The New Missionaries: Memoirs of a Foreign Adviser in Less-Developed Countries (Harvard Studies in International Development)

This volume looks at the changing face of policy advising from the perspective of the author's forty years of work in and for developing countries. Both a personal memoir and an essay on the nature of the development profession, the book will be of particular interest to those just starting their careers as policy advisers.

The main lesson to be learned, says the author, is that "there is no common formula for solving a country's problems. Each society must come up with its own formula, in which economic policy is only one important variable in a complex equation. We missionaries can best help our counterparts carry out this daunting task by teaching more than preaching, and by insisting that they themselves take full responsibility for their recommendations and actions."

Richard D. Mallon is a Fellow Emeritus of the Harvard Institute for International Development. He has provided macroeconomic policy and planning advice in fifteen countries.