KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Course Name: INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Course Code: BIR 2101/1102

Course Level: YEAR 2, SEMESTER 1

Course Credit Units: 3 CU, 45 Hours

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 Course Rationale
This course offers students a theoretical understanding of development dynamics in the
World with a particular thrust on the developing economics. It helps the student intermingle
historically constructed development incidents and accidents that have converged to
determine the current state of the world.

Course Description
This course provides an in-depth introduction to the multi-disciplinary field of development
studies. It introduces students to key debates in development theory, to the history of
development policy and practice, and to the range of multilateral, bilateral and NGO
organizations that are currently engaged in the development enterprise. Through a series of
empirically-rich case-studies, drawn from across the developing and newly-industrialized
worlds, the course also looks at the main sectors in which development organizations
engage. Throughout, particular attention is paid to the effects of development policy and
practice upon the lives of ordinary people, and especially upon the lives of the more than 1
billion people who currently live `below the poverty line. In all of these ways, the course
encourages students to think critically about what development is, about how it is carried out
and, most importantly of all, about what it can achieve.
Course Aim
This course provides an introduction to the field by taking students through the main debates
around the meanings of development, as well as through some of the most exciting new
approaches to the development process.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, a student will be expected to be able to:
• Develop knowledge of, and developed insights into, key issues and concerns of development
policy, practice and theory.
• Demonstrate ability to understand the history and application of key theoretical approaches
to international development
• Demonstrate ability to critically evaluate central themes, propositions and concepts in
development studies
• Develop the skills to work collaboratively in teams as well as individually in a learning and
research environment
• Demonstrate an interest in and commitment to continuous learning and social scientific
research

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 Reading list/References
Collier, P. (2007). The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are failing and What can be done
about it. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Dambisa, M. (2009). Dead Aid: Why Aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. New
York, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Haslam, P.A., Schafer, J. and Beaudet, P. (eds.) (2012) Introduction to International Development:
Approaches, Actors and Issues. Oxford University Press
Kothari, Uma (Ed.). A radical History of Development Studies: Individuals, institutions and
ideologies. Zed Book, UK, 2005
Sachs, J. D. (2006). The end of poverty: economic possibilities for our times. New York, Penguin
Books.
Todaro, M., and Smith, S. C. (2008). Economic Development, 10 th Ed, Harlow, Prentice-Hall
Classic references
John Martinussen, Society, State and Market: A Guide to Competing Theories of Development
(London: Zed Press, 1997).
Monte Palmer, Dilemmas of Political Development, (Itasca, IL: Peacock, 1984 or latest edition).
Much more than politics.
Kenneth P. Jameson and Charles Wilber, The Political Economy of Development and
Underdevelopment (New York: McGraw Hill, 1996)
Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
Raymond Apthorpe and Des Gasper, Arguing Development Policy: Frames and Discourses
(London: Frank Cass, 1996).
Sen, Amartya (2000). Development as Freedom. New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
Tina Wallace, Lisa Bornstein and Jennifer Chapman. The Aid Chain; Coercion and Commitment in
Development NGOs. Fountain Publishers, Uganda, 2006

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 PART I: HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT THOUGHT
THE CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENT
Learning outcome: Learners will understand the role and scope of development and the
different paradigms
[

Development defined
In general terms, “Development” means an “event constituting a new stage in a changing
situation” or the process of change per se. If not qualified, “development” is implicitly intended
as something positive or desirable. When referring to a society or to a socio-economic
system, “Development” usually means improvement, either in the general situation of the
system, or in some of its constituent elements. Development may occur due to some
deliberate action carried out by single agents or by some authority pre-ordered to achieve
improvement, to favourable circumstances in both. Development policies and private
investment, in all their forms, are examples of such actions.

Given this broad definition, “development” is a multi-dimensional concept in its nature,

because any improvement of complex systems, as indeed actual socio-economic systems
are, can occur in different parts or ways, at different speeds and driven by different forces.
Additionally, the development of one part of the system may be detrimental to the
development of other parts, giving rise to conflicting objectives (trade-offs) and conflicts.
Consequently, measuring development, i.e. determining whether and to what extent a system
is developing, is an intrinsically multidimensional exercise.

Dimensions of Development as a Concept

Even if the development of a socio-economic system can be viewed as a holistic exercise,
i.e. as an all-encompassing endeavour; for practical purposes, in particular for policy making
and development management, the focus of the agents aiming at development is almost
always on selected parts of the system or on specific features. To this end, “development” is
qualified and specified in different ways for example.

