International development - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For other forms of development, see development (disambiguation).

International development or global development is a concept

Concept

The word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...

that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans. It therefore encompasses foreign aid, governance

Governance

Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...

, healthcare, education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, poverty reduction

Poverty reduction

Poverty is the state of human beings who are poor. That is, they have little or no material means of surviving—little or no food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and other physical means of living and improving one's life....

, gender equality

Gender equality

Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...

, disaster preparedness, infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

, economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, environment

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

and issues associated with these. International development is different from simple development in that it is specifically composed of institutions and policies that arose after the Second World War. These institutions focus on alleviating poverty and improving living conditions in Third World decolonized countries.

International development is related to the concept of international aid, but is distinct from, though conceptually related to, disaster relief and humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...

. While these two forms of international support seek to alleviate some of the problems associated with a lack of development, they are most often short term fixes - they are not necessarily long-term solutions. International development, on the other hand, seeks to implement long-term solutions to problems by helping developing countries create the necessary capacity needed to provide such sustainable solutions to their problems. A truly sustainable development project is one which will be able to carry on indefinitely with no further international involvement or support, whether it be financial or otherwise.

International development projects may consist of a single, transformative project to address a specific problem or a series of projects targeted at several aspects of society. Promoted projects are ones which involve problem solving that reflects the unique culture, politics, geography, and economy of a region. More recently, the focus in this field has been projects that aim towards empowering women, building local economies, and caring for the environment.

History

Although international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

and international trade

International trade

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...

have existed for many hundreds of years, it is only in the past century that international development theory emerged as a separate body of ideas. More specifically, it has been suggested that 'the theory and practice of development is inherently technocratic

Technocracy (bureaucratic)

Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...

, and remains rooted in the high modernist

High modernism

High modernism is a particular instance of modernism, coined towards the end of modernism. "High modernism", like similar names designating intellectual and artistic eras such as "the high Middle Ages" or "the high Baroque", presumably is meant to specify the most characteristic, developed,...

period of political thought that existed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War'. Throughout the 20th century, before the concept of international development became a common word, four aspects were used to describe the idea:

political and economic liberalism, and the significance of "free markets"
social evolution in extremely hierarchized environment
Marxist critiques of class and imperialism
anti-colonial take on cultural differences and national self-determination

Post World War II

The second half of the 20th century has been called the 'era of development'. The origins of this era have been attributed to:

the need for reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

;
the evolution of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

or "colonization" into globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

and the establishment of new free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

policies between so-called 'developed' and 'underdeveloped' nations.
the start of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

and the desire of the United States and its allies to prevent the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

from drifting towards communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

.

International Development in its very meaning is geared towards colonies that gained independence. The governance of the newly independent states should be constructed so that the inhabitants enjoy freedom from poverty, hunger, and insecurity.

It has been argued that this era was launched on January 20, 1949, when Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

made these remarks in his inaugural address:
Before this date, however, the United States had already taken a leading role in the creation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is one of five institutions that compose the World Bank Group. The IBRD is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by World War II. Now, its mission has expanded to fight...

(now part of the World Bank Group

World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...

) and the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

(IMF), both established in 1944, and in the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

in 1945.

The launch of the Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

was another important step in setting the agenda for international development, combining humanitarian goals with the creation of a political and economic bloc in Europe that was allied to the U.S. This agenda was given conceptual support during the 1950s in the form of modernization theory

Modernization theory

Modernization theory is a theory used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that, with assistance, "traditional" countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have...

espoused by Walt Rostow and other American economists. The changes in the 'developed' world's approach to international development were further necessitated by the gradual collapse of Western Europe's empires over the next decades; now independent ex-colonies no longer received support in return for their subordinate role.

By the late 1960s, the critics of modernization were advancing a dependency theory

Dependency theory

Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...

to explain the evolving relationship between the West and the Third World. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the modernists at the World Bank and IMF adopted the neoliberal ideas of economists such as Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

or Bela Balassa, which were implemented in the form of structural adjustment programs, while their opponents were promoting various 'bottom up' approaches, ranging from civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

and conscientization to appropriate technology

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...

and Rapid Rural Appraisal.

