What is development?
Development
is an end but is also a means to that end. It is a gradual process over
a long period of time attaining
intermediate goals in small and wide
spaces before reaching an ideal situation. The notion of development
signifies a move from an unsatisfactory social, economic, and political
condition to one that is more humane, relatively prosperous,
environmentally safer, and politically more inclusive. However,
"development" remains a contested, elusive, and slippery concept. Its
meaning is ambiguous and is variously interpreted. The manner in which
those interpretations are acted upon can have deep impact on
individuals, societies, and nations.
Development
is also a relative concept, is culture bound, and therefore is
expressive of the unique settings in which it takes place. Its
understanding requires deep analyses of what it should incorporate as
its goals and values, guiding principles, and strategic directions.
However, the contextuality of development does not insulate a society
from being impregnated with ideas from other cultures. Inevitably, in
today's globalized world, cross-fertilization of ideas on progress and
development is inevitable and quite desirable as this can enrich
understanding of development from a cross-cultural perspective and help
in the design of holistic and integrated development policies and plans
and implementation strategies. Thereby, gaps in the process of
development can be bridged. Success stories of a variety of development
initiatives from any nation, any society, any cultural setting provide
lessons for emulation.
Development
is equated with a number of phenomena such as change, progress, growth,
modernization, industrialization, advancement, improvement, expansion,
realization of capabilities, structural differentiation, environmental
sustainability, and many more. Each of these phenomena makes our
understanding of development more complex and challenging. It can be
viewed from several perspectives, each with different attributes,
orientations, ramifications, and implications
Development as a Normative Concept
Development
has normative influences and therefore is value laden. It cannot be
considered only in conventional "economic growth" terms and is not only
about acquiring material gains or reaching certain quantifiable
standards, such as rate of growth, investments, industrial productivity,
and so on. Development is also about qualitative change in the lives of
the people. What is good or bad for society, and hence the people,
should be at the center of development thinking and ought to be
reflected in national and international development policies.,
Development
is above all a question of values and human attitudes, self-defined
goals, and criteria for determining what are tolerable costs to be borne
in the course of change. Ethical judgements regarding the good life,
the just society, and the quality of relations among people and with
nature always serve, explicitly or implicitly, as operational criteria
for development planners and researchers.
As
development is about human existence and enrichment, ethical or
value-laden judgments become significant while making decisions about
development. It brings about societal change and deals with such issues
as social justice, basic needs, equality, equity, rights and liberties,
and democracy and freedom. Economic growth can serve as a means toward
human well-being and the rearing of human functioning and
capabilities—as goals of development. Taking cues from Sen's ideas, it
is suggested that "the process of international and national development
[is] the expansion of basic human capabilities and the promotion of
valuable human functioning." Personal choices and preferences of
stakeholders, individuals or groups, state or nonstate, and those who
plan development strategies or are affected by them come into play.
Thus, development with people at the center is laden with ethical
matters and is concerned with actions that are expected to have a human
touch. The mission of development ethics, is to assure that the painful
changes launched under the banner of development do not result in
antidevelopment, which destroys cultures and individuals and exacts
undue sacrifices in suffering and societal well-being—all in the name of
profit, some absolutized ideology, or a supposed efficiency imperative.
Development as a Multidimensional Concept
The
idea of development has undergone a radical transformation since the
1950s when the economic focus had primacy. The unidimensionality of
development has been replaced by a multidimensional framework. The
measures have changed, and development is now an aggregation of multiple
goals and functions that go beyond economic considerations. Of course,
the economic dimension still retains its core place for creating and
sustaining wealth through economic policies that are directed at capital
formation and apparently reducing poverty. Economic policy goals
include improving growth rates, industrialization, employing import
substitution measures, promoting savings and investment, raising income
levels, creating employment, distributing income, agricultural
modernization, setting up export-oriented ventures, building
infrastructures, technological progress, utilizing external aid, and so
on. Such strategies of "capital fundamentalism" were expected to achieve
a "trickle-down" effect that would relieve societies from poverty and
improve economic well-being .
The
multidimensional aspect of development has been emphatically advanced
by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and many other scholars
and organizations. Growth-oriented development has been complemented by
measures to enhance the total well-being of a society and its people.
Thus, the social dimension has been added that caters for their needs in
health care, education, housing, social safety, and so on. Expanding
social choices have become imperative and so are the opportunities for
social action.
