Develop Theory

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11.

Understanding Development Theory

In the Context of Social and Community Change

by Michel Adjibodou1

I. INTRODUCTION

If you are fortunate enough to have walked the land and worked with the people of SouthCentral Los Angeles in California, the mountains of Chiapas in Mexico, the plains ofTanga in Tanzania, the hills of Save in Benin, the streets of Hartford, Dorchester andRoxbury, the hills of Funyula in Western Kenya, one common characteristic youprobably noticed is the resolve and resilience of those communities. Despite the daily

challenges and stresses on their health, income, environment, land, and physical security,the residents are determined to improve their communities and create greateropportunities for their children.

Many of us who chose to work in development, or who accidently ended up doing thiswork, must learn how to work in communities which face horrendous challenges.Engaging people in improving their own communities and, perhaps, working on broaderissues demands that we develop great skills and knowledge, not to mention a certainattitude, some character, plenty of courage, and listening skills. Most of us simplybehave like backpackers on our way to solve the worlds problems and save humanityfrom itself. Mistakes are made along the way, success stories abound, lives are damaged

and rebuilt, hopes restored, and life goes on.

Many practitioners working in communities around the world, and people who want tobecome development practitioners, will admit that they are constantly struggling with thetrue definition of development. The key word describing their goal could well havebeen progress, modernization, transformation or something else.

A great many definitions of development have been used in the past few decades, andthese different definitions have affected the content of training sessions, seminars,symposia, workshops, certificate programs, college and postgraduate degree programsand books and other materials. When it was first discussed, development (or progress

as it was called by the early bourgeoisie) was synonymous with the improvement of anindividuals lot in society. As time goes by and crises unfold, new initiatives emerge with

1Director, Co-Chair of the Issue Expertise/Development Task Force of the International Working Groupon University Education for Community and Social Change, and Director of the MA Program inCommunity Economic Development at the Open University of Tanzania/Southern New HampshireUniversity


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new approaches which may simply rebrand conventional approaches or be highlyinnovative further adding to the confusion about what development is or should be.

With this confusion on terminology, there also is great uncertainty as to the skills andknowledge required to be a decent development practitioner.

For the International Working Group, development should be an integral part of

a broader process of community and social change. The goal of that broader

process of change is a shift in power relationships which leads to greater economic

and social justice as well as greater freedom and voice for people who are poor,

excluded or otherwise marginalized. The change process begins at the grassroots

level, with the needs, assets, energies, ideas and aspirations of ordinary people.

With help from development practitioners and others, they are helped to gain

ground gradually, focusing on addressing their communitys needs and eventually

having a larger and larger impact.

Within this context, development focuses largely on improving peoples materialconditions. It thus includes issues of access to land, water, shelter, employment, income,assets, community facilities, and other essentials.

Development practitioners, therefore, must develop the knowledge and skills which willhelp them help people address these issues through a bottom-up process of change. Inaddition to technical skills, this requires that practitioners be skilled in working withpeople, listening to them and bringing them together to address issues throughcommunity projects and campaigns and the building of their own community capacity.Also invaluable is experience helping people build viable informal or formalorganizations through which they can achieve their goals.

Other papers address many of these issues. In particular, the papers by Denise FairchildonDevelopment Skills for Social and Community Change and by Andrew Mott on TheTools of Collective Action concentrate on learning the process and other skills which areessential for effective community work.

This paper addresses another key area of knowledge for development practitioners andfor others involved in community and social change. It provides an initial historicalreview and theoretical background to introduce development practitioners to the debateon alternative development strategies and policies. It analyzes major theories ofdevelopment to help people understand the different views of developments goals andprocesses. This provides essential background for understanding why different nations,international institutions and other actors behave as they do on development issues.

An audit of groups of nations and their paths to development over decades suggests thatthey have been guided by a variety of development policies and strategies which havetaken them in different directions with mixed results and fortune. This section willreview the string of such development initiatives as economic development, communitydevelopment, asset-based community development, sustainable community development,

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local economic development, international development, and community economicdevelopment which have been unleashed by civil society organizations, governmentorganizations, and citizens groups alike in their quest to attain development.

II. CRISIS

We live in a time of great crises, entirely new opportunities, and the need for massivechange and appropriate development.

Every day we see stories of horrible deaths from preventable illnesses, shortages of foodand water, fights over land, homelessness, natural disasters, and precarious livingconditions on all the continents. The news media usually cover the stories so extensivelythat none of us can miss them.

Recently, the news media have been reporting on stories of mass movements, rioting, and

civil unrest due to the food and energy crises.

In Haiti, protesters took to the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes inreaction to increased food prices. At least five people were killed. The majority ofHaitians, who live on less than $2.00 a day, is now confronted with price increase of upto 50% on staples like beans, rice, fruit and condensed milk.

In recent months, food riots have exploded in Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Guinea,Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

In the U.S., the food aid programs are increasingly being stretched since their inception inthe 1960s, with the number of people receiving food stamps expected to reach 28 millionin 2009.

In Europe, angry port workers fought with the riot police in Marseilles and truckersblocked traffic in London to demand fuel rebates. Protests spread to other cities as Frenchfarmers prevented access to oil depots, while Italian and Spanish fishermen were settingup for strikes.

Over the decades, the most mind-boggling challenge to civilized societies has been, andstill is, to manage the city and ensure that all citizens have access to basic services, andenjoy the full protection of the law. However, of the worlds billions of people, very fewcan boast of having the benefit of adequate basic services, and human rights protection.

With current trends in global warming, population growth, runaway increases in food andenergy prices, and the risks of social unrest in many countries -- developed and lessdeveloped alike -- put a growing number of governments around the world in aprecarious situation.

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Political oppositions groups, civil society organizations, community-based groups, andregular citizens have linked the troubles, wars, rebellions, and civil unrests, to the failuresof the state to provide development opportunities to their citizens, mainly the sociallyexcluded masses. Some have also criticized the leaders inability to forecast these eventsand mitigate their consequences.

Despite all these grim trends, there are also stories which give us a glimpse of a verypositive future. Stories of great economic successes, transformed livelihoods, countlessmedical and technological discoveries abound, demonstrating humanitys capacity totame nature and develop new approaches for the good of mankind.

Against this backdrop of crisis and potential, the essential goal must be to help peopledevelop the capacity to envision a better future and work systematically to achieve it.

III. DEVELOPMENT

A. DIFFERING VIEWS -- WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

Development and Economic Development have often been used interchangeably bypoliticians, academicians, civil society organizations, community groups, and economiststo describe industrialization, modernization, or westernization.

Building on the classical western concepts of evolution and unending progress, the ideaof development is mainly a post-World War II phenomenon. Seen as describing progressfrom a simpler to a more complex phase, development of a community, a region or acountry could be seen as a process by which a traditional low-technology society istransformed into a modern, high-technology society, with a matching increase inincomes. With the mounting challenges to the traditional understanding of development,a number of definitions have emerged.

