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Towards a Broader Definition of Development

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Development

Abstract

Since 1980, the notion of development has expanded to include dimensions such as health , education, natural resources , good governance and human rights . Major contributions have been the 1987 Brundtland Report , the 1990 Human Development Report and the 2000 Millenium Goals (MDGs). Development involves a wider notion of well-being and of poverty. An international debate led to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 (SDGs), which underline the three dimensions of sustainability. This chapter examines the major novelties of the SDGs with respect to the MDGs. The approach to international cooperation has moved from being a donor–beneficiary relationship and from the Washington Consensus conditionalities to a broader view of global partnership . Empowerment and ownership are two concepts which highlight the changing views on development cooperation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Sen (1981, 1985, 1999).

  2. 2.

    The Report is organized in three parts entitled: Common concerns, Common challenges and Common endeavours.

  3. 3.

    Following the Rio Conference, the Commission on Sustainable Development was established in December 1992 by the UN General Assembly.

  4. 4.

    The Human Development Report derives also from the collaboration between Amartya Sen and his friend Mahbub ul Haq, when the latter was Special Adviser to UNDP.

  5. 5.

    For an analysis of the first twenty years of the report, Alkire (2010).

  6. 6.

    Prices are obtained through the International Comparison Program (ICP) coordinated by the World Bank and are revised every 6–7 years (http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp). The income per capita in PPP is taken in a logarithmic form.

  7. 7.

    For the full definition of the original HDI , see the technical notes in UNDP (1990).

  8. 8.

    The discussion had already been opened by Sen in his (1986) book on the standard of living.

  9. 9.

    The expansion of output is not a sufficient condition for human development, but it is a necessary one (UNDP 1990: 11).

  10. 10.

    The education sub-index has also changed: the literacy rate is no longer included, and secondary education is now more relevant.

  11. 11.

    For alternative pro-poor growth theories, Gore (2007).

  12. 12.

    MDG 3 focuses in particular on the educational opportunities of girls.

  13. 13.

    On the methodology for building the international poverty line , World Bank (1990: 27–29) and Ravallion et al. (2009).

  14. 14.

    Ferreira et al. (2012) provide a detailed analysis of the update from $1.25 to $1.90. As Ferreira writes: ‘$1.90 in 2011 buys approximately the same things as $1.25 did in 2005 in poor countries’.

  15. 15.

    In order to change the poverty threshold, it is necessary to know the PPP, which are updated every 6–7 years and become available 2 or 3 years later. The total number of people in extreme poverty does not change much when moving from the $1.25 line with 2005 PPP prices to the $1.90 line with 2011 PPP prices.

  16. 16.

    A few lines before this passage there is another very similar sentence.

  17. 17.

    We must also recall the work on economic growth by Nordhaus and Tobin (1972). Several works describe the story of GDP and the reasons for its relevance (Coley 2014; Fioramonti 2013; Phillipsen 2015).

  18. 18.

    Since 2016, an ‘SDG index and dashboard report’ has been published (Sachs et al. 2018).

  19. 19.

    See, for instance, Maxwell (2014) and Engel and Knoll (2014).

  20. 20.

    This is the ‘Draft outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda’; see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/, where it is possible to find all the documents related to the SDGs initiative.

  21. 21.

    The indicators are still being updated. Note that the original 241 indicators are, in fact, 232 since ‘nine indicators repeat under two or three different targets’ (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list).

  22. 22.

    It was also the 11th session of the parties which in 1997 signed the Kyoto Protocol.

  23. 23.

    The notion of sustainability has already been investigated; see, for instance, Daly and Cobb (1989) and Sachs (1999). However, it is in the 2030 Agenda that it takes centre stage in development debates and policies.

  24. 24.

    Goals can be organized into 4 different clusters (Vaggi 2016: 47–48), but there are other ways to group the goals; see, for instance, Loewe and Rippin (2015: 4) and OECD (2015: 48).

  25. 25.

    For an analysis of the evolution of development policies since the time of the Washington Consensus Gore (2000) and Kanbur (2008). For the making of the post-Washington Consensus, see Fine (2001: Chapter 8).

  26. 26.

    The World Bank website provides information on the CDF (http://web.worldbank.org/archive/website01013/WEB/0__CON-3.HTM).

  27. 27.

    In 2017, among DAC countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK have met the target of 0.7% of GNI, while the Netherlands and Germany were just below it. Among non-DAC members the United Arab Emirates and Qatar destinate more than 1% of the GNI as aid.

  28. 28.

    On the measurement of empowerment, see Alsop and Heinsohn (2005).

  29. 29.

    ‘Mutual accountability assumes a more equal balance of power’ (Watson-Grant et al. 2016: 11).

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  1. Department of Economics and Business, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Gianni Vaggi

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Vaggi, G. (2018). Towards a Broader Definition of Development. In: Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54879-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54879-1_2

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