The term "development" is used in these Guidelines quite broadly: the option was taken not to attempt a formal definition, feeling that the understanding of the text or of its intentions would not suffer from the lack of such a definition.

There actually can be a number of definitions, overlapping each other to a certain extent, yet different. During the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences Meeting on “Evaluation of Development Research [1]” in 2009, this issue was raised by various speakers (S.N. Balangadhara ;François Muhashy Habiyaremye) as well as during the closing Round Table.

Basically any definition of development should cover the reduction of poverty and of inequalities; the increased role of women; education; health; opportunities for young people; human rights; respect for the environment; etc. It is up to each stakeholder [2](researcher, evaluator, sponsor, author of a specific guide [3]) to use the definition that best fits his/her needs at the time he/she uses it, provided the concept is the one used locally,  is easily understandable, and  is immediately acceptable to the various actors [2] in development.

It is important that the authors of any specific guide would ensure consistency with the way they use the terms development and development research [4].

See also the annexes on relevance to development [5] and impact [6].