In his analysis of the feudal society and the destiny of individuals, well-known economichistorian Richard Henry Tawney wrote:

Rapid economic change as a fact, and continuous economic progress asan ideal, are the notes, not of the history of the West, but of little morethan the last four centuries[prior to that] the common man looked to thegood days of the past, not to the possibilities of the future, for a standardof conduct and criterion of the present; accepted the world, with plague,pestilence and famine, as heaven have made it; and were incurious as tothe arts by which restless spirits would improve on nature, if not actuallysuspicious of them as smelling of complicity with malign powers.

In those times, a common person would never imagine that his or her fortune could bechanged and that nature could be conquered.

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According to Shaffer (1989), the process of development involves change, improvementand vitality; a directed attempt to improve participation, flexibility, equity, attitude, thefunction of institutions and quality of life. It is the creation of wealth. Wealth meaningthe things people value, not just dollars.

The South Commission Report (1990) defines development as a process which enableshuman beings to realize their potential, build self-confidence, and lead lives of dignityand fulfillment. It is a process which frees people from fear, exploitation, and oppression.Through development, political independence acquires true significance.

Korten (1990) sees development as a process by which the members of a societyincrease their personal and institutional capacities to mobilize and manage resources toproduce sustainable and justly distributed improvement in their quality of life, consistentwith their own aspiration.

For the United Nation Development Program, in its Human Development Report (1991),the basic objective of human development is to enlarge the range of peoples choices tomake development more democratic and participatory.

In most cases, it is widely accepted that the meaning given to the word development isinformed by ones culture, tradition, environment, philosophical beliefs, and epoch.Some people propose that development must be viewed in relation to time, place, andcircumstance. They reject any attempt by academics to settle on a universally accepteddefinition.

As an indication of the shifts in thinking, some have introduced the concept ofdevelopment redefined. In our work, our attempt to define or redefine developmentwill be confined to the economic dimensions of development.

B. WHY IS DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?

The past and on-going tensions between community development and social changepractices are palpable. Community organizing traditions of direct action and socialmovements that seek to realign power and resources seem at odds with the legacy ofcommunity development with its collaborative, project-based roots. The market-basedstrategies of community developers that align with financial institutions, corporations,government agencies and other development partners are especially viewed as antitheticalto a social change agenda.

The fact is, however, development knowledge and skills are essential for change agentsfor several reasons. First, even in its most conservative applications, developmentpractices expand the consciousness and capacity of affected individuals and can set thepreconditions for change over time. This recognizes the significance of a capacity-building process that is analogous to the relationship-building work in Collective Action.

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The cross sector collaboration and project-related experiential learning are essentialprerequisites to unveiling the inequities, fallacies, contradictions and ineffectiveness oftraditional development schemes, leading communities to find alternative, more authenticsocial change paradigms. The quantum theory of social change developed by the IssuesTask Force of the International Network in Mexico City suggests that this incremental

social change process is not only legitimate, but quite often necessary. Many changeagents and change agendas will be compromised by their social, geo-political context,requiring a more flexible and forgiving social change paradigm. Quantum theoryacknowledges that the entry point for social change work is radically different in African,Southeast Asian, Western and South American countries. Community change can berevolutionary, subversive or incremental in nature and depends upon the regions historyand political context. Social change is possible everywhere, but requires different tools,strategies and timeframes. And if taught effectively, all social change efforts willgradually migrate away form their bi-polar extremes ( ex. ) toward the socialchange epicenter energy field that leads to transformation. The awareness and socialchange work related to Global Warming, for example, are radically different throughout

the world, some countries and grassroots efforts are more advanced and proactive, othersare less so; yet, it is fair to say that work is underway everywhere to address this globalchallenge. (Show Quantum theory diagram. Ask Dick to explain better.. and citeTanzanian experience, case example). This calls for applying a contextual framework forteaching development strategies that foster real social change.

Second, and most important, the right development theories and practice can and doredistribute power and resources (see Michels development theories and Building Block#1 discussion below). These values based development schemes incorporate democraticand social change principles, such as process over product, the distribution of growthover growth itself, community control over corporate control. And they more oftenembrace alternative vs. mainstream development plans; plans that are driven by notionsof self reliance and self determination and new, more democratic institutions.Cooperative movements such as housing, business, food throughout the world areemblematic of these development strategies (Chiapis example).

In essence, several compelling factors mandate a development curriculum in the toolkitof social change students: 1) it is a precondition for eradicating poverty and globaleconomic and environmental challenges; 2) it offer strategies and tools for human andsocial development; 3) development issues are powerful tools for collective action andstructural changes; and 4) it helps organizers convert policy and organizing wins intoeffective programs.

1. Global Issues and Challenges

If there is but one reason to teach students of social and community change developmentskills, it is to equip them to engage in the world-wide struggle to solve the food,housing/shelter, environmental, financial and other crises. With growing consciousnessand movements around many of these issues, a new call to action is to do something todo things differently -- to solve the problems. The United Nations historic Millennium

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Development Goals, for example, establishes an unprecedented global consensus, visionand goal to change inequalities in income, assets, jobs, social services and political powerby 2015. While there are differing views about the Millennium Development Goals around participants, beneficiaries, strategies, etc. --- imagine an army of change agentswith the right development skills and knowledge to effectively realize this vision to

eradicate poverty by 2015 on a global scale. Clearly, all community and social changeagents will and should be about the business of eradicating power.

The struggle for social and community change is, by definition, a quest for social andeconomic development. Find the homeless/landless, the jobless, the sick and indigentand you find both the manifestation of injustice and the fodder for community change.Self-reliant development schemes engage the disenfranchised in their owndevelopment and empower them in not only collective power, but also knowledge andcompetencies to meet their own basic needs. Food, shelter, clothing and income.

Thus, the most effective development programs embrace a social change agenda that

focuses on equity in the decision-making process, as well as equitable outcomes (by-products) of that process. Accordingly, community driven development theories andpractices are potential antidote to uneven and inequitable development, offering thecritical analyses, process skills, varying development strategies and developmentoutcomes for the most excluded populations.

2. Building Human and Social Capital

The starting point for collective action and social change education, as discussed in theprevious chapters, is self-awareness and consciousness, as well as individualcompetencies and group process skills. As such, development initiatives provide thenecessary (albeit not always sufficient) preconditions for social and community change.Among the mix of development schemes practiced world-wide are some of the bestindividual and collective empowerment strategies for engaging indigenous communitiesin defining and regulating their own lives and communities. That is, many developmentstrategies are as much about changing power relationships bringing the excluded intothe decision making apparatus -- as they are about the intended outcomes of thatempowerment. Individuals are forced to build contextual knowledge historical,geopolitical and spatial context of their material conditions. What does economicjustice look like? What has it been? What are the essential elements? How do we seethings differently in the process?

Beyond learning and critiquing the historic and global dimensions of economic and socialinjustices, development training deepens the knowledge and capacity of indigenousleaders and communities to transform their conditions. Invariably, development impartsspecialized technical knowledge around such issues as: trade, private investments,productivity and growth, agriculture and infrastructure development, and environmentalconsciousness. People learning development must develop practical planning anddevelopment skills such as financing, research/data analyses, project management

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process, and other subject matter. This form of knowledge empowerment or humancapital development is a powerful tool in the social change process. KNOWLEDGE ISPOWER.

