John Young has spent most of his career working in and for developing and emerging countries in Africa, Asia and South-East Asia. Starting as a clinical vet for a milk cooperative in Sri Lanka with Voluntary Service Overseas, he moved into research and policy work on a wide range of development challenges for charities, governments and intergovernmental agencies in over 20 developing countries. In this talk he will describe some of the good, bad and ugly projects he has been involved in and why it is essential that wealthy countries like the UK continue to invest in projects to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in developing countries