In response various parts of the UN system led a counter movement, which in the long run has proved to be successful. They were led initially by the International Labour Organization

International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...

(ILO), influenced by Paul Streeten, then by UNICEF. Then UNDP, even though headed by a conservative US republican, put forward the concept of Human Development, thanks to Mahboub ul Haq and Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...

, thus changing the nature of the development dialogue to focus on human needs and capabilities.

By the 1990s, there were some writers for whom development theory had reached an impasse and some academics were imagining a postdevelopment era. The Cold War had ended, capitalism had become the dominant mode of social organization, and UN statistics showed that living standards around the world had improved over the past 40 years. Nevertheless, a large portion of the world's population were still living in poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

, their governments were crippled by debt

Developing countries' debt

The debt of developing countries is external debt incurred by governments of developing countries, generally in quantities beyond the governments' political ability to repay...

and concerns about the environmental impact of globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

were rising.

In response to the impasse, the rhetoric of development is now focusing on the issue of poverty, with the metanarrative

Metanarrative

A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...

of modernization being replaced by shorter term vision embodied by the Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

and the Human Development

Human development (humanity)

Human development in the scope of humanity, specifically international development, is an international and economic development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. People are the real wealth of nations...

approach. At the same time, some development agencies are exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships and promoting the idea of Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...

with the apparent aim of integrating international development with the process of economic globalization.

The critics have suggested that this integration has always been part of the underlying agenda of development. They argue that poverty can be equated with powerlessness, and that the way to overcome poverty is through emancipatory social movements and civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

, not paternalistic aid programmes or corporate charity. This approach is embraced by organizations such as the Gamelan Council

Gamelan Council

The Gamelan Council – Asia-Pacific Microfinance, Public Health & Development Centre is an international non-governmental, non-profit initiative addressing the microfinance, public health, and international development needs of communities in, on, and around the Pacific Rim...

seeking to empower entrepreneurs (e.g., through microfinance

Microfinance

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....

initiatives).

While some critics have been debating the end of development others have predicted a development revival as part of the War on Terrorism

War on Terrorism

The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

. To date, however, there is limited evidence to support the notion that aid budgets are being used to counter islamic fundamentalism in the same way that they were used 40 years ago to counter communism.

Theories

There are a number of theories about how desirable change in society is best achieved. Such theories draw on a variety of social scientific disciplines and approaches, and include historical theories such as:

Modernization Theory
Modernization theory
Modernization theory is a theory used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that, with assistance, "traditional" countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have...
Dependency Theory
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
World Systems Theory
World Systems Theory
The world-systems theory is a multidisciplinary, macro-scale approach to world history and social change....

Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, United Nations signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration

United Nations Millennium Declaration

On 8 September 2000, following a three day Millennium Summit of world leaders at the headquarters of the United Nations, the General Assemblyadopted the Millennium Declaration....

, which includes eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 or 2020. This represented the first time that a holistic strategy to meet the development needs of the world has been established, with measurable targets and defined indicators.

Because the MDGs were agreed as global targets to be achieved by the global community, they are independent of, but by no means unrelated to, individual national interests. The goals imply that every state has a set of obligations to the world community to meet and that other states, who have achieved those goals, have an obligation to help those who have not. As such they may represent an extension of the concept of human rights.

The first seven Millennium Development Goals present measurable goals, while the eighth lists a number of 'stepping stone' goals - ways in which progress towards the first seven goals could be made. Each goal uses indicators based on statistical series collected and maintained by respected organisations in each relevant field ( usually the UN agency responsible but also the OECD, IMF and World Bank)

The MDGs have catalysed a significant amount of action, including new initiatives such as Millennium Promise

Millennium Promise

Millennium Promise, or The Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc., is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware, dedicated to ending extreme poverty within our lifetime...

. Most of these initiatives however work in small scale interventions which do not reach the millions of people required by the MDGs.

Recent praise has been that it will be impossible to meet the first seven goals without meeting the eighth by forming a Global Partnership for Development. No current organisation has the capacity to dissolve the enormous problems of the developing world alone - especially in cities, where an increasing number of poor people live - as demonstrated by the almost nonexistent progress on the goal of improving the lives of at least 100 Million slum dwellers.