3. Collective Action and Structural Change

Development studies for social and community change agents provide an opportunity forconcrete, specific issues around which to educate, empower and mobilize grassrootscitizens to control their own destinies. Issues-specific organizing builds the foundationaround which an active citizenry can mobilize for broader community and social change.

In addition, skill-building initiatives related to development strategies go a long way toincrease overall human capacity to engage in collective action. Increasing individualaccess to food, clothing, education and housing are among the services thatdevelopment programs offer. While some may argue that servicing people does not

alleviate poverty, it does play an instrumental role in meeting the basic needs that act asimpediments to self-actualization and collection action. Literacy programs, for example,are converted into powerful tools for popular education and the mobilization ofcommunity power.

4. Transforming Policies into Action.

Development issues provide excellent opportunities for people to engage directly withpower structures and institutions to change policies that affect their well-being. What canbe more motivating and engaging than the prospect of winning concrete gains in thematerial conditions of communities and families?

Furthermore, development studies can provide the critical skills needed to convert radicalthought into concrete radical solutions. Development issues are directly connected to farlarger issues, including increasing opportunities, enhancing the capacity of people, andthe redistribution of resources and power.

However, it is essential to be realistic. While liberation and national level political andeconomic struggles exist throughout the world, especially throughout the SouthernHemisphere, they represent fairly rare occurrences in the context of global communitychange. Very few places and only very daring people take on the larger political andeconomic structure for social change.

Far more frequently, social change occurs incrementally and is centered around issue-specific challenges which people experience in their everyday lives. In this context,development issues are central as sources of concern, motivation, and potential actionto improve the quality of life of people and communities.

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IV. THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

A. THEORIES ADDRESSING THE OVERALL PROCESS OFDEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETAL CHANGE

Development theory focuses on an assortment of alternative theories on how societalchange can best be realized. As a result, a multitude of approaches form the basis of thesedevelopment theories.

Four major schools of thought have played especially influential roles in framing thediscussion on broad development theories

1. the Modernization Theory2. the Dependency Theory

3. the World Systems Theory and4. the State Theory

Each of these is an attempt to explain and predict how nations develop to more advancedlevels. They go well beyond issues of economics and wealth to address the broadertransformation of societies over time. (The next section of this paper focuses moreintensely on the somewhat narrower question ofeconomic development.)

1. Modernization Theory and the Take-Off Stage of Development

French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet was involved in the origins of ModernizationTheory, which suggests that technological advancements and economic changes willtrigger change in peoples moral and cultural values. His expose of the role oftechnology in contributing to social progress brought to the fore the connection betweeneconomic and social development.

Emile Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of sociology, stressed the interdependenceof any societys institutions and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social order.In The Division of Labour in Society, he describes how social order was to bemaintained in a society and how primitive societies would make the transition to moreeconomically advanced industrial societies. Likening societies to organisms, he contendsthat the former progresses through several stages, starting at a simplistic level anddeveloping into a more complex one.

According to this theorys proponents, development can only be achieved through thesame processes and strategies that developed countries used. Strong propositions camefrom capitalists and communists alike after WWII, intimating that primitive societiesshould be modernized or westernized and that more modern values should supplanttheir traditional values.


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Walt Rostow and A.F.K. Organski came up with stages through which each country candevelop. Rostow stresses the importance of the take-off stage as the point at which aneconomy takes off and accelerates toward becoming a modern, industrialized,increasingly prosperous economy.

Historically, this concept is somewhat new. It depicts how societies and nations developfrom being prehistoric to becoming modern by passing through necessary stages. Majoremphasis is put on economic development, political stability, and social and culturalchange. One important characteristic of this theorys proponents is that they look atsocial progress over a certain period with a view toward identifying and isolating socialvariables which are believed to have contributed to change or progress.

Rostow and his colleagues came under heavy criticism in the 1970s and 1980s because oftheir conclusion that, since economic and social progress was achieved in some countries,it would work similarly elsewhere.

2. Structuralism and Dependency Theory

Influenced by Marx, the proponents of the Structuralism and Dependency Theorycontend that development and underdevelopment are intertwined. They see somecountries achieving development by keeping others underdeveloped. In their view,underdevelopment is therefore a by-product of development and progress thereforedepends upon changing the relationships among nations.

In the late 1950s, Raul Prebisch, the Director of the United Nations EconomicCommission for Latin America, and colleagues discovered that economic growth inadvanced industrialized countries did not necessarily translate into growth for poorernations. Actually, their investigations concluded that increased economic activity in theindustrialized nations repeatedly caused serious economic problems in less developednations.

Highly critical of the modernization theory, the dependentistas contented that theproponents of modernization had failed to recognize the deeply rooted effects ofcolonialism on former colonies like trade inequities.

Prebisch explained that less developed nations traditionally exported primarycommodities to the industrialized nations which then used those commodities tomanufacture products that are then sold back to the less developed nations. This ValueAdded process creates a vicious circle for poorer nations. The proceeds from exportingfcommodities to industrialized nations are not enough to enable poorer nations to affordthe cost of importing the value-added products.

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The dependentistas are of the belief that

poor nations constitute the repository of outdated and obsolete technology,

and much needed markets to the industrialized nations

industrialized nations are responsible for the state of underdevelopment ofpoorer nations through unjust policies and initiatives

poorer nations in their attempt to break the status quo are met with

economic sanctions and military interventions.

As a solution, Prebisch recommended that less developed nations develop programs ofimport substitution to reduce and subsequently eliminate the need to purchasemanufactured goods from industrialized countries. He maintains that less developedcountries should use the world market to build up their foreign exchange reserves by stillexporting raw materials to industrialized countries.

In practice, import substitution turned out to be difficult to implement for three reasons.The economies of scale used by the industrialized countries to keep prices low could notbenefit the less developed countries due to the small size of their internal markets. Therewere serious challenges to the commitment of less developed countries to moving fromprimary products producers to value added products manufactures. And, lastly, lessdeveloped countries were limited in their ability to control the prices of commoditiesexported to industrialized countries.

The dependentistas have been strongly criticized by Peter Bauer and Martin Wolf, free-market economists, who contend that lack of competition and corruption could occur as aresult of the implementation of dependency theory.

3. World Systems Theory

World Systems Theory was born out of strong criticism of the dependency theory.Developed mostly by Andre Gunder Frank and Immanuel Wallerstein, the world-systemtheory is an approach to social analysis and social change. Samir Amin, Giovani Arrighi,Christopher Chase-Dunn, Peter Turchin, Andrey Korotayev, Janet Abu Lughod, TomHall, and others greatly contributed to development of this theory.

Immanuel Wallerstein, who is considered the father of the most well-known version of

the world-system approach, defines a system as a unit with single division of labour andmultiple cultural systems. He identified the world-economy as a system of politiesintegrated within a single economy, and world-empires a the situation when a singlepolity dominates and integrates an economy.2

2Historic examples of this situation are cited by Janet Abu Lughod and Andre Gunder Frank. Lughodargues that, extensive across Eurasia in the 13th century, signs of a pre-modern world system existed. Atthe center of a vast trading network, the Mongol Empire played an essential role in keeping together Indian,


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One noticeable attribute of the world-systems theory is that the state is viewed as a groupof elites, and that industrialization is not synonymous with development. The socialdemocratic and labor movements to undo the inequalities the system produced were bornout of this approach.

