Is Globalizing ‘development’ Ethical? A View from the Pacific

Abstract

As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drew to a close in 2015, it was apparent that Small Island Development States (SIDS) did not fare well in achieving their goals for eradicating poverty. This chapter investigates development progress in the Pacific, providing a case study from Papua New Guinea (PNG) focused on the experience of poverty alleviation under the MDG framework. It points to an ethical conundrum for the international community whereby the ‘development’ process displaces and sometimes destroys existing social economies; yet, traditional systems for social and economic provisioning often constitute a necessary safety net for the poor in developing economy contexts. The Pacific SIDS development experience with foreign aid and volatile markets in international trade is one that threatens culturally specific means for socio-economic reproduction. The chapter therefore directs attention to the complex forms of livelihood that might form part of a creative and just approach to development and poverty alleviation. Further, it suggests hybrid institutional forms can maintain the integrity of culture in development rather than sacrificing it to the one-size-fits-all globalizing construct that characterized the MDGs and which continues in the newly sanctioned Sustainable Development Goal framework.