The 2021 edition of the OECD’s Perspectives on Global Development was prepared by the OECD Development Centre under the guidance of its Director, Mario Pezzini. The report was co-ordinated and written by Alexander Pick, in collaboration with Alexandre Kolev (Chapter 1) and Katharine Parry (Chapters 2 and 3). Jingjing Xia and Quynh Hoang provided valuable statistical assistance.
The report was proofread by Jessica Hutchings and Elizabeth Holbourne. Elizabeth Nash and Delphine Grandrieux from the Development Centre’s publications team turned the report into a publication. Layout and infographics were provided by Aida Buendia and Irit Perry. Myriam Andrieux provided administrative support.
The report benefited greatly from comments and substantive inputs from the following colleagues at the OECD Development Centre: Jhalak Aggarwal, Federico Bonaglia, Adriana Caicedo, Rita Da Costa, Marin Fouere, Jason Gagnon, Elizabeth Holbourne, Thang Nguyen, Hyeshin Park, Ruya Perincec, Annalisa Primi, Jan Rielaender, Sofia Scialoja, Henri‑Bernard Solignac Lecomte, Bakary Traoré, Juan Vázquez Zamora, Jingjing Xia and Felix Zimmerman. Comments received during a meeting of the Governing Board of the OECD Development Centre on 9 April 2021 were also highly valued.
Comments and suggestions were also gratefully received from colleagues in other OECD directorates: Kate Conford (on behalf of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities), Joseph Stead (Centre for Tax Policy and Administration), Sam Mealy (Development Co-operation Directorate), Guy Halpern (Environment Directorate), the Global Relations Secretariat, William Hynes (New Approaches to Economic Challenges Unit), David Winickoff (Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation) and Duncan Cass-Beggs (Strategic Foresight Unit).
The report also greatly benefited from discussions with and comments from an experts group comprising Yuen Yuen Ang (University of Michigan), Bertrand Badie (Sciences Po University), Debapriya Bhattacharya (Centre for Policy Dialogue), Milindo Chakrabarti, (Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries), Colin Crouch (University of Warwick), Martine Durand, Pierre-Noël Giraud (Mines ParisTech), Richard Kozul-Wright (UNCTAD), Stefano Manservisi and Jacques Ould Aoudia (Royal Institute of Strategic Studies, Morocco). This group met virtually on 30 June 2020 and 8 December 2020.
Gilles Gressani of Le Grand Continent provided valuable comments on the report. The authors would also like to thank Lucy Bates (University of Sussex), Neil Brenner (University of Chicago), James Brazier and Nick Morgan (Newcastle University) for their ideas during the preparation of the report, and to acknowledge the contribution of Ron Gass.