CHAPTER 04

THE INDICATORS AND INDICES OF

DEVELOPMENT

A.A. Salami, S.L. Tilakasiri and Y.A. Ahmed

Introduction

‘D evelopment’ is a complicated word in the English language. Peet &

Hartwick (1999) call it a ‘founding belief of the modern world’ connoting progress,
modernity and democratic values. It is a word that carries at once the aspirations of
the poor and the designs of corporate elites. As Adams (2007) notes, the word
‘development’ is used both descriptively, to explain economic, socio-cultural and
environmental transformation, and normatively, as a prescription for how economies,
societies and environments should be transformed. These distinct meanings are often
conflated, contributing to the conceptual confusion and analytical complexity of the
concept.
What constitutes development varies from regions to regions and from countries
to another. Uneven spatial distribution of economic activity also makes geography
contributes to development. A general definition stresses development as attempts to
reduce poverty and world inequalities in an effort to guide the world to a situation of
betterment and improvement over time (Potter, Binns, Elliott & Smith, 2008). It has
been observed that development is something that does – or does not – happen over
time and across territories. It is inevitable that scholars and practitioners have sought
to find methods to measure its progress. The approaches used to measure
development are called indicators and indices.
Studies have shown that there is a pressing ethical need to equalize the highly
disparate conditions that currently exist in the poor and rich worlds. How can we
measure ‘development?’ To measure the ‘positive changes’ and ‘quality of life’ of
people in the society, the paper focuses on development indicators and indices. The
issues surrounding what development means and how it can be assessed and
measured are also the specific concern of this chapter. It begins by examining the
concept of development and issues closely associated with development.
Further, this chapter explores the indicators and indices of development
specifically: measuring development as economic growth; measuring development as
poverty; measuring development as human development; measuring development as
collective happiness in a nation; measuring sustainable development; and measuring
development in wider terms including human rights and freedoms. Through
empirical evidence, the chapter shows that all these indicators are quantitative and
qualitative which are obvious tools to employ in development. The study concludes
that all these indicators and indices should be adopted and used globally. The GNH
Index is used to orient the people and the nation towards happiness, primarily by
improving the conditions of not yet-happy people.
Citation
Salami, A.A., Tilakasiri, S.L., & Ahamed, Y.A. (2017). The indicators and
indices of development. In S.L. Tilakasiri (Ed.), Geography in development:
Issues and perspectives (pp. 77-102). Sri Lanka: Stamford Lake (Pvt) Ltd.

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