Introduction to Development

Studies

Presented By
Mr. Maake, S.M (Lecturer)
University of Mpumalanga
 Ground Rules
• Put on your Mask unless you are asked to
take it off
• Be Punctual in all the classes
• Mutual respect amongst persons
• Attend all classes organized for you
• Participation is paramount
• Late comers are prohibited
• Respect each other’s views

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 Assessment & Arrangements
• Duly Perfomed/semester mark
o Quizzes, assignments & test
• Examination
o Examination ( 3 hour paper)
 Reading List
• Davids , I and Theron, F. 2014. Development, the state and civil society in South
Africa, 3rd edition. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers
• Jain, T.R and Sandhu, S.A. Development Economics, 5 th edition. Hayana: VK Global
Publications Pvt . Lt .d
• De Beer, F and Swnepoel, H. 2000. Introduction to Development Studies, (2nd EDN).
Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
• Davids, I, Theron, F, Maphunya, K.J. 2009. Participatory Development in South Africa:
A development Management Perspective, (2nd edn). Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers
• Desai, V. & Potter, R.B. 2002. The companion to Development Studies. London: Arnold.
• Coetzee, J.K, Graaff, J, Hendricks, F and Wood, G. (ed) 2001. Development Theory,
Policy, and Practice. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
• Adams, W.M. 1992. Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third
World. 1st end. London: Routledge.
• NB: Second (2001) and Third (2008) Editions are also recommended
• Haslam, P.A., Schafer, J. & Beaudet, P. 2012. Introduction to International
Development: approaches, actors, and issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Objectives of this Chapter
• To have the ability to define the concept development
• To be able to define poverty, economic growth, economic
development
• To differentiate between economic growth and economic
development
• To understand the relationship between development
and economic growth
• To understand the evolution of development
management
 Triple Challenges

Poverty

Unemployment

Inequality
The nature of Development Studies
The development of development studies
as an academic subject that can be
studied at university dates back from
1960s.
It is a study of social patterns and
economies (emphasises the importance of
hypothesis testing and statistical verification as
the paramount sources of knowledge)
 Development

Development be defined as a process which enables people to realise their full potential,
build self confidence and lead lives of dignity and fulfilment.

Or involves change, improvement and validity, a direct attempt to improve the quality of
life

Or a process by which the members of the society increase their personal and
institutional capacities to mobilize and manage resources to produce sustainable and
justly distributed improvement in their quality of life, consistent with their own
aspirations

Development means good societal change and change in a human condition

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Development

Economic Development
Per capita income, more equitable distribution of
wealth and income; poverty reduction

Social Development
Improvement of social well-being, cultural
amenities and health services

Political Development
Political freedom and free from servitude
Institutional/Administrative
Development
Development of administration and the
administration of development
 Development is about:

Freedom of
Political speech and
Assurance of freedom expression
GDP growth basic necessities
Cultural
Freedom
 According to Swanepoel (2000:73)
“if the problem is holistic, then surely the
solution should be holistic too”
Conceptualising development
• Development is a concept which is contested both
theoretically and politically, and is inherent both
complex and ambiguous
• Its meaning is informed by contextual issues such as
past and present circumstances, perception, values
and beliefs
• Development is a wide concept with numerous
contexts
• Development means different things to different people
• It maybe used normatively (desirable process of the
state)
• Thus development of any country or region can be seen as a
process by which traditional low technology society is
transformed into a modern, high technology society
• Conceptualising developments differ country to country or
region to region or from person to person
• In order that development addresses the people’s needs, we
should learn about development from a point of view of those
benefiting from it
• However, those less attuned to the contextual reality of
developing world generally conceptualise development as a
change, growth, advancement, progress and improvement
• As if development always relates to something good/ something
better than people current reality
• For others, there is nothing inherently good about
development
• At a global scale, development was used to westernise
non-Western society and rob unsuspecting people of
their land, culture and indigenous system
• Many authors claims that development has failed and at
worst it has always been a hoax
• Development was designed to cover up damage being
done to developing world and its people
– Some may argue that pre 1994 the concept of development was
abused (Separate Development)
– Development became a tool of exploitation and dehumanisation
– However, the present government preaches a humanistic
approach (people centred) towards development
 • Development means good societal change and
change in a human condition
• In the 1950s and 1960s a vision of the liberalisation
of people dominated development discourse
• Development relate to the reduction of poverty and
of the MDGs
• The world is moving from MDGs, SDGs to what
now?
• Because development is about improving human
condition, thus it should be for and about the
people, their needs and circumstances
• People should form the central part in development

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Integrated nature of development
• Development should not be viewed as
modernisation, industrialization or breaking the
dependency syndrome between third world and
first world countries.
• Development should address the poverty
situation of the people

Thus, development is more than just technology

and industries, goes beyond to address mainly
socio-economic transformation,.

