This report provides a general introduction to the problems of development as seen by the developing country. It has been produced by the South Commission and is a follow-up to the 1983 Brandt Commission report: Common Crisis: North-South Co-operation for World Recovery. While the latter was a bi-partisan report, the Commission now feels that the situation of the developing countries needs to be even more clearly stated since the tensions in the world economy during the 1980s have left the economies of the less developed countries in an even more vulnerable position than before.