDS) for the Third United Nations Development Decade of the 1980s were for the most part unattained. Adverse and unanticipated developments in the world economy wiped out the premises on which growth had been expected. For the developing countries, the external economic environment over the decade of the 1980s generally resulted in shrinking resource flows, declining commodity prices, rising interest rates, and increasing barriers to market access. During the 1980s, overall growth in the developing countries averaged 3 per cent annually and a per capita growth of 1 per cent. (Over the preceding two decades, overall growth of these countries averaged 5.5 per cent and a per capita growth of 3 per cent.)