The world systems theory examines the relationships among the core, semiperiphery andperiphery of the world economy. It points out that the semi-periphery lies between thecore and the periphery and is exploited by the core while it exploits the periphery. Thisexplains the lack of industrialization in less-developed countries.

Contemporary applications of the theory attempt to provide explanations of the shiftingrelations between industrialized nations and poorer nations, pointing towards the jostlingof the U.S. and Europe around newly independent states.

4. State Theory

In reaction to the world systems theory, the State Theory supports the view that theeconomy is intertwined with politics. This claim reinforces the idea that the take-offperiod in development is unique to each country, and stresses that government can play ahuge role in determining how, and even whether, development occurs in a particularcountry.

The states role has always been a central concern for economists. Postwar Japan was anearly focus for study of the developmental state and the key roles of political will,doctrinal consistency, bureaucratic apparatus, and repressive power in formulating andimplementing effective economic policies to encourage high speed capitalist growth.

In East Asia, specifically South Korea and Taiwan, attempts were made to recreate thisbureaucratic-authoritarian model with the coercive capacity and exclusionary policies ofthe developmental state. The economic and political influence of the United States andJapan in the region combined with gradual liberalization to reinforce these trends.

China, Vietnam, and other rapidly developing economies are but the latest examples ofthis strategy for development combined with a more or less repressive government.

In Africa, the absence of autonomous development-oriented bureaucracies compoundedwith the rental state have prevented most nations from formulating and implementing thesorts of national economic strategies encountered in other less developed regions. Insome Latin American countries, there has been a strong trend away from authoritariangovernments controlling the economy toward redemocratization, heralded by bloodlesstransitions from authoritarian to democratic rule in Latin America.

Chinese, European, and Muslim regions. Frank went even further in his analysis with claims of a global-scale system that included Africa, Asia and Europe in the 4th millennium BCE. In his model, China withAsia constituted the center of activity.

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These differences have forced economists to position each region in a world systemsframework.

Critics of the State Theory have suggested that the states most likely to foster

development are those which confine the state to administration of only those aspects ofpublic policy that other bodies cannot discharge with efficiency and commitment to theinterests of the general public. They see it as vital that the state be in a position toprovide sufficient independence to civil society and the market and allowing self-regulating mechanisms to operate through the system.

In summary, a review of patterns of the economic development process over the last twocenturies shows that nations have not followed similar cycles of institutional, economicand social change. To say the least, the process of economic development has beenextremely non-linear and complex. In retrospect, four distinct development paths areclearly identifiable through the history of nations:

Autonomous export-led industrialization, heralded by the industrial revolution,

with Great Britain, Belgium, and France the first comers.

The government-led, inward-oriented group of nations such as Germany, Italy,

Japan, and Russia, which are labeled late comers.

The balanced-growth, open economy, limited-government intervention such as

Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden.

The agricultural, primary-export oriented, dualistic land-abundant group of

nations -- Australia, Argentina, Canada, and New Zealand, and the denselypopulated nations such as Burma, China, and India.

In the same vein, in present-day developing countries the relations among economic andinstitutional changes differ sharply among nations which are characterized by differentinitial social, institutional, and economic conditions.

At the lowest level, there is a weak political system with weak market institutions

compounded by strong tribal influence. Economic growth has been inducedthrough the dualistic development of a modern, export-oriented, primary sectorwhich brought significant of social structure.

The second group is transitional economies characterized by intermediate socio-

political, and economic degrees of institutional development. The process ofsocio-economic and political transformation has advanced enough to upset the

traditional way of life and institutions profoundly but is short of setting them onthe path of self-sustained economic development. This transformation is justifiedby dualistic industrialization, the buildup of financial systems, and thedevelopment of physical infrastructure.

The most advanced nations have effective economic institutions and a degree of

leadership commitment and national mobilization for economic development.They are undergoing increased investment and the technological modernizationof agriculture and industry.

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From this review, one must conclude that policy-makers in developing and industrializedcountries must commit to radical changes in the global trading and internationalpayments systems if they are to respond to the development needs of developing nations.It is also critical that all the key actors develop a better understanding of the need to

match institutions and policies to the stages and realities of each nation.

B. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

Let us now focus on the somewhat narrower area of economic development the processof developing the national, regional or local economy to improve living conditions.There has been a rich history of theories competing to explain how this process occursand how it can best be channeled to benefit a maximum number of people. Issues ofmaximizing the production of income and assets vs. ensuring their just distribution arecentral to these historic debates, as are questions of strategy and technique How can

society best address these issues of economic development?

While the entire purpose of Adam Smiths work more than two centuries ago was to findthe nature and causes of economic development, the contemporary notion of economicdevelopment emerged during the 1930s when economists were preoccupied by the issueof how to re-start the worlds economy and climb out of the Depression. After WorldWar II, their greatest concern became the industrialization and reconstruction of EasternEurope. 3

Thereafter, the waves of decolonization in Africa, Asia, and Latin America graduallytook center stage. Early on, their economic development theory was viewed as requiringa simple extension of traditional economic theory which equated development withgrowth and industrialization. This approach suggested that the newly independentunderdeveloped nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America might possibly, given time,develop the infrastructures and institutions leading to improved standards of livingobserved in Europe. This pushed the stage theory concept brought by AlexanderGerschenkron and Walt W. Rostow who argued that all countries passed through thesame historical stages of economic development and that currently less developedcountries were merely at an earlier stage in this linear historical progress while developednations were at a later stage.

To accomplish development in the shorter possible time, some development economistswere tasked to suggest short-cuts through which less developed countries might catchup with the developed countries and skip over a few stages. However, the youngnations had infrastructures, institutions, cultures, traditions, and standards of livingcompletely dissimilar from Europes, and modern development theory grew to focus onanalyzing the institutions needed to stimulate, sustain and accelerate growth.4

3 As illustrated by the 1943 article of Paul Rosenstein-Rodan and Kurt Mandelbaums 1947 tome4Such theorists as Bert Hoselitz, Simon Kuznets, W. Arthur Lewis, and Hla Myint were among the firsteconomists to analyze economic development as a separate subject.

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Some economists suggested various strategies as crucial to development, such as capitalformation advocated by Ragnar Nurske (1952); the dual economy constructed by W.Arthur Lewis (1954, 1955) stressing the role of savings in development; the issue ofincome distribution as a variable of savings and growth proposed by early Keynesians,

like Kaldor and Robinson. Others adopted international trade as the giant vehicle togrowth on the assumption that trade and specialization would increase the extent of themarket.

As for the Central Place Theory, it proposes that there is a hierarchy of places and thatresource allocation should be based upon this hierarchy. The theory has fallen in and outof favor as resources have ebbed and flowed, but it does have applications on a regionalbasis.

These economic development theories informed and influenced program design andimplementation. They relied heavily on a belief that the benefits of economic growth and

expansion would trickle down to improve the conditions of the poor. They focusedalmost exclusively on a combination of macroeconomic policies and attempts to remedyperceived defects in poor people inadequate education or skills, weak communitysupports, lack of motivation, ignoring the very real, potent barriers in the structure ofopportunities the poor confront on the demand side of the labor market equation(Blakely: 1989).

