The overriding objective of the Swedish programme for international development co-operation — and also to a large extent of the programmes of the other Nordic countries — is to supplement the development efforts of the developing countries and especially to support activities tending to promote economic and social equality. In order to ascertain the best ways of achieving this objective, a Royal Commission on International Development Co-operation, consisting of ten parliamentarians, which sought to explore ‘the views on underdevelopment and its causes and the relations between the poor and the rich countries as expressed by representatives and scholars of the Third World’.
It therefore seemed appropriate for the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation to invite a number of prominent officials and scholars from the developing countries and representatives of international organisations active in the field of development to meet with the members of the Royal Commission, with the purpose of creating preconditions for a continuing dialogue between the partners in the development effort.
This issue of Development Dialogue presents the papers contributed to the seminar as well as the conclusions reached.