The course introduces students to policies for supporting economic growth, sectoral transformation and economic integration, which are presented as the main areas of development policy and which are analysed from a theoretical as well as from an empirical perspective. The lecture starts with some basic definitions and makes the students familiar with a number of indicators that are brought into play to describe developing countries’ economic and social realities and to derive development policy goals. This section puts particular emphasis on discussing the international comparability of popular development indicators, such as per capita income or the Gini coefficient. The second chapter uses a theory-based approach to describe the preconditions and mechanisms suspect to be responsible for the empirical fact that some developing countries are stuck in poverty while others dynamically grow. Functional and personal income distribution as well as poverty and their interplay with economic growth is studied in chapter 3. We investigate whether growth is good for distribution and/or for the poor, and how policies directed towards reducing income inequality may affect economic growth. Chapter 4 focusses on developing countries’ development strategies, distinguishes between balanced and unbalanced approaches to sectoral transformation and discusses strategic options such as globalisation, protectionism and regional economic integration as well as different types of domestic reform. The instruments available to donor countries to support the socio-economic progress made by developing countries are shortly presented and analysed in chapter 5. Chapter 6 takes stock and offers a brief evidence-based discussion, whether and to which extent the living conditions in developing countries have improved over last six decades.