Understanding Development: Chapter 1

• Chapter 1 focuses on understanding development and various related concepts

Defining Development

• It entails elevating the population from issues like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and social inequality (Seers, 1969)
• Fast-tracking a country and its people from poverty to a state of economic growth allows for greater social equality and human potential fulfillment (Quebral, 1971)
• It results in increasing income alongside economic and social structure changes (Sandoval, 1975)
• Economic growth is essential in achieving social justice (Quintana, 1975)
• Technological, economic, social, and cultural advancements are all encompassed within development (Feliciano, 1986)
• Positive attitudes and values among rural populations are important aspects (Javier, 1975)
• The presence of life sustenance, self-esteem, and freedom from servitude are elements of development (Teodoro, 1977)
• Development is described as developing people (Ong, 1976)
• It allows a society to gain increased control over both the environment and its political destiny (Inayatullah, 1967)
• It has relative, multidimensional and process-oriented characteristics

Development vs Other Concepts

• Development is distinct from modernization, urbanization, and industrialization
• Modernization explains the shift from traditional or semi-conventional stages to desired forms of technology, values, motivations, and social norms
• Urbanization involves the movement of people from agricultural work to industrial jobs, and from rural residences to urban areas
• "Push-Pull Model" refers to what causes migration
• Squatter settlements are viewed as malignant tumors on otherwise healthy cities (Juppenlatz, 1970)
• Industrialization involves a whole process of change and subsequent events as a society transitions from an agricultural to an industrial economy
• Industrialization is driven by government policy, labor-saving inventions, entrepreneurial ambition, and demand for goods and services

Concepts of Development

• Access is a concept which emphasizes the role of information in enabling people to participate in planning, implementing, and evaluating development programs
• Access means bringing projects closer to the people
• Having the right knowledge sources is important for effective knowledge use, making feedback an essential feature of access
• Accumulation helps increase the supply of resources such as capital and infrastructure
• Accumulation involves improving public awareness of changes, promoting active participation, fostering cross-sector interaction with idea sharing, and aligning efforts toward common goals
• Appropriate Technology refers to any suited to production capital investment, unit output, and competitiveness balanced with input costs
• The search for appropriate technology shows developing countries' determination to solve their problems
• If technological skills are not transferred, appropriate tehnology is not achieved
• Decentralization boosts local initiatives and gives local government units more opportunities to define development paths
• A bottom-up approach is most effective
• A free flow of sufficient, correct information is vital for enabling people to improve their lives
• Holostic Development efforts should focus on all societal dimension and aim at life quality and people quality
• Mobilization is the idea that progress should start with individual efforts, and that development should be based on what people do for themselves
• Participation includes active involvement in planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining development programs
• People's needs, wants, ideas, and resources of participants are all adressed in participation
• Self-reliance is defined an ability to make full use of all available human, natural, and man-made resources
• Sustainable development meets present needs without undermining the ability of future generations to meet theirs

Indicators of Development

• Indicators measure improvements in people's lives
• Indicators are used to evaluate and implement development programs
• Health and nutrition should include freedom from hunger, reduced malnutrition and disease, lower infant mortality rates, and longer life expectancy
• Learning includes greater and more equal opportunity, and better training and education for more productive societal roles
• Income and consumption should provide freedom from poverty, sufficient income for basic needs, and protection against inflation
• Employment should provide full protection of the right to work and desired employment that fits qualifications and fulfills individuals
• Non-human productive resources should utilize natural resources fruitfully for the benefit of all and conserved for future generations
• Housing, utilities, and environment should provide proper housing and provisions, ensuring physical environment is pollution-free
• Public safety and justice should focus on equality, speedy justice, peace and order
• Political values should ensure presentation, participation and freedom of political dissent in a truly democratic government
• Social mobility should provide freedom to change occupations and to rise to better positions in an open society

Needs

• Survival covers health, nutrition, water, and sanitation
• Security covers income, shelter, peace, and order
• Enabling needs covers basic education, literacy, and participation