While the United Nations Development Programme has been a
significant player in the field of international development for more than
forty years, its evolution is not widely known nor easily understood.
This is the organization’s first published history. It is only one of many
possible histories of UNDP that could have been written, and is not an
organizational history in the traditional sense. My predecessor, Mark
Malloch Brown, who commissioned this project, wanted the book to be a
work of genuinely independent scholarship, hence, it is in many ways
more essay than chronicle. It could not have been written without the
help of many people who have been part of UNDP, who contributed their
experiences and insights, knowing full well that what the author would
eventually write might be very different than what they would have.