As a result, traditional economic development policies operate on the principle that aninfusion of capital from outside the community can result in the development of acommunity. Neoclassic economic theory contends that economic systems operate in sucha manner as to reach a natural equilibrium if resources, primarily capital and labor, areallowed to flow without artificial restrictions. This theory holds these two resources areabsolutely mobile and will move to areas that will provide the highest return oninvestment. Neoclassic economic theory has had great acceptance in the past and itsproponents persist. It is the most obvious free market, anti-interventionist of the majoreconomic theories and so enjoys periodic revivals at varying levels of decision-making.

The traditional model assumes that the residents of a community are not capable ofpursuing or managing projects, or making appropriate decisions concerning the allocationof resources within the community (Swack and Mason: 1987).

T. W. Schultz of the Chicago School moved beyond the concept of capital accumulationto emphasize the importance of human capital formation, meaning education andtraining. In 1969, Seers argued that development was a social phenomenon thatinvolved more than increasing per capita output, and Singer, Myrdal and Adelmansupported his assertion that development should be promoting the elimination of poverty,unemployment and inequality. Many economists like Mahbub ul Haq joined the fray incalling for redefining economic development to address such structural matters as

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agricultural transformation, dualism, education, health, population growth,unemployment, and urbanization.

Recently, a group of development workers formulated the following definition: Economicdevelopment is a process by which people through their own individual and / or joint efforts boostproduction for direct consumption and to have a surplus to sell for cash. This requires that thepeople themselves analyze the problems, identify the causes, set their priorities and acquire newknowledge. It also requires them to organize themselves in order to coordinate and mobilize theeffective application of all the factors of production at their disposal. This means that they mustplan, implement and manage their own economic activities. The higher income that accruesthrough increased savings and investment can be used to satisfy a wider range of the peopleswants enabling them to realize greater well-being. However, continued progress requires thereinvestment of part of this surplus. (Burkey, 1993 )

2. International Development

The differentiation between developed and underdeveloped nations was made on January20th 1949 by Harry S Truman when he stated:

We must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of ourscientific advances in industrial progress available for the improvementand growth of underdeveloped areas. The old imperialism exploitationfor foreign profit has no place in our plans. What we envisage is aprogram of development based on the concept of democratic fair dealing.

Just four years before, the United States had taken the lead in helping establish theInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International MonetaryFund and the United Nations.

In the 1950s, the modernization theory provided a conceptual framework for the MarshallPlan under Walt Rostow and his colleagues. By the late 1960s, in reaction to Rostow andhis colleagues, the dependentistas Prebisch and Frank used the dependency theory toexplain the complex relation between industrialized and poorer nations. In the 1970s and1980s, modernists at the World Bank and IMF opted for the neoliberal economic ideasadvocated by Milton Friedman and Bela Balassa in the form of Structural AdjustmentPrograms. Seeing disastrous results, their critics pressed for bottom up approaches and

more participation by citizens in decision-making processes.

Under the influence of Mahboub Ul Haq and Amartya Sen, the United Nations decided tochange the development discourse from a free-market and growth-crazed model to focusmore on human needs and capabilities, thus birthing the Human Development Concept.

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Contemporary Changes in Concepts of International Development

With the shift in development theories from modernization and structural adjustmentprograms to poverty reduction, the United Nations system has supported poverty

reduction strategies consisting of direct budget support for social welfare programs, withthe goal of creating macroeconomic stability resulting in increased economic growth.

Increasingly, concepts like poverty, dignity, participation, appropriate technology,sustainability and capacity-building have been emphasized to form the fundamental basisof contemporary development strategies and policies.

International development is focused on long-term solutions to issues facing developingnations, by helping them to build the capacity required to develop sustainable solutions totheir problems. It is to be distinguished from disaster relief and humanitarian aid whichprovide short-term solutions to problems associated with a lack of development and

which is not necessarily sustainable.

There is recognition that International Non-Government Organizations andIntergovernmental Organizations often play key roles in less developed nations in theareas of education, environment, finance, health, human rights, housing, livelihoods, andwater and sanitation. Their growth and effectiveness therefore must be a keyconsideration for international development policy.5

C. ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Nowadays it is nearly impossible to go through a day without hearing, talking, worryingand arguing about the plight of individuals, citizens, groups of people, and communitiesaffected by social exclusion.

Social exclusion is very much a lived experience that occurs in many differentsettings and affects many groups of people: street children, former prisoners,single parents, ethnic minorities and more. It can occur as a result of an equallywide variety of factors, including unemployment, poor health, a lack ofeducation or affordable housing, racism, fear of differences or politicaldisempowerment (Guildford 2000:4).

Fortunately through voluntary initiatives by grassroots groups and other nonprofits/NGOs, some of these communities have succeeded in reversing their downward spiral.They have accomplished this through a number of related strategies with an assortment of

5Examples of International Non-Government Organizations include Plan International, CAREInternational, World Vision, Oxfam, Freedom From Hunger, Medecins Sans Frontires, and ActionAidInternational. Their areas of expertise spawn from health, education, environment, civic education, humanrights, to water and sanitation, livelihoods, microfinance, and human rights.


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names -- Community Development, Local Economic Development, InternationalDevelopmentand Community Economic Development.

In order to appreciate the context in which various initiatives find their roots, it is usefulto define and clarify these somewhat loaded terms.

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A. Community Development

Community development rejects the traditional top-down approach to adopt a more

participatory and bottom-up approach, valuing local input into solutions in order topromote positive outcomes.

Campfens (1997: 25) definescommunity development in thefollowing terms:

From a humanitarian perspective, it may be seen as a search for community, mutual aid,social support, and human liberationin an alienating, oppressive, competitive, and individualistic society. In its morepragmatic institutional sense, it may be viewed as a means for mobilizing communities tojoin state or institutional initiatives that are aimed at alleviating poverty, solving socialproblems, strengthening families, fostering democracy, and achieving modernization andsocio-economic development.

For Frank and Smith, Community Development is

The planned evolution of all aspects of community well-being (economic, social,environmental and cultural). It is a process whereby community members cometogether to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems.

The Community Development Foundation in the UKdefines it as follows:

Karen Jones (1995: 7), taking into accounts the complexity

of the relations within a community, the concept of time,

space, and purpose, states that community is a dynamic

interplay of historic processes and complex relationships,

acted out in environments. Community embodies a

wholeness; it is not enough to describe it as a sense of place,

or as a product (of relationship between individuals) or as a

social system. Rather, community comes into existence and

defines its own form, out of the interaction of theparticipating elements, in environments and over time.

According to C. St. Clair, Community development is the

process of helping people in communities identify commongoals and work together to achieve those goals. The process of

community development involves not just individuals or one or

two groups, but, ideally, the entire community since the entire

community gains or loses through the action of any member of

the community.


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Community development is a range of practices dedicated to increasing thestrength and effectiveness of community life, improving local conditions,especially for people in disadvantaged situations, and enabling people toparticipate in public decision-making and to achieve greater long term controlover their circumstances.

