This article links capability for cooperative problem-solving with socially just global development. From the perspective of the United Nations Development Programme, the work of global development, founded on a concept of global justice, is capability-building. Following Kurasawa, the article proposes that this form of global justice is enacted where capability for respectful interaction is built at the level of face-to-face relationships among people in communities; and further, that restorative justice practice has the characteristics required to develop this capability. Using the historical development of restorative practices in New Zealand as an example, it is suggested that restorative practice is a form of cooperative problem-solving which can create citizens for a more just society.