Looking back, I think some of the most intense debates about this much scrutinised project highlights how Amref finds itself caught between developing a good model of development practice and delivering life-changing aid to a very deprived community.
Participatory rural appraisal techniques, which are tools developed to incorporate local knowledge into development practice, have been traced back to his theories on education.
But as this agenda has moved out of the "gender ghetto" and into mainstream development practice, several myths have emerged.
Here are two respected representatives of community development practice, poised at the threshold to influence British government at its heart.
But, as with every area of development practice, how exactly to intervene is often the cause of heated debate.
Gregory LeStage, a partner at Oliver Wyman who heads the leadership development practice, is one such skeptic.
I describe myself as a development geographer, my work focuses on issues to do with environmental politics and international development practice.
The evidence that confirms the neglect of adolescent girls in policy and development practice is clear, considerable, and pretty damning (pdf).
Good community development practice doesn't over-emphasise disadvantage and injustice; but it isn't seduced into ignoring it, and it also has the robust courage to challenge the causes.
"Unlike the MDGs, the private sector has been very involved in their creation," says Simon Kingston, global development practice lead at Russell Reynolds Associates.
But it now appears possible, even probable, that sustainable development will emerge as the main framework for development practice in the coming decades, replacing or rebalancing the poverty eradication focus of recent years.