Key issues for the success ofcommunity development activity include:

Local participation

Identification of needs and response to them

Social interaction and the building of inter-group relations

On-going supporti

B. Community Economic Development

Over the years, a growing number of disadvantaged communities, neighborhoods andpopulations have grown disillusioned with the traditional models of economicdevelopment. The search for alternative models has led to great experimentation and theemergence of a series of principles for community-driven economic development, orCED.

CED usually emerges in situations where chronic unemployment, low wages, andagricultural or industrial failure is high and where conventional approaches to economicand social development have failed or been ruled out. CED represents a new way ofapproaching economic issues by promoting community self-reliance and control,inclusion and broad participation. It deliberately attempts to involve those who are

marginalized by existing social and economic policy. (Kemp and Coyle, 1994: 261)

Community economic development (CED) has been defined in many ways over theyears.

In 1990, theEconomic Council of Canada in 1990 used the following wording:

In this context, the local community is a geographic area whose residentsparticipate in interdependent economic, social and political institutions andactivities and share a variety of public and private services. Local-communityeconomic development means improvement of job opportunities, income levels

and other features of the economy, not only on Main Street, but by Main Street.

For the Canadian Community Economic Development Network, the vision of CED is notlimited to participatory local economic development. It also envisions equitable andsustainable social and economic change:

Community economic development is local action to create economic opportunity andenhance the social and environmental conditions of communities. Its strength lies in its

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long-term vision and integrated approach CED concurrently addresses multiple issues.Strategic priorities include but are not limited to: structural economic change, localownership of resources, social development, environmental stewardship, labor marketdevelopment and access to capital. These strategies renew community economies bymanaging and strengthening community resources for local benefit.

TheBritish Columbia Working Group on CED, 1991 see CED as:

A community-based and community-directed process that explicitly combines social and economicdevelopment and is directed towards fostering the economic, social, ecological, and cultural well-

being of communities and regions. CED has emerged as an alternative to conventional approaches toeconomic development. It is founded on the belief that problems facing communities unemployment, poverty, job loss, environmental degradation, and loss of community control need to

be addressed in a holistic participatory way.

The CED Knowledge Base from Simon Fraser University states:

CED is the process by which communities can initiate and generate their own solutionsto common economic problems. Engaging in this process builds long-term communitycapacity and fosters the integration of economic, social and environmental objectives.This is not to be confused with the Local Economic Development, which offers localgovernment, the private and not-for-profit sectors, and local communities the opportunity

CED is a people-initiated strategy which seeks

to develop the economy of a community,

region, or country for the benefit of its

residents. CED is a systematic plannedintervention that is intended to promote

economic self-reliance. A principal objective of

CED is to help consumers in becoming

producers, users in becoming providers, and

employees in becoming owners of enterprises.

CED does not assume that the market alone

will solve the economic problems of

communities. CED utilizes entrepreneurial

methods similar to those used by traditionalbusinesses in the private sector; methods suchas market studies, business plans, and financial

packaging. CED seeks to develop efficient

productive and profitable ventures and

enterprises, but it does so in the context of a

communitys social, cultural and political

values. Thus, CED will often focus on issues

such as local ownership, building the capacity

of local people, and public needs, rather thanfocusing solely on business profits (Sanyika

1989)

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to work together to improve the local economy. It focuses on enhancing competitiveness,increasing sustainable growth and ensuring that growth is inclusive.

The Community Economic Development Approach

The approach taken by Community Economic Development practitioners relies on adistinctive blend of principles, strategies, and tactics.

Principles of Community Economic Development

In an effort to build a theory of CED and to establish best practices, a group of CEDpractitioners formed the Working Group on CED in British Columbia, Canada in 1991.As a result of a one-year consultation they came up with the following guiding principles:

CED is an evolving, on-going process based on equity; participation; community-

building; cooperation and collaboration; self-reliance and community control; integration;interdependence; respect for ecological limit; capacity-building; diversity; and the use ofappropriate indicators.

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Strategies and Tactics of Community Economic Development

A number of strategies and tactics have been identified to help ensure that the guiding

principles of CED are implemented. CED practitioners efforts concentrate on:

Addressing the primary needs of all community members through;

sustainable supply of nourishing food and safe drinking water, security andsafety of persons and property, adequate and affordable housing, opportunityfor health and recreation, increased quality of community life through mutualsupport, and opportunities for meaningful work.

Developing a strong and sustainable local market economy through; local

economic planning process, keeping money circulating in the community andstopping leakage, encouraging enterprise in the community, building localcapacity to sustain CED, and developing means to access local capital to

finance CED initiatives. Strengthening civil society and increasing civic participation through;

citizenship, cultural development, responsible government, communityinfrastructure, participatory democracy, and public involvement.

Creating and supporting opportunities for community learning through;

education and skills development, sharing knowledge of locality,opportunities to learn through doing, participatory action research, engagingelders in sharing wisdom and experience, and creating computer networks,.

Strengthening natural ecosystemsby; increasing awareness of bio-

regionalism and ecology, planning for a sustainable environment, reducingexploitation of resources, engaging in environmental restoration, developing

and supporting appropriate technology, creating land trusts for nature andnatural resources, and establishing a community forest.

Strengthening the social / cultural economy through recognition,

validation and structural supportby; valuing, encouraging and supportingvolunteerism, setting up a skill exchange program, creating supports forhousework, creating support for home health care, and supporting culturaldiversity and development.

C. Sustainable Community Development

Dresner (2002:1) states that sustainable development is development that meets the needsof the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Sustainable development is multi-faceted and includes four central components namely;economic, political, social, and environmental aspects.


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Sustainable economic development emphasizes the enhancing of existing local assetswithout degrading their quality. Political sustainability hinges upon the support of themajority of the community and must be effective over the long-term. Socialsustainability requires that a project or initiative be integrated into, and connected with,a communitys particular social structure. Environmental sustainability relates to the

impact of a project or proposal on the local environment, with enhancement rather thandegradation being the important outcome.

It is important to recognize that the concept of sustainable development with all itselements has tremendous usefulness for community development

It introduces consideration of the long-term consequences from todays actionsand decisions. This changing of the temporal framework is very different fromstandard economic modeling.

It also encourages practitioners to think broadly across issues, disciplines,physical and social boundaries. It suggests searching out new ways to: a) create

economic vitality, b) maintain a healthy environment, c) build healthycommunities, and d) meet local needs.

Key principles of sustainable community development include:

Fostering a commitment to place,

Promoting community vitality,

Building local capacity to support resilience and adaptability when confrontedwith change,

Promoting a sense of responsibility as stewardship,

Reinforcing the importance of a connection between the local and broader levels,

and Promoting equity within the local social structure.

D. Local Development

Locally focused economic development (LED) offers local communities, localgovernment, the private and not-for-profit sectors the opportunity to work together toimprove a local economy. It focuses on enhancing competitiveness, increasingsustainable growth and, in some cases, ensuring that growth is inclusive. TraditionalLED links a range of disciplines including physical planning, economics and marketing.

It also incorporates many local government and private sector functions includingenvironmental planning, business development, infrastructure provision, real estatedevelopment and finance.

