Is development still a relevant concept? And
if so for whom?
Before addressing the
question “Is development still relevant? “, it seems necessary to define the context in which the
word development has come to be understood today and which shade of definition(s)
I subscribe to. In the following lines, I will present as to how theories about
development have evolved over the decades and why they are still relevant for a
host of actors and why not the other way round.
The word development is very much part of
common parlance today and, therefore, needs context-specific definitions for
clarity. In contemporary literature, the word development has been associated
with as different things as spiritual growth and economic progress.
This prolific use has confused
the meaning(s) of this word. This complexity of meanings makes the word
development a perfect qualifier of what author Stuart Chase (Chase, 1939) called
“the tyranny of words“in his book by the same title. Indeed individuals, firms,
states and international institutions have used the word development to mean
quite different array of things over the decades. For example, famous Indian campaigner against
British Rule in the subcontinent Mohandas Gandhi mentioned development in
following words: “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always
tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into
a false position” (Misra, 1995, p.11). Around the same period in 1949, US President
Truman spoke of the poverty of developing nations being a threat to the
developed world (McKay, 2004). Earlier on, the notion of development had
figured prominently in European political thought and philosophy during the
influential movements of humanism and rationalism of the 18th and 19th
centuries. During industrial revolution of 19th and 20th centuries in Britain
and North America, the concept of development
remained quite relevant to the social and political discourse (Porter et al, 1999).
The concept is still very
much at the heart of current models of economic and social growth. For example,
in the neo-liberalism model, much emphasis is made on economic development of
countries via free-markets and liberal democracy. Policies inspired by these
theories are being pursued to this day by global financial institutions like
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Generally speaking,
development has come to be understood as an across-the-board improvement in
human condition. The origins of this perspective go back in time to 1940s, when
large-scale projects like US Marshall Plan for Europe
(1948-1951) were introduced (Porter et al, 1999). In fact development
interventions of this pattern helped set the stage for other initiatives across
many other continents by world powers of that time e.g. many former colonial
powers launched development programs under what was termed as
"trusteeship".
Theories behind these plans were based on the
assumption that developing countries owed the support of developed countries
and they too could, presumably, follow the same trajectory of economic
development and social progress starting in urban areas and then “trickling down”
to the peripheral regions. The whole process was named “modernization “of a
society or modernization theory (Porter et al, 1999). But this was challenged
by ‘Dependency Theory’ (McKay. 2004) which originated in Latin
America and contended that development endevours launched by the
rich countries had an exploitative side to them as these divested the
developing countries of their precious resources. In other words, development
of one nation resulted in the underdevelopment of another. Hence development
was thought as being counter-productive, i.e., worsening the very problems it
sought to address.
The dependency theory was a
reaction to some trademark practices the colonial powers had followed in the
regions under their rule. These included transfer of raw material from backward
colonies to newly industrialized areas in the home country. For example in the
Sub Continent during British Rule, raw material (cotton and copper chiefly) was
transported for use in England
which was undergoing industrial capitalism at that time. For this purpose the
railway track was laid out only in certain areas to facilitate the transfer
(Ali, 2011). For obvious reasons, the development of local people took a
backseat against the vested interests of the imperial power. Similarly, a lot
of rail and telephone network in Africa was established to ensure maximum
extraction of copper and other precious metals (Harlow,
2003). However , in my view , this
argument of Dependency Theory touches only one aspect of the problem, i.e.,
makes no mention about the local social dynamics which had a bearing on these
so-called ‘failed development projects’. This is in no way to justify the
occupation of foreign lands but to state the simple fact that development in
many cases couldn’t take off not only because it was imposed from an outside
force , which was ignorant or neglectful of local sensitivities , but also
because of the inherent incapability of the system in that particular
territory. To elaborate, long before the start of British Rule in Indian
Subcontinent, Mughal Empire (1526-1858) was on the verge of collapse due to
internal fissures and rising tide of provincialism not to mention the worsening
divisions along religious and cast lines (Richards, 1995). In a similar way, pre-colonial Africa was in disarray before the colonial powers took
control. So it was wrong to expect rapid development in the first place. Therefore,
from a purely development standpoint, it seems unjustifiable to put all the
blame of underdevelopment on colonial powers.