1. Economic Development
Is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local
community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives. It is
the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its
people. It is a process of creating and utilizing physical, human, financial, and social assets

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 to generate improved and broadly shared economic well-being and quality of life for a
community or region.
Daphne Greenwood and Richard Holt distinguish economic development from economic
growth on the basis that Economic Development is a "broadly based and sustainable
increase in the overall standard of living for individuals within a community", and measures
of growth such as per capita income do not necessarily correlate with improvements in quality
of life. Economic development is a wider concept and has qualitative dimensions than
quantitative dimensions.
Economic development implies economic growth plus progressive changes in certain
important variables which determine well-being of the people, e.g: health, education, security
and other social services. It also means Improvement of the way endowments and goods
and services are used within (or by) the system to generate new goods and services in order
to provide additional consumption and/or investment possibilities to the members of the
system.
While Economic growth deals with an increase in the level of output, economic development
is related to an increase in output coupled with improvement in the social and political welfare
of people within a country.
Economic Development is the creation of wealth from which community benefits are realized.
It is an investment in growing your economy and enhancing the prosperity and quality of life
for all residents. Economic development involves the allocation of limited resources – land,
labour, capitol and entrepreneurship in a way that has a positive effect on the level of
business activity, employment, income distribution patterns, and fiscal solvency.
Economic development is a concerted effort on the part of the responsible governing body in
a city or county to influence the direction of private sector investment toward opportunities
that can lead to sustained economic growth. Sustained economic growth can provide
sufficient incomes for the local labor force, profitable business opportunities for employers
and tax revenues for maintaining an infrastructure to support this continued growth.
Indicators of Economic Growth and Development
✓ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of goods and services produced by a
country in a year. The nation’s total economic output is the same as a nation’s income.
✓ Gross National Product (GNP) measures the total economic output of a country, including
earnings from foreign investments.
✓ GNP per capita is a country's GNP divided by its population. (Per capita means per person)

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✓ GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) takes into account the local purchasing power of
the currency (real income) and is a better guide to actual living standards.
✓ Inequality of wealth is the gap in income between a country's richest and poorest people. It
can be measured in many ways, (eg the proportion of a country's wealth owned by the richest
10 per cent of the population, compared with the proportion owned by the remaining 90 per
cent).
✓ Inflation measures how much the prices of goods, services and wages increase each year.
High inflation (above a few percent) can be a bad thing, and suggests a government lacks
control over the economy.
✓ Unemployment is the number of people who cannot find work.
✓ Economic structure shows the division of a country's economy between primary, secondary
and tertiary industries.
✓ Levels of absolute poverty, e.g % of population with income less than minimum necessary
to meet basic necessities of life.
✓ Nutrition levels. Percentage of population with insufficient food – levels of malnutrition.
✓ Access to safe water. Percentage of population with access to safe water supply and
sanitation
✓ Literacy rate – The percentage of a population that can read and write. Also consider gender
discrepancy.
✓ Mean years of education – Length of education gives indication on deeper education
standards.
✓ Number of doctors per 1,000 of population.
✓ Average life expectancy. Life expectancy generally rises with economic development.
✓ Openness of economy to international trade. Also, levels of foreign direct
investment.
✓ Quality of nation’s infrastructure – quantity and quality of roads, railways and airports.
✓ Share of agriculture in economy. Over 90% indicates an undeveloped economy. Less than
10% of economy in agriculture suggests more developed economy.
✓ Political stability and security.
Economic development has traditionally been seen as the first form of development. It has
often been strictly associated with the concept of economic growth,
Economic Growth is defined as an increase in the per capita income of the economic
system. It is an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the
population over a period of time. Economic growth is an increase in the production of

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economic goods and services, compared from one period of time to another. It can be
measured in nominal or real terms. Traditionally, aggregate economic growth is measured in
terms of gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP), although alternative
metrics are sometimes used.
Indeed, growth defined in this way can be seen more as the result of an economic
development process, i.e. the transformation of the structure of an economic system, rather
than as a development process per se. Countless economists provided insights and
proposed models to explain how economic systems develop (or should develop) to generate
growth.
Just to mention some milestones, it is worth mentioning the contributions of Shumpeter
(1911), who suggested that economic systems evolve through subsequent disequilibria due
to agents which introduce innovations, more than “developing” according to a pre-determined
path.
Ramsey (1928) set a model to maximise the consumption of future generations with
endogenous savings, disutility of work and individuals with an infinite time horizon.

