Development
The Meaning of Development
• Defined as bringing about social change that allows people to achieve their human
potential
• Process rather than an outcome
• Dynamic: involves a change from one state or condition to another
(such a change is a positive one- improvement of some sort, e.g. improvement in
maternal health)
Development transforms the environment (ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT)
• Convert natural resources (in the forms of raw materials and energy) into products and
services that are useful to humans
• Conversion processes never totally efficient – some waste is produced which is
discarded into environment as various forms of pollution
• For development to be meaningful, sustainable – consider its impact on environment,
MUST NOT harm the environment
• Live within Earth’s means (don’t exploit/pollute) e.g. water efficiency and reducing
carbon emissions
Economic growth (ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT)
• A country’s economy refers to all activities that use people, resources to produce
wealth e.g. GDP
• Includes businesses, industry and trade that employ people and make money
• When a country develops, its economy grows/ improves
• Means an increase in the size or pace of the economy such that more products,
services are produced
– economy generates more products/ services= higher standard of living
• Improvement in a person’s standard living (greater income= afford education,
healthcare, food, better housing),
country’s wellbeing (increasing wealth= improve infrastructure, such as roads,
housing, water and electricity supply)
• Conventional approaches – to increase size of economy (economic growth) to increase
output of products and services [More products- more raw materials, energy-
generate more waste (pollution)]
Social Aspects of development (SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT)
• Linked to society or people (e.g. ‘social housing’ is affordable housing built for people)
• No good if country’s wealth increases but its people do not see improvement in quality
of life – e.g. a growing number of people remained poor even with economic
growth/development
• Social development (human development) is about the welfare of people- their health,
comfort, happiness and prosperity
*Providing for peoples’ needs
, • Examples:
o Improving education, training, health care and housing
o Ensuring women and children are treated equally
o Providing social security, e.g. pensions for the elderly, disability grants and the
needs of the poor
o Protecting human rights, freedom, safety and security
What is Sustainable Development?
• That meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs
• Balance different, competing needs against awareness of environmental, social,
economic limitations
KEY WORDS
Resources- thing that are useful and required by people, e.g. wood, coal, water and food
Infrastructure- Facilities like transport, power, services (e.g. water, waste removal) and
communications that help a country function
Welfare- Health, happiness, comfort and wellbeing of a person or community
Grant (s)- Sum of money paid by the government to a person for a reason, e.g. old age
pension
Sustainable to use- natural resources at a rate that will not deplete the resource or damage the
environment
Ways of Measuring Development
• Development measured by different indictors (economic, social, environmental)
• Common statistic used for measuring level of development of country is economic indicator:
(Gross Domestic Product [GDP] per capita- inaccurate, have to look at more than 1 factor,
average so someone unemployed earns e.g. 10000)
Definition: The average amount earned by each person in a year based on the amount of
money produced in the country
• Reasons GDP per capita, level of development does not improve certain countries are:
o wars
o raid population growth
o paying off large debts
o a lack of resources for development
o natural and human disasters (including AIDS)
, • Several Social Indicators that can be used to determine development like:
o Population growth rate
o Birth rate
o Death rate
o Adult literacy rate
o Measurements of access to education, health, nutrition
• When one of these indicators is used on its own to measure development, it can give a
biased result – not accurate to look at one piece of information
E.g. More doctors per 1000 people- more developed a country is
Cuba (not highly developed country) more doctors per 1000 people than in other countries
that are far more developed (Cuba pays for student’s university fees)
The Human Development Index
• Combines a number of important indictors (social, economic- more accurate way of
measuring level of development than if only one indicator is used), gives more balance
picture of level of development
• The Human Development Index (HDI) measures well-being and compares the level of
development of different countries
• HDI is a figure of between 0 and 1 – An HDI of 0 indicates the worst possible quality of life,
while an HDI of 1 indicates the best possible quality of life
• 3 Indicators that are used in HDI are: LIFE EXPECTANCY, LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND
GDP/PER CAPITA
- Life Expectancy (LE.)
• Measurement of the average lifespan from birth to death of a person in a particular country
• Women usually have a slightly longer life expectancy than men
• One of the best social indicators of standard of living/ level of development in a country
Influenced by factors: standard of health services, level of nutrition in a country
• Improvements in medicines and medical treatment~ increased life expectancy (more than
50%)
• Diseases (e.g. malaria, AIDS) ~ decrease in life expectancy
(Life expectancy of the world today is 67 years, in 1960 it was less than 50 years
- Education (Average education level)
• Average level of education of population of a country- good social indicator
• The standard of education and the level of qualification of the people have a big
influence on the HDI of a country
• Countries where people have a high level of education – use skills of people to make good
use of their resources to start industries to create wealth
• Good education systems produce well-qualified people
- Use their skills to do jobs that increase the level of development of the country