The Institution of Civil Engineers

Institution of Civil Engineers

Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...

Engineering With Frontiers panel and its recommendations, and the 2007 Brunel Lecture by the ICE's current president Paul Jowitt, are representative of a change of approach in the UK at least to start drawing together the huge capacity available to western governments, industry, academia and charity to develop such a partnership.

Other goals

International development also aims to improve general government policies of these developing countries. "State building" is a term used to describe the strengthening of regional institutions necessary to support long-term economic, social, and political development. Education is another important aspect of international development. It is a good example of how the focus today is on sustainable development in these countries; education gives people the skills required to keep themselves out of poverty.

Concepts

During recent decades, development thinking has shifted from modernization and structural adjustment programs to poverty reduction

Poverty reduction

. Under the former system, poor countries were encouraged to undergo social and economical structural transformations as part of their development, creating industrialization and intentional industrial policy. Poverty reduction rejects this notion, consisting instead of direct budget support for social welfare programs that create macroeconomic stability leading to an increase in economic growth.

The concept of poverty can apply to different circumstances depending on context. Poverty is the condition of lacking economic access to fundamental human needs such as food, shelter and safe drinking water. While some define poverty primarily in economic terms, others consider social and political arrangements also to be intrinsic - often manifested in a lack of dignity

Dignity

Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable rights...

Inequality

One of the main goals of international development institutions is to recognize that inequality within a nation and between nations leads to poverty and generally poorer living conditions. For example, economic growth is necessary for development, but not all growth benefits the poor and socially excluded. That is why institutions like the Center for Global Development

Center for Global Development

The Center for Global Development is a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C. that focuses on international development. It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, C. Fred Bergsten, and...

are searching for "pro-poor" economic policies. A socially equal system should achieve fairness in distribution and opportunity among everyone, and provide social services such as health, education and gender equity.(2009). Retrieved from The International Development Research Centre: www.idrc.ca

Dignity

Modern poverty reduction and development programmes often have dignity as a central theme. Dignity is also a central theme of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

, the very first article of which starts with:

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

The concept of dignity in development has been extensively explored by many, and related to all of the development sectors. For example, in Development with Dignity Amit Bhaduri argues that full employment with dignity for all is both important and possible in India, while the UN Millennium Project's task force on Water and Sanitation links the sector directly to dignity in the report Health, Dignity and Development: What will it take?. The Asian Human Rights Commission

Asian Human Rights Commission

The Asian Human Rights Commission is an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region, and to mobilise Asian and international public opinion to obtain relief and redress for the victims of human rights violations...

released a statement in 2006 claiming that:

Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign

Participation

The concept of participation is concerned with ensuring that the intended beneficiaries of development projects and programmes are themselves involved in the planning and execution of those projects and programmes. This is considered important as it empowers the recipients of development projects to influence and manage their own development - thereby removing any culture of dependency

Dependency theory

. It is widely considered to be one of the most important concepts in modern development theory. The UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security describes participation as:
Local participants in development projects are often products of oral communities

Orality

Orality is thought and verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy are unfamiliar to most of the population. The study of orality is closely allied to the study of oral tradition...

. This has led to efforts to design project planning and organizational development methods, such as participatory rural appraisal

Participatory rural appraisal

Participatory rural appraisal is an approach used by non-governmental organizations and other agencies involved in international development...

, which are accessible to non-literate people.

Appropriateness

The concept of something being appropriate is concerned with ensuring that a development project or programme is of the correct scale and technical level, and is culturally and socially suitable for its beneficiaries. This should not be confused with ensuring something is low-technology, cheap or basic - a project is appropriate if it is acceptable to its recipients and owners, economically affordable and sustainable in the context in which it is executed.

For example, in a rural sub-Saharan community it may not be appropriate to provide a chlorinated and pumped water system because it cannot be maintained or controlled adequately - simple hand pumps may be better; while in a big city in the same country it would be inappropriate to provide water with hand pumps, and the chlorinated system would be the correct response.

