Paper short abstract:

Based on an analysis of national development plans from over 100 countries produced over the last 10 years this paper distils key characteristics and produces a typology of national development plans. The paper draws out some lessons for planning for sustainable development goals in the Global South

Paper long abstract:

On 25 September 2015, all 193 UN member states committed themselves to a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike the largely 'top-down' Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs are to be implemented through locally driven plans that reflect the priorities and contexts of individual UN member states.Many countries in the global south have begun to produce 'national development plans' again after a period in which national development plan making had begun to be seen as an anachronism.

This paper looks is a chacaterisation of a new generation of development plans based on an analysis of plans from over 100 countries. The paper presents results of this analysis starting with an understanding of the type of rationality that underpins the plan making process. This is related to a typology of plans and the meaning and uses of plans as well as some of the emerging outcomes of 'plan making' . In conclusion the paper draws some lessons for the on going process of planning for sustainable development goals.