Solow (1956) with his “Long Run Growth Model” highlights that, increasing the capital per
unit of labour (a shift in the capital/labour ratio) increases labour productivity and generates
growth. But factors exhibit diminishing marginal productivity. The diminishing marginal
productivity should push the economy at a point where additional capital per worker would
have no impact on production. The output would increase only if labour also increases. In this
situation, there would be no interest in investing more because this would bring no returns.
Therefore output, capital and labour would all increase at the same rate (steady state). Less-
industrialised countries, which enjoy a lower capital/labour ratio, should benefit more from
capital increases (investment) than industrialised ones, where the capital/labour ratio is
higher. The larger returns on investment in less industrialised countries, (assuming constant
returns to scale), should generate convergence between less-industrialised and
industrialised countries. However, exogenous technology improvements shift the output,
pushing forward the steady state.
Romer (1986) with his “endogenous growth model” questioned the idea of technology
shifts as exogenous to the economic system, highlighting how investment and human
activities in general have positive “spill over” effects on knowledge. He implies that
technology, which is an application of knowledge to production processes, is endogenous,
i.e. generated within the economic system. Similarly, impacts of investment in research

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 (innovation) and in human capital on technological changes and growth have been
considered.
For instance, Aghion and Howitt (1990) address the issue of research and obsolescence and
highlight that the expectations of an accelerated pace of research in the future can depress
current research. There is a fear of rapid obsolescence of possible innovations (a too fast
process of Schumpeterian creative destruction). Galor and Zeira (1993)9 highlight how strong
income inequalities may prevent investment in human capital leading to lower per capita
output. Galor and Moav (2004) identify the replacement of physical capital accumulation with
human capital accumulation, stimulated by a more equitable income distribution, as an
advanced stage along the development process, which sustains the so called “modern
growth”, as opposed to the “industrial revolution” growth.

If the government is to promote economic growth and development,

It should maintain peace, stable exchange rate, price stability, a balance between exports
and imports and a sound government finances.
Peace allows individuals to feel safe, plan for their future, invest in both physical and human
capitals, and performs at their potential. Peace also reduces the costs of capital maintenance
and risks of investment. Stable exchange rate, price stability, a balance between exports and
imports and a sound government finances reduce price distortion in the market that increases
allocative and productive efficiency. A stable exchange rate can encourage FDI into and
deters capital flight from developing countries. A sound government finances reduces
crowding out of private investment, and expectation of low and stable tax rates can encourage
investments. A peaceful environment and the absence of fear of losing life is welfare
enhancing.
Note that the maintaining a stable exchange rate say through exchange-rate intervention
and price control are examples of interventionist strategy.
Interventionist Strategies are policies and measures in which government plays an active
role in manipulating markets and allocating resources.
• Provide adequate institutional structures (sound judicial system, enforceable property
rights, etc.) This will help foster an environment conducive to investment and allocation of
capitals.

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• Provide social or public goods like basic services, education, healthcare, and social
safety nets when resources are available. These services help to increase human capital
that expands PPF and directly enhances the wellbeing of citizens.
• Direct public investment to provide and to maintain infrastructure. good infrastructure is
also welfare enhancing as students can be transported to schools, the sick can reach
hospitals, citizens can enjoy clean water supply, and etc. Thus good infrastructure helps to
accumulate human as well as physical capitals. Injection into the economy and can potential
help move the PPF outward. However, the financing should not crowd out the private sectors
and injection should not exaggerate the business cycle.
• Allocation of resources by the government should be efficient. For instance, the rate of
return for investing in basic primary education is greater than that of university education.
Thus, in an economy with a big proportion of population in the primary-education age group
then heavy investment in higher education to a point of neglecting primary education is a
misallocation of resources.
• Avoid intervening in sectors where private firms can efficiently provide goods and
services; promote a free market system as much as possible, privatization may help, avoid
price distortion. Governments in most cases are not as good as fixing the optimum prices
when compared to the market mechanism. Subsidies should also be reduced and avoided
all together. This will not only improve market efficiency but also save on administration costs,
avoid corruption, and misallocation of resources.
A market-led strategy is one that minimizes the involvement of government and as much as
possible allows the forces of supply and demand to operate in markets.
• Foster a competitive and efficient financial sector
• Liberalization (deregulation) along with proper supervision and regulation is probably most
important in the financial sector. The financial sector intermediates savings and investment
as well as smoothing out the effect of shocks on consumption and on investment. If a country
wants to increase its saving ratio then it needs to improve the effectiveness and efficiencies
of its financial system.
• Establishes an independent central bank to reduce the possibility of government directing
central bank to print money to cover budget deficit as we see in Zimbabwe in the 2000s which
in turn can lead to high rate of inflation. As we mentioned before, high rate of inflation is not
conducive to economic growth.

