ALEA

2341 / AIA 2005

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

LECTURE 1
 What is development?
• To bring out the capabilities or possibilities of, to bring to a more
advanced or effective state

• Not growth

• To improve, make better

 What is sustainability?
• Development means to make something better than it was, to
improve.

• Notice that development does not mean growth. We all grow as

children, but then we reach a certain age and stop growing.

• However, we don't stop developing just because we have stopped

growing - we go back to school, we learn a new trade or hobby, we go
new places, make new friends.

• This is what sustainable development is all about--changing and

making better.
 Towards sustainability
• We live on a world with a certain amount of resources: air, water, energy,
materials, and land.

• An example that many people will understand is that of a small island

community: There is a limit to the number of people that can fit on the island and
to the amount of the island's resources that those people can consume.

• One example is the island of Haiti where the need for fuel has completely
deforested the island.

• We are all living on an island called Earth and we need to develop or improve our
individual and global communities without using up or wearing out the resources
that we have.
Difference between growth and development
• Note that the difference between "growth" and "development" is a difficult but very
important concept for people to understand in order to make progress towards
sustainability.

• One comment some people may make is that growth is good as long as it is "quality"
growth. However, people need to realize that all growth is finite.

• A small town can only grow so much before it ceases to be a town and becomes a small
city.

• Small cities that grow become large cities.

• If a community likes its "small town feeling" then the community needs to acknowledge
that growth must stop at some point in order to preserve that feeling.
 Development in a whole concept
• Development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change or
the addition of physical, economic, environmental, social and demographic
components.

• The purpose of development is a rise in the level and quality of life of the
population, and the creation or expansion of local regional income and
employment opportunities, without damaging the resources of the
environment.

• Development is visible and useful, not necessarily immediately, and

includes an aspect of quality change and the creation of conditions for a
continuation of that change.
 Development in international agenda
• The international agenda began to focus on development beginning
in the second half of the twentieth century.

• An understanding developed that economic growth did not

necessarily lead to a rise in the level and quality of life for populations
all over the world.

• There was a need to place an emphasis on specific policies that would

channel resources and enable social and economic mobility for
various layers of the population.
 (1) Developing definition of “development” through
people perspective
• Amartya Sen (Development as Freedom, 1999) , for example, developed
the “capability approach,” which defined development as a tool enabling
people to reach the highest level of their ability, through granting freedom
of action, i.e. freedom of economic, social and family actions, etc.

• This approach became a basis for the measurement of development by the

HDI (Human Development Index), which was developed by the UN
Development Program (UNDP) in 1990.

• Martha Nussbaum developed the abilities approach in the field of gender

and emphasized the empowerment of women as a development tool.
 (2) Definitions of development through mechanisms of
politics, economics & social
• In contrast, Jeffrey Sachs (The Age of Sustainable Development, 2015) and Paul
Collier focused on mechanisms that prevent or oppress development in various
countries, and cause them to linger in abject poverty for dozens of years.

• These are the various poverty traps, including civil wars, natural resources and
poverty itself.

• The identification of these traps enables relating to political – economic – social

conditions in a country in an attempt to advance development.

• One of the emphases in the work of Jeffrey Sachs is the promotion of sustainable
development, which believes in growth and development in order to raise the
standard of living for citizens of the world today, through relating to the needs of
environmental resources and the coming generations of the citizens of the world.
• The term “development” in international parlance therefore encompasses the need and the
means by which to provide better lives for people in poor countries.
•
• It includes not only economic growth, although that is crucial, but also human development -
providing for health, nutrition, education, and a clean environment.

• According to the World Bank, as many as half of the world’s six billion inhabitants live on the
equivalent of less than $2 per day, and about one-fourth of the world lives on the equivalent of
less than $1.25 per day (Chen & Ravallion, 2008).

• Meanwhile, people in the 20 richest countries earn, on average, 39 times more than people living
in the poorest 20 states (Milanovic, 2007).

