The Quest for Measuring Development: The Role of the Indicator Bank

Abstract

Development indicators constitute a technology of global governance because of their knowledge and their governance effects. The knowledge effect is determined by the underlying development theory that is promoted by both indicator users and generators, which may be articulated through an economic, an institutional, or a rights-based frame of reference. The increased use of expert knowledge in the development field has encouraged the use of indicators as a proxy for development not only by hegemonic institutions, such as the World Bank, but also by other indicator users or generators that seek to contest the development "commonsense." The World Bank remains one of the most important producers and users of indicators, and through its World Development Indicators (WDI) it has managed to promote hegemonic theories of development based on economics-based frames of reference. Although the World Bank has expanded its development discourse to include concerns of institutions and rights-based approaches, it has continuously relied on economic indicators as the main tool to measure development.