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• Manage the environment to ensure sustainable growth.
Reduce air pollution and environmental degradation is welfare enhancing. Furthermore, a
clean living environment can help to attract skilled workers. Some studies already show that
Hong Kong with its high level of air pollution is losing expatriate skilled workers. The latter
can affect economic growth.

Human development (people-centred development)

This is a form of development where the focus is put on the improvement of the various
dimensions affecting the well-being of individuals and their relationships with the society
(health, education, entitlements, capabilities, empowerment etc)
Human development approach is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than
simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is
focused on creating fair opportunities and choices for all people. The approach focuses on
improving the lives people lead rather than assuming that economic growth will lead,
automatically, to greater opportunities for all. Income growth is an important means to
development, rather than an end in itself.
Human development is about giving people more freedom and opportunities to live lives they
value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and giving them a chance to use
them. For example, educating a girl would build her skills, but it is of little use if she is denied
access to jobs, or does not have the skills for the local labour market.
Three foundations for human development are;
✓ To live a healthy and creative life
✓ To be knowledgeable (skills)
✓ And to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living.

Human development is, fundamentally, about choice. It is about providing people with
opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them. No one can guarantee human
happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. Human development -

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should at least create an environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop to
their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives
that they value.

Sustainable development
Development which considers the long term perspectives of the socio-economic system, to
ensure that improvements occurring in the short term will not be detrimental to the future
status or development potential of the system, i.e. development will be “sustainable” on
environmental, social, financial and other grounds.
The concept of “sustainable development” was first introduced by Brundtland (1987), who
defines development as “sustainable” if it “meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Sustainable development implies minimising the use of exhaustible resources, or at least,

ensuring that revenues obtained from them are used to create a constant flow of income
across generations, and making an appropriate use of renewable resources. This applies to
energy (oil and oil products in particular) but also to fish stock, wildlife, forests, water, land
and air. Land degradation, due to soil erosion and salinisation, persistent water and air
pollution, depletion of fish stock and deforestation are all examples of consequences of non-
sustainable activities. Soil conservation practices; Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) based
on reduced use of energy, pesticides and chemicals; waste management and recycling,
waste water treatment, use of renewable energy sources such as biomasses and solar
panels, are frequently cited as techniques for sustainable development. The concept of
sustainability has also been extended beyond environmental concerns, to include social
sustainability, i.e. long term acceptance and ownership of development changes by the
citizens, their organisations and associations (civil society), and financial and economic
sustainability.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17
interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable
future for all. The SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are
intended to be achieved by the year 2030. They are included in a UN Resolution called the
2030 Agenda or what is colloquially known as Agenda 2030
The 17 SDGs are:
(1) No Poverty,
(2) Zero Hunger,
(3) Good Health and Well-being,

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(4) Quality Education
(5) Gender Equality
(6) Clean Water and Sanitation
(7) Affordable and Clean Energy
(8) Decent Work and Economic Growth
(9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
(10) Reducing Inequality
(11) Sustainable Cities and Communities
(12) Responsible Consumption and Production
(13) Climate Action
(14) Life below Water
(15) Life on Land
(16) Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions,
(17) Partnerships for the Goals.
Opponents of the implications of sustainable development often point to the environmental
Kuznets curve. The idea behind this curve is that, as an economy grows, it shifts towards
more capital and knowledge-intensive production. This means that as an economy grows, its
pollution output increases, but only until it reaches a particular threshold where production
becomes less resource-intensive and more sustainable. This means that a pro-growth, not
an anti-growth policy is needed to solve the environmental problem. But the evidence for the
environmental Kuznets curve is quite weak. Also, empirically spoken, people tend to
consume more products when their income increases. Maybe those products have been
produced in a more environmentally friendly way, but on the whole the higher consumption
negates this effect. There are people like Julian Simon however who argue that future
technological developments will resolve future problems.
Territorial development
Territorial development is a process of social construction of a particular area, driven by the
interaction between geophysical characteristics, individual and collective initiatives and
economic, technological, socio-political, cultural and environmental forces within the territory.
It refers to integrated multi-sector development across a specific portion of territory, guided
by a spatial vision of the desirable future and supported by strategic investments in physical
infrastructure and environmental management.
In a more neutral, sense, territorial development is simply an umbrella term for development
of specific (typically sub-national) portions of territory. These may be an urban, metropolitan,
regional or rural jurisdiction, but also watershed, coastal, mountainous, border areas, etc.
Most often, the term is used to encompass both local development (narrowly associated with
smaller, first-tier, jurisdictions or even part of them and regional development, i.e. the
development of larger, intermediate jurisdictions (districts, provinces, regions, etc.).