As of today , the inherent weaknesses of
political systems in developing countries like corruption, incoherence on
national issues, nepotism, law and order problems and conflicts need to be
considered before reaching a decisive conclusion on what caused the development
endeavors to fail. For example in 1960s, the idea of five-year development
programs was introduced in what was termed the UN ‘Development Decade’. These
plans worked quite well in some countries leading to economic growth in many
sectors. While in other countries the plans failed to produce the same kind of
results. It was not because the idea (which was floated by the UN under the
auspices of world powers) was bad in itself rather it was because the local
conditions of the country impinged on the desired outcomes. For example , the
five-year plan of India 1951-1956 met
most of its targets in terms of reviving the agrarian sector of the economy but
a similar plan in Pakistan 1955-1960 failed because the country was undergoing
political instability at that time (Blood , 1984).
Over the decades, the concept of development
has evolved to incorporate a more human element into the whole process. Many theorists have argued on this aspect
e.g. Robert Chambers implied that development essentially introduced a good
change in a society (Chambers, 2005). The founder of UN Human Development
Reports, Mahbub-ul-Haq defined development as "a process of enlarging
people’s choices" (United Nations Development Program, 2011). Amartya Sen,
the Nobel laureate in economics, described development as an agent which
brought about freedom to the people (Sen, 1999). Development, in the sense viewed
by these experts, has been pursued by many rich countries in the form of aid to
the poorer countries though with certain political quid pro quos. For example,
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) , United Kingdom’s
Department for International Development (DFID) and Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) have spent
billions of dollars on development aid to poorer countries of the world , apparently
all focusing on improving the lives of people in poorer countries in one way or
another.
During the cold war, the United States
and former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) exploited the concept of
development to win allies across the world. The world powers spent considerable
resources to maintain the allegiance of smaller countries which had joined
their respective camps. As the cold war came to an end, it was hoped that developed
countries would pursue the aims of development in its true spirit. But,
unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The countries in Asia and Africa which used
to receive “development” aid on account of being “allies” were left to fend for themselves (McKay, J.
2004) as they were no longer a policy priority in the eyes of the superpower.
This led to an impression that world powers initiate development projects basically
to further their political machinations and not as development per se. Meanwhile,
foreign aid in the name of development is still being used as a political tool
today (Birdsall, 2005). In a way, the policies of US and its allies after
attacks on USA
in September 11, 2001 have taken the world back to the cold-war days. Against
the backdrop of such policies, a number of theorists challenged the very notion
of development in what became known as “post development theory” or “anti-development
“theory. Most prominent among these is Arturo Escobar. He criticized the
development discourse championed by western industrialized countries and termed
it a tool for gaining political hegemony more than anything else (McKay, 2004).
The foregoing premise shows
the dilemma one faces in explaining the meaning of the word development which
is surrounded by so much contestation. Perhaps no single definition is
comprehensive enough to cover the multi-faceted concept that development has
come to be over the decades. The best practice, in my idea, would be to state
one’s own position vis-Ã -vis the concept. This helps the reader understand what
is called “positionality” (Andy Sumner 2009) of the writer. It signifies the
fact that the writer is leaving the room open for potentially mixing his own
fundamental beliefs with the subject at hand. I will argue for the cause of a
human-centered development model as proposed by Amartya Sen (Sen, 1999) and the
“Human Development Concept “stated in the 2010 United Nations’ Human
Development Report. These writings signify the point that economic growth of a
country is important but other phenomena like gender equality, education,
health, infrastructure and freedom from repression etc must also be considered
when planning development.
Why
development is still relevant and for everyone?
