Learning about the rise and fall of Development International has been instructive. DI tried to do internationally what Himal is attempting regionally. Mark Feisenthal, Associate Editor of DI until its collapse, describes how good intentions were not enough. Felshenthal has worked in Nepal as a writer and photographer for UNICEF.
There was one question the editors of Development International were always ready for. "A slick, glossy magazine about development? Isn´t it a bit incongruous?" people asked. But was the implication that because the magazine was about the Third World, it had to look like it was printed in the basement? It was time for an independent publication to cover development, and the magazine should be as professional as the people it was addressing.
DI published a prototype issue in October 1986 and a premiere issue two months later. It sent out tens of thousands of copies to readers in developing countries. It published reports on topics as diverse as AIDS in Africa, the over abundance of foreign aid in Nepal, and the setbacks Nicaragua has suffered as a result of its civil war. It ran stories critical of dam construction in Madhya Pradesh, pesticide spraying in the Caribbean, and a controversial immunization test in the Philippines.
But DI barely published a year´s worth of issues. Tension with USAID and an odd bureaucratic imbroglio caused funding to dry up, leaving the magazine casting about unsuccessfully for alternative funding sources. The last issue appeared in early August 1987.