Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 67 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Lant Pritchett. Lant is described as a ‘Rock Star’ of the aid world. He is an American development economist, famous for challenging contemporary beliefs on development. Lant recently spoke at the Australasian Aid Conference, hosted by the Development Policy Centre, on why great intentions and great policies don’t always lead to great outcomes - he speaks about the importance of contextualising development approaches, or in other words, why we all can’t just adopt Finland’s education policies. What works in one spot, may fail to work in another, if it doesn’t account for the real, lived experience of locals and the nuances of the social, economic and political system - it sounds rather obvious - we’d all agree that development approaches need to be relevant for the local context - but it doesn’t always play out in practice. Lant’s views are challenging, and often controversial, and he delivers each point with