Drawing on the definitions
of development and their critique here above, it goes without saying that the
concept is equally relevant to both the less developed and highly developed
countries today. Human development is an on-going and timeless process. Hence
the question is not if development is relevant but what kind of
it. As defined in the UN Human Development Report 2010: “Human development is,
moreover, concerned not only with basic needs satisfaction but also with human
development as a participatory and dynamic process”. For better or worse, the
phenomenon of development has brought countries together over the decades.
Notwithstanding the differences in terms of social indicators such as wealth,
infrastructure, technology and education, countries have come to depend on each
other for survival. Most recent example
in this emerging inter-dependence paradigm is seeking of bailout funds by
European Union from China.
More than anything else, the Euro zone debt crisis has shown that Europe, a
largely developed continent, is as much in the need of economic development as
any other region in the world with countries like Greece teetering on the brink
of anarchy. This drives home the point
that well-being of one country, economic or otherwise, directly or indirectly
affects not only its neighbors but others across the globe. As the Greek debt
crisis worsens, countries in Europe are worried about its spillover effect on
their economies not to mention the potential social collapse of countries like Greece and Spain where unemployment rates have
shot up to 20% (BBC, 2011). Fundamental questions are being asked about the
viability of the free market system that Europe
has been so adhered to over the years. This has necessitated the need for a rethinking
of economic development in Greece,
Italy, Spain, Portugal
and Ireland in particular
and all over Europe in general. While Europe
is facing the debt crisis and needs a rethinking on the underlining economic
system, the United States
has seen criticism from inside the country for “corporate greed” of its
financial institutions in the form of “Occupy Wall Street Movement “. Overall
the emergence of so-called “the 99% “
shows the significant challenges developed countries are facing in terms
of meeting the needs of a public which is increasingly questioning the
viability of current prevalent development models and is discontent with the
status-quo (BBC , 2011).
This essentially means that the search for alternative
models of development has only intensified the need for a broad-based development
of society instead of letting a handful of people call the shots and dominate
decision making. The need, in my opinion, is the democratization of the
financial system so that the general masses have a greater say in important
decisions and question the profiteering by few. This disillusionment was
previously more visible in the less developed countries of the world where
majority of the population lives in sub human conditions leading to a
never-ending battle for scarce resources resulting in Civil Wars as in Africa
and in Asian countries like Afghanistan.
These events only go to emphasize the role of development in the
contemporary world. The relevance of the concept of development was never as
immense as is today simply because no country in the world today can claim to
be immune from uncertain times and thus has to pursue constant development.
Obviously, the need to
implement development concepts is more acute in the developing countries than
the developed countries which, after all, have some safety mechanism in place
which can reduce the shock impacts if certain development strategy fails to
provide benefits. This is in stark contrast to many of the developing countries
where majority of the population lives in rural areas virtually cut-off from
the outside world. For them, development is always a good change as Robert
Chambers said (Chambers, 1997).
