Jean-Michel Severino is a research director at the Foundation for International Development Study and Research (FERDI) and the head the French Development Agency (Afd).
Olivier Ray is an economist with Afd. Together they co-authored Le Temps de l’Afrique (English language: Polity Press)


The world has attained a level of social, economic and financial interdependence for which there is no historical precedent. This global interdependence has been responsible for facilitating sixty years of remarkable growth and unequalled progress. But it has now attained its limits — and aggravated the present crises — under the combined pressures of demographic growth and the physical constraints that weigh upon the planet.
Such wide-ranging interdependence also explains the increasing inequalities and social tensions that have resulted — and which perhaps herald more crises to come. And so, what were originally social issues have risen to the rank of global problems. But will international society be able to deal with them?

• A brilliant synthesis by two experts in development studies. By showing the interconnectedness of world problems they reveal the underlying dangers.
• The authors chart the guidelines of what a global social policy should be: it should value human beings, create a nature policy, give internal markets a key role and construct a safety net on a global scale.