THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT

1. Traditional Economic Measure

 The capacity of a once relatively stagnant national economy to generate and sustain significant
economic growth
• Annual increases of 5% or higher in gross national product.
 Alternative measures include income per capita and real income per capita Changes in the structure of
production
 Economic Development in past: shifts from agriculture towards manufacturing and services (i.e.
industrialization)
 Prior to 1970 gains from growth: Trickle down
 Little attention paid to eradicating poverty, unemployment, inequality, and discrimination
THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT
2. The New Economic View of Development
 Many developing nations achieve economic growth but living standard of people remain unchanged
 Development include the reduction of poverty, unemployment and inequality within the context of a
growing economy
 World bank in its 1991 “World development report” asserted:
 The challenge of development…is to improve quality of life…
 It is Multidimensional process.
THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT
3. Sen’s Capabilities Approach

 Economic Development is to enhance the lives people lead and the freedoms that they enjoy

 Capability to function is what matters for status as a poor/non-poor person and it goes beyond

availability of commodities

 Capabilities: “freedom that a person has in terms of the choice of his functionings,…”

 Functioning's: is what a person does with commodities of given characteristics that they

possess/control
 THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT
3. Sen’s Capabilities Approach (cont.)

RESOURCE CAPABILITY FUNCTIONI UTILITY

NG
Bike Able to ride around Ride around Happy

Food Able to be nourished Nourished Happy

 The commodities or wealth people have or utility are an inappropriate

 Utility is also not appropriate indicator: it is against the idea of justice.
THREE CORE VALUES OF DEVELOPMENT

1. Sustenance
 The Ability to Meet Basic Needs All people have certain bas-ic needs without which life would be
impossible.
2. Self-Esteem
 To Be a Person A second universal component of the good life is self-esteem—a sense of worth and

self-respect, of not being used as a tool by others for their own ends.
3. Freedom from Servitude
 To Be Able to Choose
THREE OBJECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT

 The improvement in the availability and distribution of basic life-sustaining goods

 The improvement of living standards

 The expansion of the range of economic and social choices