Using What You Have

Definition

Using What You Have, in Yuen Yuen Ang’s work, is a principle that means creatively repurposing existing resources, practices, and knowledge to kick-start growth or solve problems, even when these arrangements look weak, wrong or backward by first-world standards.

For full definition, see glossary entry.

Global Resonance

Nigeria: A Book Review of How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, “The Pauper’s Dilemma: How Development Happens, and What Nigeria Might Learn From It,” By Chidinma Linda Obi, Nextier, May 2026.

“Yuen Yuen Ang’s contribution is to show that development is not a fixed sequence of reforms to be copied from rich countries to poor ones. It is an adaptive process. Countries move by starting with what they have, testing what works, rewarding what succeeds and building institutions through use rather than declaration. The lesson from China is not that Nigeria should imitate China. It is that transformation begins when a society recovers the confidence to act within its own realities… The past has drawn a circle around Nigeria. It has not closed the future. Within that circle there is still room for agency… The pauper in Ang’s parable is paralysed because both his advisers tell him to start with what he does not have. The trick, it turns out, is to start with what he does.”

India: A Book Review of How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, By Dr. Lata Sharma, 2025.

“How China Escaped the Poverty Trap by Yuen Yuen Ang offers a fresh, a bold and practical way to understand development. Instead of following the usual belief that strong institutions must come first, the book shows how China used weak institutions creatively to kickstart growth. Through local experiments, flexible governance, and adaptive learning, China built progress step by step. This book teaches us that development does not need to wait for perfect systems and it can begin with what exists. For policymakers, scholars, and curious readers, it offers an inspiring message: growth is possible when we focus on action, learning, and local solutions.”

Kenya / Germany: Speech by Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani at BMZ-Konferenz on “Rethinking Development Policy: How to Confront Coloniality,” organized by Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ), December 2024.

“For too long, development and modernisation have been conflated with Westernisation. The implicit message has been that success requires replicating European models of governance, economics and society. Yuen Yuen Ang, she is a political economist at Johns Hopkins, has a principle, a very simple principle of ‘use what you have,’ which offers a sharp challenge to the legacy of coloniality in development. It rejects the imposition of external models that fail to fit local realities, urging instead the strengthening of existing institutions, however flawed, through use and adaptation.”

Cambodia: “Author lauds Cambodia’s effort to revive traditional silk weaving.” Khmer Times. 31 August 2018. Media coverage of Ang’s lecture at the United-Nations Cambodia, The Real China Model.

“Speaking at ‘The real China model: What other developing countries should learn from China’ conference, Ang said the use of local resources in Cambodia, such as the revival of the silk weaving industry, is an example of how authorities are driving development in the villages. This, she said, was parallel to China’s use of local resources to achieve its immense economic success.”

Public Writing

Ang, Y.Y. (2025) “Polytunity: The Future of Development.” The Ideas Letter. 4 Sep 2025. 

Take one of my recurring arguments: development begins by “using what you have”… Yet when I present this argument in mainstream forums, the response is consistent: “That sounds too simple.” Apparently, indigenous innovation is simplistic, while foreign-designed aid projects are rigorous and sophisticated. I am still waiting for someone to explain these double standards.