The economist E. F. Schumacher

E. F. Schumacher

Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...

championed the cause of appropriate technology

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...

and founded the organization ITDG (Intermediate Technology Design Group), which develops and provides appropriate technologies for development (ITDG has now been renamed Practical Action

Practical Action

Practical Action is a development charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia, with particular concentration on Peru, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Nepal.In these countries,...

).

The concept of right-financing

Right-financing

The concept of right-financing was coined by English political economist Dr. Peter Middlebrook to highlight the importance of adopting the appropriate policy, institutional and financial support mechanisms to maximize sustainable returns on both public and private investments over time...

has been developed to reflect the need for public and private financial support systems that foster and enable development, rather than hinder it.

Sustainability

A sustainable approach to development is one which takes account of economic, social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

and environmental

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

factors to produce projects and programmes which will have results which are not dependent on finite resources. Something which is sustainable will not use more natural resources

Natural Resources

Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...

than the local environment can supply; more financial resources than the local community and markets can sustain; and will have the necessary support from the community, government and other stakeholders to carry on indefinitely.

It is one of the key concepts in international development, and is critical in removing dependency

Dependency theory

on overseas aid

Aid

In international relations, aid is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country....

Capacity building

Capacity building for some is concerned with increasing the ability of the recipients of development projects to continue their future development alone, without external support. It is a parallel concept to sustainability, as it furthers the ability of society to function independently in its own microcosm

Macrocosm and microcosm

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...

. For others it has had a wider connotation for several decades.

For example, the lead within the UN system for action and thinking in this area was given to UNDP and it has offered guidance to its staff and governments on what was then called institution building since the early 1970s. This involved building up the ability of basic national organizations, in areas such as civil aviation, meteorology, agriculture, health, nutrition to do their tasks well. All UN specialized agencies were supposed to be active in support of capacity building in the areas for which they were technically qualified e.g. FAO for the rural sector and agriculture, WHO for health etc., but they achieved mixed results. USAID UK/DFID and some of the Nordic donors were also active in the area, as were some of the Soviet bloc countries, but the success of their efforts were affected by the perception that national political interests motivated their efforts.

By 1991, the term had evolved and become 'capacity building'. UNDP defined 'capacity building' as the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks, institutional development, including community participation (of women in particular), human resources development and strengthening of managerial systems, adding that, UNDP recognizes that capacity building is a long-term, continuing process, in which all stakeholders participate (ministries, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and water user groups, professional associations, academics and others).

By 1995, the UN General Assembly had commissioned and received (1998) evaluations of the impact of the UN system's support for capacity building. These evaluations were carried out as part of the UN General Assembly's triennial policy review during which it looks at and provides overall guidance of all UN system development activities (http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/public_multi.htm 2nd& 3rd entries). It remains a protean concept used by different agencies in different ways to serve their respective agendas. One essential element common to most serious organisations working in the field is that it covers much more than training.

Rights-Based Approach

Rights-based approach to development

Rights-based approach to development is a strategy used by non-governmental organizations to reduce local communities' dependency on aid by improving government capacity. This practice blurs the distinction between human rights and development...

has been adopted by many nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations

United Nations

as the new approach to international development. Rights-based approach combines many different concepts of international development, such as capacity building

Capacity building

Capacity building also referred to as capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing...

, human rights

Human rights

, participation, and sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

. The goal of the rights-based approach to development

Rights-based approach to development

is to empower the rights-holders, or the group that does not exercise full rights, and strengthen the capacity of the duty-bearers, or the institution or government obligated to fill these rights.

Measurement

The judging of how developed a country or a community is highly subjective, often highly controversial, and very important in judging what further development is necessary or desirable.

There are many different measures of human development, many of them related to the different sectors above. Some of them are:

National GDP
Literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...

rates
Life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
Human Development Index
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
Gini coefficient
Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" ....
Human Security Index - see external link and mention on Human security
Human security
Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state...
Per capita income
Maternal survival rate
HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

infection rates
Number of doctors per capita

An interesting way of seeing development in Third World countries is through modernization. This includes electronification of households and increases in phone plans. This does not accurately convey social development although it is hard to precisely measure, and institutions differ greatly in their methods. This goes into the debate on whether economic growth causes social growth or vice versa. Indicators of social change can be used to complement economic factors as indicators of development and in formulating development policies.