16
• Poverty cannot be regarded as lack of money, but manifest
itself in many things such as malnutrition, morbidity and
illiteracy
• Development should address all this manifestation of
poverty
• If development is about breaking down poverty, then it
should be stated that development cannot be sectionalized
• A person who needs health services invariably needs basics
such as education, a balance diet, shelter and employment
• Development must be holistic
• It must addresse all these areas in order to address the
manifestation of poverty

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 SELF STUDY
• Concepts of Development:
 Communism
 Gender disparity
 Project management
 Social exclusion
 Green revolution
 Food security
 Livelihood diversification
 Co-operatives
 Capitalism
 4th Industrial Revolution
 Land reform
 SELF STUDY
• Acronyms of Development Studies
 4IR
 IDP
 MDG
 NDP
 SEDA
 NYDA
 GDP
 GNP
 RDP
 ASGISA
 GEAR
 CSR
 BNA
 Studying Acronyms
• EPWP
• NARYSEC
• OECD
• SPLUMA
• SETA
• TVET
• SOE
 Attempts by the present democratic government to
redress the historical injustices by “putting people
first "and working towards a democratic developmental
state are praiseworthy.

“Development is about people”

 The problems of addressing poverty in
an integrated / holistic way is in two
fold:
Firstly: Development
take place through
projects
Project its one dimension as
it addresses one need such
as child health

Secondly: the
government is the
problem,
Government is the most
important development
agent and is a divided entity

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Conditions to enable
Development
Health

Education

Employment

Democracy

Environmental protection

Housing

Food

security
 Development and economic growth
• Economic and social development of the poorest countries
are perhaps the greatest challenges facing the society in the
present time
• Let me direct you to the difference between the three concepts:
– Economic development can be defined as efforts that seek to
improve the economic well-being and quality/standard of life for a
community by creating and/or retaining jobs and supporting or
growing incomes and the tax base
– Social development is defined as prioritizing human needs in the
growth and progression of society.
• Social development also governs the norms and conventions that
govern human interaction.
• The focus is on improving the lives of regular citizens, especially the
poor, to make society a better place for everyone.
 • Economic growth is an increase in the amount of goods and
services produced per head of the population over a period of time.
• About 1bn people live in abject poverty and they
suffer from malnutrition, lack of safe drinking water,
shelter, health care and education
• Poverty is concentrated in developing counties
• The standard of living is commonly measured by
the total amount of goods and services produced in
a given period of the population or what is called
Gross Domestic Products per capita(or GNP if net
income from abroad is added)
• This is determined by the number of people who are
working and their productivity
• The proximate cause of poverty is the low
productivity of labour associated with low level of
physical and human capital (education)
accumulation and low level of technology
The economic growth of a country refers to
the increase in outputs of goods and
services that a country produces over an
accounting period.
E.g. if a country is said to be growing at 5 per cent per
annum, it means that the total volume of its GDP is
increasing at this rate
• Economic growth, however, is not the same as
economic development
• The process of economic (or social) development
must imply a growth in living standard,
• But its a much wider concept than growth in per
capita income alone
• Growth, might be a necessary condition for
economic and social development of nations
• But it is not a sufficient condition, why?
– Because an aggregate measure of growth or per capita income pays
no attention to how the output is distributed amount the population
– It says nothing about consumption of output (whether the goods are
consumption goods, investment goods, public goods such as
education and health provision)
 – And it gives no indication of the physical, social and economic
environment in which the outputs are produced.
• Growth rates of nations cannot be taken as a
measure of the increase in welfare of the society
because the welfare of people is much more
inclusive than the level of income alone
• If the process of economic and social
development is defined in terms of an increase in
society’s welfare, a concept of development is
required which embrace not only economic
variables and objectives, but also social
objectives and values for which society strive
• The ideas of two prominent thinkers on the subject of
development: Goulet and Sen
• Goulet (1971) as one of the economist distinguished 3 basic
components or core values that must be included in any
true meaning of development
– Life sustenance
– Freedom
– Self esteem
• Sen (1983, 1999) argues in the similar vein with Goulet that
economic growth should not be seen as an end to itself
• But it should be viewed as a means to the achievement of
much wider set of objective by which economic and social
development should be measured
• Sen continue to assert that development
should focus on the expansion of people’s
entitlements and the capabilities that
these entitlement generates
• And income is not always a good measure
of entitlement.
• Human Development Index (HDI) was
used as an alternative measure
• It focused on life expectancy, educational
attainment and standard of living as
measured by per capita income
• HDI is deliberately devoted scarce
resources to human development