Editing International development (section)

{{Short description|Concept concerning the level of development on an international scale}}
{{For|other forms of development|Development (disambiguation)}}
[[File:World development indicators relative to the year 1990.svg|thumb|450px|World  Development Indicators have improved relative to the year 1990. 75% of poverty reduction shown happened in China.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lifting 800 Million People Out of Poverty – New Report Looks at Lessons from China's Experience |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/lifting-800-million-people-out-of-poverty-new-report-looks-at-lessons-from-china-s-experience |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=World Bank |language=en}}</ref>]]

'''International development''' or '''global development''' is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of [[economic development|economic]] or [[human development (economics)|human development]] on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications such as [[developed country]], [[developing country]] and [[least developed country]], and for a field of practice and research that in various ways engages with international development processes. There are, however, many schools of thought and conventions regarding which are the exact features constituting the "development" of a country.

Historically, development was largely synonymous with economic development, and especially its convenient but flawed quantification (see [[parable of the broken window]]) through readily gathered (for developed countries) or estimated monetary proxies (estimated for severely undeveloped or [[isolationism|isolationist]] countries) such as [[gross domestic product]] (GDP), often viewed alongside [[actuarial science|actuarial]] measures such as [[life expectancy]]. More recently, writers and practitioners have begun to discuss development in the more holistic and [[interdisciplinarity|multi-disciplinary]] sense of human development. Other related concepts are, for instance, [[competition (companies)|competitiveness]], [[quality of life]] or [[tripartite model of subjective well-being|subjective well-being]].<ref>[http://www.gapminder.org/videos/human-rights-democracy-statistics/ Video with prof. Hans Rosling] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001060541/http://www.gapminder.org/videos/human-rights-democracy-statistics/ |date=2009-10-01 }} after 21 seconds.</ref>

"International development" is different from the simple concept of "development". Whereas the latter, at its most basic, denotes simply the idea of change through time, international development has come to refer to a distinct field of practice, industry, and research; the subject of university courses and professional categorisations. It remains closely related to the set of institutions—especially the [[Bretton Woods Institutions]]—that arose after the Second World War with a focus on economic growth, alleviating poverty, and improving living conditions in previously colonised countries.<ref name="Development pp. 155-156">(2009). "Development". In D. Gregory, ''Dictionary of Human Geography'', 5th Edition (pp. 155–56). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref> The international community has codified development aims in, for instance, the [[Millennium Development Goals]] (2000 to 2015) and the [[Sustainable Development Goals]] (2015 to 2030).
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