To achieve this, localities are required to:

Develop a holistic strategy aimed at growing local firms

Provide a competitive local investment climate

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Support and encourage networking and collaboration

Encourage the development of business clusters

Encourage workforce development and education

Closely target inward investment to support cluster growth, and

Support quality of life improvements.

Local communities respond to their LED needs in many ways, and a variety ofapproaches can be taken that include:

Ensuring that the local investment climate is functional for local businesses;

Supporting small and medium sized enterprises;

Encouraging the formation of new enterprises;

Attracting external investment (nationally and internationally);

Investing in physical (hard) infrastructure;

Investing in soft infrastructure (educational and workforce development,

institutional support systems and regulatory issues); Supporting the growth of particular clusters of businesses;

Targeting particular parts of the city for regeneration or growth (areas basedinitiatives);

Supporting informal and newly emerging businesses;

Targeting certain disadvantaged groups.

By the year 2025, close to half the poor around the world will live in urban areas.

Unprecedented urbanization in the third world requires a sustainable development

strategy to improve the quality of urban management and foster an economically

competitive environment. Without a city development strategy there will be decrease in

welfare and quality of life for urban inhabitants. However, the high concentration of

persons in cities suggests that with the proper approach to growth the benefits of

development can be more widely dispersed.

The World Bank not only works with leaders on the international and national level but

on the local level as well. Since greater decentralization in recent years increased the

responsibility of municipal or local government, it is the aim of the Local Economic

Development (LED) Specialists in the Urban Development Sector to assist local

governments in determining the most effective strategy to increase jobs and revitalize

their citys economy. Whereas urban development in the past included primarily critical

but non-holistic approaches, such as infrastructure improvement, the new urban agenda is

now deepening to encompass a sustainable and self-regenerating approach that corrects

for market failure. The LED approach is effective not only in urban areas but also in peri-urban and rural areas. The LED strategic approach assists local governments in pursuing

good practices in building environments that are livable, competitive, well-governed and

managed, and bankable.

The LED approach acknowledges autonomy of the local government. Thus, the

objectives of LED initiatives are to encourage local participation and consensus building

in determining economic and social welfare initiatives for the community. While

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focusing the local economy and the importance of local ownership of the development

process, the strategic LED approach concurrently views development within the context

of the governance and civil society on all levels. The LED strategy reflects the view that

urban areas can effectively contribute to the national government through public policies

coupled with community action, private sector commitment, accountable local

government, and supportive national government.

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APPENDIX ON REDEFINING DEVELOPMENT

The contemporary notion of development was born in New Hampshire at the BrettonWoods Economic Summit. The Summit which was organized at the end of World War II

resulted in the establishment of two of the most powerful financial institutions of the 20thCentury; the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Initially designed tofinance the reconstruction of Europe after the far, they functioned in an environment soldto the benefits of capitalism. Owing to fifty years of intervention in less developedcountries, and implementation of structural adjustment programs and povertyreduction papers, famine, poverty, environmental disasters, and food and energy crisisconstitute the lot of very many less developed countries around the world. No wonder agreat majority of economists are now demanding the reform of these institutions. Themodels advocated by the IMF and the World Bank simply did not work.In traditional development, bigger is considered better, with large-scale, centralized

projects which necessitate substantial infusion of capital. Increased Gross NationalProduct, per capita income, and workers productivity all constitute the quantitativemeans by which development in measured. Usually, development initiatives conceivedand designed using quantitative criteria expose sets of statistical data which say littleabout the impact of those initiatives on the lives of the people. Many economists, mightwe say, with a social conscience began to introduce other disciplines into economicswith a focus on quality of life.

In the mid-1970s, the concept of Physical Quality of Life Index was developed by MorrisDavid Morris in response to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fundpolicies of growth.

For the calculation of PQLI, Morris came up with three indicators; life expectancy at age1, infant mortality, and literacy. Though his study found that countries with low percapita incomes were more likely to have low quality of life, and country with high percapita incomes tended to have high quality of life, he could not establish closecorrelations between GNP and PQLI.

With his study of a number of countries, developed and underdeveloped, he set out todemonstrate flaws in the use of the gross national product (GNP) as a main indicator ofthe level of development of a country. Morris then shifted the focus from GNP to thequality of life instead. He discovered that some countries with a high GNP did not rankhigh on the PQLI, while some of the countries with very low incomes scored very highon the quality index.

Most economists recognize that it is hard to quantify quality of life. They also agreethat the foremost purpose of development must be to provide people with adequate foodand shelter, economic security, and equitable distribution of resources, all elementsforming the base of social capital.


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The new attitude and thinking on development was in line with the first 1960-1970United Nations Decade was driven by the notion that development meant growth pluschange in all aspects including social, cultural, qualitative and quantitative. The centerpiece was quality in peoples life.

Following the same concerns, the 1974 Declaration of Cocoyoc in Mexico emphasizedthe development of man not of things and stressed the need for diversity and the rightto follow different roads to development so as to achieve self-reliance. Similarly, in 1975,there was a call for another development focusing on human-centered development. In1977, UNESCO in Paris suggested a total multi-relational process that includes allaspects of life of a collectivity, of its relationship with the outside world and of its ownconsciousness. The Brundtland Commission has recently recommended sustainabledevelopment for our common future.

Poor nations, after decolonization, were encouraged to adopt the western model of

modernization as a way out of abject poverty. Some former colonies tried their hands atthe basic needs approach and the participatory approach with very limited success anda good dose of confusion. In the midst of all this, there is an ongoing debate between neo-liberal economists and globalization supporters. This debate is fiercely challenged by thecentre-left, post-capitalist Third Way, and by Another Way is Possible of the anti neo-liberal World Social Forum.

Today, most economists contend that more economic growth is not synonymous ofdevelopment. Equally, it is clearly understood that development and human developmentdo not necessarily translate into well-being and happiness.

Recent development initiatives tend focus on people, communities, grass-roots,redistribution of wealth, social capital, environment, culture, tradition, local orindigenous knowledge, participation, diversity, local ownership, sustainability,interdependence, multidisciplinary approaches, connectedness, and more.

There is a strong movement and commitment from a group of development practitionersto redefine development in terms of well-being, human development, sustainability,human rights and happiness. Consequently, traditional development indicators like grossnational product purely based on economic criteria are increasingly deemed insufficientand seriously challenged.

In the 1970s, the term Gross National Happiness was coined by the 4 th King of Bhutanas a substitute to Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product. His move hasinspired a growing international movement who are revitalizing the directions ofprogress. In February 2004, his son, the 5th King of Bhutan, H.M. Jigme KhesarWangchuk stated at the First International Conference on Gross National Happiness: Ifeel that there must be some convergence among nations on the idea of what the primaryobjective of development and progress should be something Gross National Happinessseeks to bring about.

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At the Third International Gross National Happiness meeting in Bangkok held inNovember 2007, the outgoing Prime Minister of Thailand, Surayud Chulanont affirmed:An enormous challenge is to develop new ways to measure appropriately the success orfailure of innovative policies. Using old standards for new policies will not help. I do

hope that this Conference can help to advance our search for new approaches andindicators that will enhance contribution to sustainability. A cooperative framework forresearch should not only include Thailand and Bhutan, but also our colleagues withinASEAN and indeed from all regions of the world.