During my four-year service
in the most underdeveloped parts of Pakistan, I have seen people in living in
medieval conditions unbeknownst to the modern day innovations that have
improved the quality of life around the world. For them, every thing from a
small pipe of clean drinking water to 200 Kilo Volt hydro power project is
development. But the trouble there is that they are totally dependant on state
which is spending poorly on them. That
said, improvement has been registered in the main cities in terms of better
education, health and communication facilities. But the level of inequality is
so high that one wonders if the slight improvement in some part of the region
can even be called development. For example, Gilgit Baltistan is the northern
most part of Pakistan and
only road to the region is nearly 600 kms from the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. In December 2010, Asian Development Bank (Asian
Development Bank , 2011) published a report about the region The report
detailed the economic prospects for the region considering how the public and
private sector expansion had improved the lives of the people. It also talked
about the immense potential the region had in terms of the hydro power
generation and natural resources like minerals. But the report, which was
partly funded by UK DFID, failed to rigorously point out the disparities in
terms of gender equality, resource distribution and gap between whatever developments
had been achieved in the few main cities and poverty-stricken hundreds of
villages in the rural areas. Thus the people who needed the most attention got
left out. The situation is not very
different in the rest of rural areas in Pakistan where clean drinking water,
health care, education, basic infrastructure and a decent life still remain a
distant dream. Most of the time, but not always, researchers fail to provide
information about this marginalized section of society. I have these areas in mind when talking about
human development and its relevance. I think it is here that the test of
development, taken in its original concept of uplifting the poor, seems most
relevant. Across the border in India
too, a huge problem exists in the form of extreme poverty in rural areas which
often compromises its tiger economy status in the world. Currently, India is far
behind its Millennium Development Goals’ target of halving the country’s
poverty which still remains at 32 % at the moment (OneWorld, 2011). This
failure in meeting the target is attributed, as mentioned earlier, to so many
factors ranging from lack of funds to corruption in running the projects thus
such development activity is reduced to mere announcement for poor people. As
for Afghanistan,
it presents a strong case of how development strategies fizzle out when
followed by political expediencies rather than focusing, ideally speaking, on a
people-centered undertaking. Despite spending billions of dollars over a decade
in the name of development, Afghanistan
project looks as grim as ever.
The development fiasco
discussed provides good lessons for development strategists in future. For one,
it brings forth the importance of laying out the foundations of infrastructure
rather than focusing on social services. Examples abound where foreign
contractors and local corrupt officials basked themselves in the windfall of
aid money that donors showered on Afghanistan after a UN appeal for funds in
the Bonn Agreement reached in December 2001. Looked at from another point of
view, especially the western view, there has been a semblance of normalcy in
the country especially compared to autocratic rule of Taliban regime
(1996-2001). For the sake of it, elections were held in 2004 and 2009 and a
government purportedly representing all segments of society was installed. But
the core goal of state building through development still remains a pipe dream.
This is no to say that foreign aid is out rightly bad. But when it is given
with short-term political agendas in mind, long term policies can not be
initiated and hence development can’t be sustained.
In conclusion, it seems fair
to argue that development, regardless of how it is defined, remains a concept
of timeless importance. It’s the only way to bring about a change for the
better in the lives of people especially in the developing countries but not
excluding those in the developed world. Increasingly, the world is becoming
uncertain with events in one country affecting, directly or indirectly, the
socio-economic dynamics of other countries around it. The current debt crisis
in the Euro Zone exemplifies this notion. That said, we need to learn our lessons from
the apparently botched efforts at development (the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Afghanistan
and settlement of Greek debt being just two cases in point). In my view, this
necessitates the need for evolving approaches which take into account the
long-term impacts of policies instead of “firefighting” as and when the crises
reach a boiling point.
References
5. Blood, P. (1984). Pakistan: a country Study Washington:
Federal Research Division.
6. Chambers, R. (2005) Ideas
for Development. Bath: Bath Press
7. Harlow B., Carter M., (2003)
Archives of Empire, Volume II, the Scramble for Africa.
USA: Duke University Press.
9.
McKay, J. (2004) Reassessing Development Theory. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 2: ‘Reassessning Development Theory: Modernization
and Beyond’ p.45.
10. Misra, O.P. (1995) Economic
Thought of Gandhi and Nehru, A Comparative Analysis. New Delhi: M D
Publications
12. Potter, R. et al (1999) Geographies
of Development, an Introduction to Development Studies. Harlow: Prentice
Hall. Chapter 1: ‘Defining Development’, p.3.
13. Richard, J. (1995). The
Mughal Empire. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press
14. Sen, A. (1999) Development
as Freedom, New York: Knoff.
15.
Sumner, A. and Tribe, M.,
(2008) International Development Studies, Theories and Methods in Research
and Practice. London: Sage
(I wrote this essay as part of academic requirement here at IDS in November).