Migration and remittance

Migration has throughout history also led to significant international development. As people move, their culture, knowledge, skills and technologies move with them. Migrants' ties with their past homes and communities lead to international relationships and further flows of goods, capital and knowledge. The value of remittances

Remittances

A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to his or her home country. Note that in 19th century usage a remittance man was someone exiled overseas and sent an allowance on condition that he not return home....

sent home by migrants in modern times is much greater than the total in international aid given.

Sectors

International development and disaster relief are both often grouped into sectors, which correlate with the major themes of international development (and with the Millennium Development Goals - which are included in the descriptions below). There is no clearly defined list of sectors, but some of the more established and universally accepted sectors are further explored here. The sectors are highly interlinked, illustrating the complexity of the problems they seek to deal with.

Water and sanitation

In development, this is the provision of water and sanitary provision (toilet

Toilet

A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...

s, bathing

Bathing

Bathing is the washing or cleansing of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practised for personal hygiene, religious ritual or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....

facilities, a healthy environment) of sufficient quantity and quality to supply an acceptable standard of living. This is different to a relief response, where it is the provision of water and sanitation in sufficient quantity and quality to maintain life.

The provision of water and sanitation is primarily an engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

challenge, but also often includes an education element and is closely connected with shelter, politics and human rights.

The seventh Millennium Development Goal is to ensure environmental sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

, including reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...

and achieving significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

dwellers, by 2020. UN-Water

UN-Water

UN-Water is a mechanism of the United Nations, endorsed in 2003 for the follow-up process of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Its purpose is to support states in their water-related efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals....

, a body of 26 UN agencies that work on water issues, is responsible for the triennial UN World Water Development Report

UN World Water Development Report

The United Nations World Water Development Report is a global report that provides an authoritative, comprehensive assessment of the world’s freshwater resources...

which monitors progress towards the Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

related to water. The World Water Assessment Programme, which produces the Report, has articulated how eight of the MDGs are linked to water resources.

Examples of organisations specialising in Water & Sanitation are:

Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
Water 1st International
Water 1st International
Water 1st International is a non-profit organization helping people in poor countries implement water, sanitation and hygiene education projects. Water 1st works through locally-based partner organizations to support the implementation of projects that include the provision of drinking water,...
WaterAid
WaterAid
WaterAid is an international non-profit organisation set up as a response to the UN International Drinking Water & Sanitation decade . WaterAid is dedicated to helping people escape the poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. It is based in London, England and was...
WaterPartners International
Living Water International
Living Water International
Living Water International is a faith-based non-profit organization that helps communities in developing countries acquire safe drinking water in response to the global water crisis. It is based in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1990 and currently operates in 26 countries...
Partners in aid
Partners in Aid
Partners in Aid is an aid organisation supporting projects in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.- Transfer of Ownership of the Action Aid Australia Name :...

(watershed management in India, and sanitation in the Philippines)
Charity: water
Charity: water
charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Founded in 2006, it has helped fund 3,962 projects in 19 countries, benefiting over 1,794,983 people...

Health

This is provision of access to quality healthcare to the population in an efficient and consistent manner and according to their needs. The standard and level of provision that is acceptable or appropriate depends on many factors and is highly specific to country and location. For example, in large city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

(whether in a 'developing' country or not), it is appropriate and often practical to provide a high standard hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

which can offer a full range of treatments; in a remote rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

community it may be more appropriate and practical to provide a visiting healthworker on a periodic basis, possibly with a rural clinic

Clinic

A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...

serving several different communities.

The provision of access to healthcare is both an engineering challenge as it requires infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

such as hospitals and transport systems and an education challenge as it requires qualified healthworkers and educated consumers.

The fourth Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by two thirds the mortality rate
Child mortality
Child mortality, also known as under-5 mortality, refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five. In 2010, 7.6 million children under five died , down from 8.1 million in 2009, 8.8 million in 2008, and 12.4 million in 1990. About half of child deaths occur in Africa....

among children under five.