The Right to Development, which was proposed in 1972 by the Senegalese jurist KebaMbaye, remains controversial to this day. This concept was given legal recognition inthe 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples Right, to be later incorporated in theGlobal Human Right Framework through the adoption in 1986 of the Declaration on theRight to Development by the United Nations General Assembly. The 1993 ViennaDeclaration and Programme of Action, the 2000 Millennium Declaration, and the recent

Durban Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirmed the Right to Development as auniversal and inalienable human right. A number of elements constitute the core contentof the Right to Development: comprehensive development, respect for all human rights,participation, social justice, international cooperation, and self-determination.

Even though the content of the Right to Development is straightforward, clarifying thenature of the right is more challenging. Added to the fold as a series of concerns like:what kind of right is it? Who are the duty-holders and right-bearers? How can it beimplemented, monitored, and enforced? Better yet, there is a lack of consensus regardingthe meaning and status of the Right to Development, provoking a fierce political debateamong academicians, northern governments, southern governments, internationalorganizations, and non-governmental organizations.

As in the search for consensus on the definitions and contents of new developmentapproaches, agreeing on sets of indicators to comprehensively reflect new definitions ofdevelopment present daunting challenges. However, a survey of development indicatorsused the past decades suggests a strong tendency to incorporate new indicators that arenot necessarily easy to measure.

The Human Development approach, which is interested in building capabilities and theabilities to function, concentrates on knowledge, a decent standard of income, and a longand healthy life. Elements of human development are productivity, sustainability,equality and empowerment. Human Development Index can be listed as: 1) lifeexpectancy, 2) education measured by combined estimate of adult literacy and averageyears of schooling, and 3) economic standard of living in terms of purchasing power afteradjusting for the local cost of living.

Developed by Hazel Henderson, the Country Futures Indicator is a more comprehensiveapproach with a bias in cross-cultural characteristics. These indicators suggest criteria tomake governments and institutions more accountable using the principles of social,

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democratic, and environmental audit. Some of the indicators are: 1) income distribution,2) informal and household sector production, 3) deduction of social and environmentalcosts, 4) community-based accounting, and 5) military / civilian budget ratio. In addition,some complementary indicators of progress include: 1) education, 2) health, 3) nutrition,4) basic services, 5) shelter, 6) political participation and democratic progress, and 7)

status of minorities, women, etc.

In the United States, the project on Redefining Progress has developed the GenuineProgress Indicators. They take into account quality and distribution of economic growth.Principally considered are: 1) value of housework, 2) care for children and the elderly, 3)volunteer work, and 4) free time or family and community activities. Even though moneyis not exchanged, these activities contribute to the economy and the well-being of people.In Canada, indicators developed include democracy index. They have suggested projectsto include ecological footprint, common assets, climate justice coalition andenvironmental tax reform.

UNESCO and the United Nations Research in Social Development have proposedcultural indicators, such as: 1) the Cultural Freedom Index which includes freedom ofthought, belief and expression, 2) the Creative Empowerment Index which includesencouragement to innovative expression, and 3) the Cultural Dialogue Index whichincludes opportunities to mutually benefit communication among people of differentcultures.

A Welfare Index in observance in Scandinavian countries combines the three aspects ofhaving, loving and being. The index includes: 1) income, 2) quality of housing, 3)political support, 4) social relations, 5) health, 6) education, 7) being irreplaceable, 8)doing interesting things, and 9) life satisfaction.

The World Health Organization Quality of Life indicators include: physical environment,home environment, financial resources, social support, safety, information, andtransportation. The inner quality consists of physical health, mental health, workcapacity, learning capacity, energy, absence or presence of pain and depression,satisfaction with self, and satisfaction with life.

The Council for Social Development in Canada describes quality of life in terms ofbeing, belonging and becoming. Being includes physical health, psychological thoughtsand feelings, and spiritual beliefs and values. Belonging includes physical as in a livingplace, social as in having people around, and community resources. Becoming includes apractical as in daily things to do, leisure for fun and enjoyment, and growth as in copingwith change.

A much simpler approach is advocated by the WIDER Institute in Finland. This approachconsists of outer qualities, which means living in a good environment and being worth forthe world, and inner qualities, which means being able to cope with life and enjoy life.

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DEVELOPMENT REDEFINED: PRINCIPLES

OUR VALUES AND FRAME

WHAT IS NEEDED FOR EDUCATION OF

DEVELOPMENT KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR CHANGE

AGENTS

Summary

Community Economic Development is a process by which people living in a communitywork together to create a diversified and sustainable local economy.

REFERENCES:

Toye, Michael and Jennifer Infanti, 2004. Social Inclusion and Community EconomicDevelopment. The Canadian CED Network. Available online: http://www.ccednet-

rcdec.ca

Guilford, Janet, 2000. Making the Case for Social and Economic Inclusion. Populationand Public Health Branch, Atlantic Region, Health Canada. Available online:http://www.hc.sc.gc.ca/hppb/regions/atlantic/documents/index.html#social

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 1998b. IntegratingDistressed Urban Areas. Paris: OECD

St. Clair, Charles, 2003. Community and Economic Development: A Manual forPractitioners. Outreach and Extension. University of Missouri. Lincoln University.

Jones, Karen , 1995. People and Participation in Rural Areas. A Report on relationshipbetween local governments and communities in the United States, United Kingdom andIreland. Wellington: Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.(Charles St. Clair, 2003)

Bartle, Phil, (2003) Handbook for Mobilizers. Available online:http://www.scn.org/cmp/

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Bryant, C, 1999. Community change in context, In: Communities, Development andSustainability Across Canada. Pierce, J. and A. Dale(eds.), UBC Press, Vancouver.

McRobie, G. and D. Ross. 1987 What is Community Economic Development? Excerpt

from A Feasibility Study for a Centre for Community Economic Development atSimon Fraser University, Community Economic Development Centre, Simon FraserUniversity, Burnaby, BC.

Frank and Smith

The Community Development Foundation in the UK

Blakely, E.J. 1989. Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice ,Sage Publications, Newbury Park, California.

(Swack and Mason: 1987).

(Burkey )

Economic Council of Canada. (1990) From the Bottom Up: The CommunityEconomic-Development Approach. Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada.

Canadian Community Economic Development Network. 2003. Strengthening CanadasCommunities: Towards a New Community Agenda. Victoria, BC. Available online:http://www.ccednet-rcdec.ca/en/doc/pubs/PolicyBrochureFinal.pdf.

British Columbia Working Group on CED, 1991

(Sanyika 1989)

Word Bank .)

Working Group on CED in British Columbia, Canada in 1991

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i Suggested typology of approaches to community development includes:

Continuum; Community capacity building to advance human rights

Group cooperative; developed from the tradition of mutual aid, social support and social action

Locality; which identifies the local community as a physical, economic, social, and political unit and structuresresponses based on that unit

Structural-functional; incorporate recognition that various partners (state agencies, institutions, non-government

organizations, etc) are an integral part of local community development Categorical; identifies community development efforts aimed at a particular social issue(local housing, food banks,

etc)

Self-management; based upon a bottom-up empowerment approach, and

Social learning; incorporation of professional experts (universal knowledge) and local residents (lived experience).

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