ABSTRACT
The term ‘development’ can be used in several different ways: to describe broad processes of economic and social transformation, to refer to ‘levels’ of progress in terms of economic, political and social conditions found in different countries or regions, and as a descriptor for the broad field of activity undertaken by actors in the international aid system. Development is therefore a word that is made to work extremely hard. Two particular areas of difficulty can arise from confusion between the use of development to refer to societal change and its consequences and its use to describe the intentions and activities of institutional actors designed to bring it about.