The fifth Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Maternal death
Maternal death, or maternal mortality, also "obstetrical death" is the death of a woman during or shortly after a pregnancy. In 2010, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, estimated global maternal mortality in 2008 at 342,900 , of...

.

The sixth Millennium Development Goal is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

and other major disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

s.

Reaching these goals is also a management challenge. Health services need to make the best use of limited resources while providing the same quality of care to every man, woman and child everywhere. Achieving this level of services requires innovation, quality improvement and expansion of public health services and programs. The main goal is to make public health truly public.

Examples of organizations working in health are:

World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
Partners in Health
Partners In Health
Partners In Health is a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor". It was founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Dr...
Results for Development Institute
Results for Development Institute
Results for Development Institute is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to accelerating social and economic progress in low and middle income countries. R4D combines the high-quality research approach of a traditional think tank with the capacity to turn that...

Education

The provision of education often focuses on providing free primary level education

Primary education

A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

, but also covers secondary

Secondary education

Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...

and higher education

Higher education

Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

. A lack of access to education is one of the primary limits on human development, and is related closely to every one of the other sectors. Almost every development project includes an aspect of education as development by its very nature requires a change in the way people live.

The second Millennium Development Goal is to Provide universal primary education
Universal Primary Education
The second United Nations Millennium Development Goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, more specifically, to “ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling." Currently, there are more than 75 million children...

.

The provision of education is itself an education challenge, as it requires qualified teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s who must be trained in higher education institutions. However, donors are unwilling to provide support to higher education because their policies now target the MDG. The result is that students are not educated by qualified professionals and worse, when they graduate from primary school they are inducted into a secondary school system that is not able to accommodate them.

Shelter

The provision of appropriate shelter is concerned with providing suitable housing

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

for families and communities. It is highly specific to context of culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, location, climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

and other factors. In development, it is concerned with providing housing of an appropriate quality and type to accommodate people in the long term. This is distinct from shelter in relief, which is concerned with providing sufficient shelter to maintain life.

Examples of organisations specialising in shelter are:

UN-HABITAT (development)
UNHCR (relief)
Shelter Centre
Shelter Centre
----Shelter Centre is non-operational Swiss humanitarian NGO which works to support all humanitarian stakeholders involved in the shelter of populations affected by conflict and natural disaster....

(relief)
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need...

(relief and development)
Article 25
Article 25
Article 25 is a UK registered charity that manages sustainable architecture projects in areas of extreme poverty and disaster.-History:Established in 2006 as ‘Architects for Aid’, the name was changed to Article 25 in 2008, making reference to the principle of the 25th Article of the UNs...

(relief and development)

Human rights

The provision of human rights is concerned with ensuring that all people everywhere receive the rights conferred on them by International human rights instruments

International human rights instruments

International human rights instruments are treaties and other international documents relevant to international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general...

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/intlinst.htm. There are many of these, but the most important for international development are:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its associated treaties
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
The Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...

(this is of more relevance to relief than development)

Human rights covers a huge range of topics. Some of those more relevant to international development projects include rights associated with gender equality

Gender equality

Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...

, justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

, employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

, social welfare and culture

Culture

.

The third Millennium Development Goal is to promote gender equality and empower women by eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Accomplishing this goal could assist in the achievement of 5 of the other 8 Millennium Development Goals. Goals 1-6 are in direct correlation with the status of women in the communities of problem countries such as The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sub-Saharan Africa and many of the developing nations. The low social stature of a woman inhibits her abilities to truly impact her community in astonishing ways. Noting the relationship between mother and offspring, goals 1, 4 and 5 are ones to feel the wrath of poor social status. An unhealthy mother simply cannot bear a healthy child; nonetheless nurse a sickly one back to health without access to adequate nutrition. A mother characteristically takes most of the care of a child, therefore must have the resources available to not only support herself but another human as well. Without these resources, if she has not already succumbed to birthing complications, a woman cannot survive the perils of poverty and hunger and support her child simultaneously.
In a different spectrum of societal norms the Goals 2 and 6 are being threatened by an age old privilege. Historically females have been refused education in pardon of males, resulting in lesser opportunity to thrive economically. Giving women equal access to an adequate education brings the global community steps closer to achieving universal primary education. Along with this education will come proper spread of knowledge regarding safe practices in disease avoidance. Women are increasingly falling victim to HIV/AIDS for reasons easily evaded. Increasing the availability of a proper education to women will be remarkably beneficial on a variety of fronts.
To promote gender equality is to promote progress towards global development.