• One of the reasons that the process of development garners so much attention is the stark divide
between rich (developed) and poor (developing) countries.

• The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) rates countries’ development annually
according to its Human Development Index (HDI), which includes measurements of citizens’
access to healthcare, educational attainment, and standards of living, among other factor
 Geography – geographically induced development
• In Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fate of Human Societies (2005), physiologist Jared Diamond
contends that geography has played a pivotal role in development.

• Diamond notes that because the Eurasian landmass is oriented east-west, much of its area lies in
the same climatic region. This enabled inhabitants to trade goods, ideas and land cultivation
techniques like the use of cereal cultivation, which across most of the Eurasian landmass in a
historically short 2,500 years (Diamond, 2005). By contrast, the same techniques, which had
spread into northern Africa, could neither be used successfully in—nor cross—Africa’s hot tropical
zone. This meant that areas in Africa were essentially cut off from this early form of development.

• According to Diamond, eventually the lead that Eurasian societies had in development gave them
further tools to dominate peoples of other regions. In his theory, agricultural success created food
surpluses that led to the establishment of soldier classes and advanced weapons.

• Furthermore, Diamond hypothesizes that many centuries of working with animals caused
Eurasians to catch and become partially immune to diseases like smallpox, flu, tuberculosis,
malaria, plague, measles, and cholera, all of which were originally animal sicknesses. With these
“guns, germs, and steel,” Eurasian peoples were more readily equipped to conquer other
societies. For example, a tiny group of 168 Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro (along
with local allies) defeated an army of 80,000 Inca soldiers and went on to conquer the entire Inca
Empire in what is now South America (Diamond, 2005).
• The growth of river valley civilizations that existed before the Common Era. These societies
developed near the Nile River in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia, the
Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in modern-day China, and the Indus River in South Asia.

• They became successful because of their proximity to necessities (water), their ability to grow
foods due to their access to water, and more temperate climates in these regions.

• As people gathered around these major water sources, they began diversifying their social
structures. Later, the nations built near these areas would become major hubs for trade, thus
leading to greater wealth (Diamond, 2005).

• The ebb and flow of natural resources in a geographic area can greatly affect how societies
develop. For example, while natural resources can benefit a country, in some cases, the absences
of resources can also further development.

• This was the case in Great Britain prior to the Industrial Revolution, during which time the
absence of wood and timber led to necessary advancements in steel and steam.
 Culture induced development
• In The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (1999),
economic historian David S. Landes maintains that the reasons for different development
rates are primarily cultural.

• While Landes admits that tropical regions like sub-Saharan Africa were bound to develop
more slowly than temperate areas because climate conditions prevent productivity
during summer months, he still puts much of the responsibility for instigating
development on cultural factors.

• Landes claims that in the year 1000, no one would have predicted that Europe would
dominate the world 500 years later. But starting in the 1500s, the Protestant form of
Christianity promoted both literacy and concern for conservation of time, and both of
these attributes led to higher productivity in societies such as Britain, Germany, the
Netherlands, and, later, the United States.

• Likewise, in China and Japan, Buddhist beliefs emphasized labor and thrift, which led to
faster social and economic development (Landes, 1999).
 Property rights
• Hernando de Soto argues that the secret to development lies in the structure of private property rights.

• In The Mystery of Capital (2003), he says that the world’s “poor” actually possess great wealth. The problem,
he writes, is that this wealth is usually tied up in “dead capital” due to the legal and social customs in many
developing countries (De Soto, 2003).

• For example, many people in Egypt, as in America, own their homes and attached properties. But there is a
difference between the American and Egyptian conceptions of property. While Americans can utilize their
homes to raise capital for an economic activity like starting a business, Egyptians often cannot.

• In America, ownership is well documented and there is an efficient legal system that can enforce contracts.
Therefore, a homeowner can take out a loan with a bank using his or her property as collateral.

