The Society for International Development (SID), founded in Washington, D.C. in 1957, is committed to stimulating dialogue and cooperation on global development issues, enhancing skills, knowledge and understanding among development practitioners, and providing a network for individuals and organizations working in various sectors of international development. Over the years, SID has consistently been at the forefront of shaping the theory and practice of development, challenging existing practices and suggesting alternative approaches.
Today, SID’s programme of work reflects the growing questioning of development as a point of reference for meaningful North-South dialogues. Accordingly, the Society’s focus has shifted from debates on how to advance development, to ways of opening up spaces for a reflection on how to ensure an agenda for social justice can be carried forward in a climate that is increasingly conservative and inward looking.
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The relevance of the society’s programmes is officially recognized by the special status that SID enjoys with the United Nations. SID enjoys the highest consultative status, Category I, with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as the Society operates in most fields of involvement of the United Nations. SID is a member of the board of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with ECOSOC (CONGO). SID additionally maintains consultative status with the Council of Europe, IFAD, International Labour Organization, FAO, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA and UNICEF.
Development[1] is the flagship quarterly journal of the Society for International Development (SID), published by the Palgrave Macmillan press.
Since 1957 Development has explored the cutting edge issues of human-centred development. With alternative perspectives on civil society, development policy and community based strategies for livelihoods, gender and social justice, Development keeps readers up to date on the challenging issues of today's rapidly changing world.[2]
The SID Secretariat has been based in Rome since 1979. Additionally, SID opened a Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi in 2003.
The Washington D.C. Chapter is the largest and most active chapter of the Society for International Development, with 150 member organizations and over a thousand individual members. SID-Washington's twenty regional and topical workgroups hold monthly events which connect a global forum of international development practitioners. SID-Washington is a leading international development membership organization that provides a space for dialogue and bridges a dynamic community of individuals and institutions working in international development.
SID-Washington is committed to three principal objectives:
In pursuing this mission, SID-Washington bridges diverse constituencies (including academia, policy makers, progressive business sector, and multilateral institutions) in order to serves as a knowledge broker that supports the generation, exchange and dissemination of ideas.
The Buenos Aires Chapter (SID-Baires) was created at the end of 1957, by a group of Argentinean intellectuals and scholars – like the economist Raul Prebish – committed to promote critical thinking and dialogue around development ideas on the eve of the increased attention and interest to new strategies for development, taking place in Argentina – at that time run by the Desarrollista government of Arturo Frondizi – as well as in the rest of the world. The chapter – known as “Argentine Chapter” changed the name to “Buenos Aires Chapter” in 2000, following the creation of two new chapters in the cities of Rosario and La Plata. The Buenos Aires Chapter is one of the oldest chapter of SID that has engaged consistently and continuously for more than 50 years in activities and programmers addressing development questions and processes from a both national and international perspective.
The Buenos Aires Chapter seeks to become a hub for holistic, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral thinking able to contribute to the construction of a vision of development that is harmonic, inclusive and sustainable.
SIDbaires is divided in departments that debate and produce critical thinking and propose public policies for Argentina’s complex reality. A series of policy dialogues are carried out with the aim of exploring and better understanding what model of development is suitable for Argentina and for Latin America as a whole. In that effort, the Chapter has set up a virtual newsroom to produce opinion pieces and analysis – published on the national press - presenting the main findings and key issues emerging in the discussions. SIDbaires members are key rising figures in business, union and government circles.
In September 2010, the first issue of SIDbaires' new magazine, Qué? Hacer para el Desarrollo, was launched.