Livelihoods

This is concerned with ensuring that all people are able to make a living for themselves and provide themselves with an adequate standard of living, without compromising their human rights and while maintaining dignity.

The first Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Hunger
Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...

.

The concept of livelihoods is directly drawn from the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) to international development. The approach and subsequent practical framework is credited to Robert Chambers, who, writing from the mid-1980s and onward, was interested in fostering efficiency in development cooperation. The approach was later developed and utilized by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID).The approach is considered to be more comprehensive than previous theories and methodology of "conventional" development initiatives. The core concepts include: taking a holistic view, building on community and individual strengths, focusing on linking both macro and micro-level thinking, sustainability, and maintaining a dynamic and ever-evolving framework. http://www.nccr-pakistan.org/publications_pdf/General/SLA_Gamper_Kollmair.pdf

Finance

Several organisations and initiatives exist which are concerned with providing financial systems and frameworks which allow people to organise or purchase services, items or projects for their own development.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

, which he founded, for their work in providing microcredit

Microcredit

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...

to the poor.

Concerns

The terms "developed" and "developing" (or "underdeveloped"), have proven problematic in forming policy as they ignore issues of wealth distribution

Distribution of wealth

The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It differs from the distribution of income in that it looks at the distribution of ownership of the assets in a society, rather than the current income of members of that society.-Definition of...

and the lingering effects of colonialism

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

. Some theorists see development efforts as fundamentally neo-colonial

Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...

, in which a wealthier nation forces its industrial and economic structure on a poorer nation, which will then become a consumer

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

of the developed nation's goods and services. Post-developmentalists, for example, see development as a form of Western cultural imperialism

Cultural imperialism

Cultural imperialism is the domination of one culture over another. Cultural imperialism can take the form of a general attitude or an active, formal and deliberate policy, including military action. Economic or technological factors may also play a role...

that hurts the people of poor countries and endangers the environment to such an extent that they suggest rejection of development altogether. In relation to ethnic groups, these concerns are captured in Survival International's There You Go! (Oren Ginzburg

Oren Ginzburg

Oren Ginzburg is the owner of Hungry Man Books and the author of several books. He works for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and has spent time working on human trafficking in Asia for the United Nations Inter-Agency Project Against Human Trafficking.-Books Written:*Le...

External links

AidData: Tracking Development Finance
Overseas Development Institute — Independent UK Think Tank focusing on a wide range of development issues
Center for Global Development — Independent Washington-based research organization
Institute of Development Research and Development Policy, Ruhr-University Bochum — Offers a Master Programme in Development Management
Development Gateway - An international non-profit that empowers development actors using information and communications technology
The Human Development Reports
Human Security Index Human Security Index Website with HSI data, and a Human Development Index covering 232 countries
World Bank YouThink — Simple guide to the main issues
USAID — U.S. Agency for International Development — The U.S. Government's primary development agency
MCA — U.S. Millennium Challenge Account
DFID — Department for International Development — The UK Government department responsible for promoting sustainable development
WIDS — Warwick International Development Summit — An annual student-led summit focusing on a range of development issues.
The International Development Design Summit
http://www.decouvreconsulting.com — International Development Consulting firm
Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
Zunia, an online network for knowledge exchange among development professionals worldwide.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Post World War II

Theories

Millennium Development Goals

Other goals

Concepts

Inequality

Dignity

Participation

Appropriateness

Sustainability

Capacity building

Rights-Based Approach

Measurement

Migration and remittance

Sectors

Water and sanitation

Health

Education

Shelter

Human rights

Livelihoods

Finance

Concerns

See also

External links