• In Egypt, traditional land ownership rules make it impossible for a landowner to prove to the bank that he
owns his home. In addition, because the Egyptian legal system is not strong in forcing debtors to repay loans,
Egyptian banks may not wish to lend money as readily as their American counterparts.
• De Soto believes that by reforming land tenure and land ownership
registration systems, developing countries can enable their citizens to
convert the dead capital that they hold in various land and other properties
into huge sums of money that can be used to expand development efforts.

• De Soto’s research estimates the value of real estate now trapped in dead
capital to be $74 billion in Peru and $133 billion in the Philippines.

• In Egypt, $240 billion is tied up as dead capital, 30 times the value of all
shares on the Cairo Stock Exchange and 55 times the value of all foreign
investments in the country.

• De Soto argues that if these funds were available for economic activities,
the speed of development could be greatly increased (De Soto, 2003).
 Lack of freedom
• Bernard Lewis, argues in his book, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle
East (2003), that a lack of freedom—intellectual, political, economic, religious, cultural—is responsible for
the decline of the Arab world from a major center of global power to an area frequently dominated by
outsiders and plagued by social and economic troubles.

• Furthermore, he says, Middle Eastern governments are often too focused on finding scapegoats—especially
Jews, Americans, and imperialists—for their failure to develop, asking “Who did this to us?” rather than,
“What did we do wrong?” (Lewis, 2003).

• The UNDP’s Arab Human Development Report, issued in 2004, endorses this view, noting that the Arab
world had the lowest indicators of seven world regions on a “freedom” index based on political participation
of the population, civil liberties, and unrestricted media. In addition, the report noted that women in the
Arab world were not empowered, with fewer political, social, and economic opportunities than Arab men,
and fewer than women in other regions (Arab Human Development Report 2004).

• The 2005 Arab Human Development Report displayed findings of women’s rising roles in the Arab world.
While they do not enjoy full equality to men in terms of political, civil, and cultural rights, their status is
improving. The Report emphasizes equality between the sexes to be a main staple of human development.
• A chart mapping the changes in human development levels across 21 Arab states
between 1980 and 2011 shows general improvements over time in nearly all
cases (UNDP).

• However, those nations that continue to maintain especially low HDI ratings,
including Sudan and Yemen, are also understood as having minimal freedom in
areas such as press censorship and protections for minorities (Arab Human
Development Report 2004).

• This correlation supports Lewis’ hypothesized link between freedom and rate of
development.

• It should be noted that regions with restricted freedoms are also found outside of
the Arab world, and any generalization to the contrary is as problematic as it is
untrue.

• In fact, constraints on freedoms exist in Africa; Eastern Europe; Central, South,

and East Asia; Latin America; and even areas of the West
 Problems of development today
• Today, the problems facing developing countries revolve around what
are generally called “structural constraints” to development.

• First among these is geography—not just in the historical sense

described above—but also in the more contemporary aspect that a
modern economy cannot function without a division and
diversification of labor.

• Thus, countries with small populations may have trouble developing

and gaining access to markets, while landlocked countries may
struggle to integrate with global markets and expand their
economies.
• Other common constraints on development are high economic
poverty, hunger, high mortality rates, unsafe water supplies, poor
education systems, corrupt governments, war, and poor sanitation.

• These factors all combine to create what the World Bank calls
“poverty traps”—cycles that must be broken for countries to develop.

• Countries can avoid poverty traps, however, with strong policies.

• Likewise, geographic advantages do not always result in sound

development in cases when governments squander valuable natural
resources.
 Chances of development

• The World Bank, therefore, recommends that countries focus on six

areas of policy to improve chances of development:

• Investment in education and health

• Increasing productivity of small farms
• Improving infrastructure (for example, roads)
• Developing an industrial policy to promote manufacturing
• Promoting democracy and human rights
• Ensuring environmental protection