Culturally,
development is about conferring self-esteem to individuals—making them
feel included in society's divergent pursuits, believing in themselves,
their worth and capabilities, and aspiring to obtain an identity of
their own and earning recognition, respect, and honor in life. The focus
on creating a balance in the natural ecosystem provides development
with the ecological dimension. Thus, protecting and sustaining the
environment for the present and the future is now integrated within the
framework of integrated holistic development. From a political
perspective, development is seen as promoting and nurturing liberties
and freedom, empowering people, and giving them the voice they deserve.
Participatory development creates opportunities for enabling civil
society to play creative roles in alleviating poverty, engendering
social roles, creating networks, and building social capital. Some of
these provide development with a spiritual dimension—"a focus on
individuals' redemptive, inter-transformational changes that may produce
renewed individuals who are socially accountable to both current and
future generations". These inter-connected elements encapsulate the
multidimensional character of development that places the people at the
center of the phenomenon.
The
economic dimension has been enmeshed into the human dimension and
"brings together the production and distribution of commodities and the
expansion and use of human capabilities. UNDP has envisaged Three
Objectives of Development:
1. To
increase the availability and widen the distribution of self-sustaining
goods such as food, shelter, health, and protection.
2. To
raise levels of living, including, in addition to higher incomes, the
provision of more jobs, better education, and greater attention to
cultural and human values, all of which will serve not only to enhance
material well-being but also to generate greater individual and national
self-esteem.
3. To
expand the range of economic and social choices available to
individuals and nations by freeing them from servitude and dependence
not only in relation to other people and nation-states but also to the
forces of ignorance and human misery.
Development as a Multilevel and Multisectoral Activity
For
a long time, in development philosophy and praxis, the unit of
development was the nation. Development was planned keeping the entire
nation in mind rather than the specific requirements of subunits or
sectors. The removal of hiatus or disparity between regions
(rural–urban, rural–rural) that was quite obvious in most places was not
always the central focus of the state and development policy makers.
However, with the idea of multidimensionality of development gradually
creeping in, the pattern has been changing. Now, the purpose of
development is to achieve desired changes at the individual, community,
society, subnational, national, regional, and global levels. It ought to
take place at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, and to obtain
positive outcomes, an integrated and comprehensive approach requires
adoption. Although different policies and programs may be targeted
toward specific groups, communities, and regions, these cannot be
undertaken as segregated initiatives but rather as components of a
composite framework applying multilevel and multiscalar activities that
produce societal satisfaction close to the desirable extent.
Alternative
development has become the catchphrase, and the focus is now on local
development and people-related sectors. On different planes are the
regional and the global arenas. Policy decisions at those levels have
resonance for development planning and actions at the national and local
levels. Thus, to understand the ramifications of policy making and
implementation both in the context of national and global/regional
development, it is important to appreciate the vertical/scalar
differentiation of developmental activities and, more importantly, the
locus of control. What roles do lower level units play in the
national–regional–global or the local–provincial–national interface? Are
they capable of making meaningful contributions to
global/regional/national policy making?
Horizontally,
several domains are directly involved in development. These include the
state, political society, civil society, the private sector, and the
market. Each has an influence on the other and has a specific role to
play in development. They interact with one another as well as with the
scalar units. The state, as a key unit in development, relates itself
with both supranational entities and domestic ones on certain
development issues. Harmonious intrastate and intergovernmental
relations (IGR) can contribute toward solving common problems relating
to development, especially environmental, trade, communications,
technical assistance, and so on. This happens on a global scale often
involving international organizations and. On a similar vein,
interactions between the state and civil society or the state and
market/private sector can benefit society by accessing and sharing
resources and pioneering new strategies for social and economic gains.
Each entity can support and complement the other in their common
pursuits. Collaboration between civil society and business can help
address large-scale social, economic, and environmental problems that
would otherwise be difficult for either sector to achieve independently .
The
multidimensionality of poverty has made it imperative for development
to take on a multisectoral approach in resolving the problem. Thus, at
each level—from the local to the global—a number of sectors may be
simultaneously targeted for action as each sector may have relevance for
another. Thus, when we talk about poverty, issues relating to health,
education, gender, microfinance, and so on become prominent, and none of
these can be treated in isolation from the other. Planning takes on a
multisectoral approach, and to implement poverty reduction programs,
intersectoral cooperation and collaboration becomes essential. In the
realms of health and environment, for instance, intersectoral and
interregional synergies and partnerships are becoming the pattern in
many developing countries (DCs). These enable the state, market, and
civil society "to achieve mutual understanding on an issue and negotiate
and implement mutually agreeable plans for tackling the issue once it
is identified
