"Right at the beginning of her book, the author makes it clear how complex and difficult it is to track down success factors for functioning development processes. Her research and case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, which focus on local processes and selected, in many cases state-run, social programs, took place before the "turn of the century: There is no mention of the consequences of the Ukraine war or the Corona crisis, but there is mention of the consequences of climate change. Tiwari devotes much space to examining factors such as collective knowledge and the traditional expertise of local communities in developing and implementing projects. Development processes, she argues, are only successful if they are consistently geared to the needs of the people involved and not to those of financially strong market players. Moreover, she emphasizes, sustainability can only be achieved through intergenerational cooperation and a strong presence of women in all decision-making processes. Tiwari identifies seven factors for successful local change processes in her book: the pressure of suffering, the recognition of opportunities for improvement, a local culture that allows change, security of access to land and resources, organizational and management skills, help from technology and methodological expertise - for example, in environmental management - as well as political support and legitimacy - in other words, the backing of the community even in the face of setbacks. Along the way, the author dispels concepts popular in development jargon, such as the "best practice" idea. For her, it's all about offering donors and taxpayers a profit, i.e. proving success from the donors' point of view - completely irrespective of whether the people involved on the ground might consider completely different aspects, such as a social status subjectively perceived as improved as smallholder families, to be much more important. For Meera Tiwari, the question of whether a change process is successful can never be judged by external evaluators, but only by the participants themselves." (https://www.welt-sichten.org, 24.1.2023)