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Development of a specific region (space) achievable by exploiting the specific socio-
economic, environmental and institutional potential of the area, and its relationships with
external subjects
This dimension of development refers to a territorial system, intended as a set of
interrelationships between rural and urban areas, in a space characterized by the existence
of poles of attraction for human activities (production and consumption of goods and services,
but also culture and social life), and connected by information systems and transport
infrastructures. When referring to production activities, poles of attraction can be
characterized as “Clusters” where, for various reasons, homogeneous or closely interlinked
activities are implemented. Territorial systems are open to influences from the national and
supra-national contexts and from the interrelationships between territories. Territorial
development implies focusing on the assets of the territory, its potential and constraints (FAO,
2005). Polices to exploit and enhance this potential play an important role in the development
process.

COLONIALISM AND THE COLONIAL EXPERIENCE IN AFRICA

Colonialism is a policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another
country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or
areas often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In
the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, language, economics, and
other cultural practices on indigenous peoples. The foreign administrators rule the territory in
pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from the colonised region's people and resources .
It is associated but distinct to imperialism.
Colonialism is strongly associated with the European colonial period starting with the 15th
century when some European states established colonising empires.
In the aftermath of World War II colonial powers were forced to retreat between 1945 and
1975, when nearly all colonies gained independence, entering into changed colonial, so-
called postcolonial and neo-colonialist relations. Post colonialism and neo-colonialism has
continued or shifted relations and ideologies of colonialism, justifying its continuation with
concepts such as development and new frontiers, as in exploring outer space for colonization
Colonization of Africa by European countries was a monumental milestone in the
development of Africa. The Africans consider the impact of colonization on them to be
perhaps the most important factor in understanding the present condition of the African
continent and of the African people. Therefore, a close scrutiny of the phenomenon of

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colonialism is necessary to appreciate the degree to which it influenced not only the economic
and political development of Africa but also the African people’s perception of them.
The two largest colonial powers in Africa were France and Britain, both of which controlled
two-thirds of Africa before World War I and more than 70 percent after the war. The period
from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s marked the zenith of imperial rule in Africa. The
formalization of colonial rule was accomplished at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 when
all the European powers met and partitioned Africa, recognizing each other’s share of the
continent. The conference was called to reach agreement on imperial boundaries so as to
avoid any future conflict among European powers. Following World War I, Germany, as a
defeated power, was deprived of all her colonial possessions, which were parcelled out to
the victorious allies as trust territories under the League of Nations’ mandate system.
Tanganyika (which is the mainland portion of Tanzania) went to Britain. Rwanda and Burundi,
which together with Tanganyika formed what was then called German East Africa, went to
Belgium. Cameroon was split into two, a small south-western portion going to Britain and the
remainder to France.
Namibia, then known as South West Africa, was assigned to South Africa as a sort of trophy
for South Africa having fought in the war on the side of the Allied powers. Togo, then called
Togoland, became a French trust territory, but a small sliver along its western border went to
Britain, which governed it together with Ghana.

EASONS FOR EUROPEAN INTEREST IN AFRICA

Professor Ali Mazrui (1969) raises three arguments for European Interest in Africa:
The first reason has to do with the need to gather scientific knowledge about the unknown.
Africa, then referred to as the “Dark Continent,” provided just the right kind of challenge. It
held a lot of mystery for European explorers, who travelled and observed and recorded what
they saw. Many of the early explorers of Africa were geographers and scientists who were
beckoned by the mysteries and exotic qualities of this new land. Expeditions of people like
Samuel Baker, Joseph Thompson, Richard Burton, John Speke, and others in the nineteenth
century, conducted in the name of science and knowledge, served to attract Europeans to
Africa. They “discovered” rivers, lakes, and mountains.They studied the African people and
wrote about them. Of Prince Henry’s exploratory expeditions, including those to Africa, a
historian has written,” While Henry directed exploratory activities, he placed high value on the
collection of geographical knowledge and rewarded his captains in proportion to the efforts

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they had made to carry the boundaries of knowledge farther,’ thus keeping them intent on the
work of exploration.”
Without revisiting the debate as to what the Europeans meant by claiming to have
“discovered” Africa’s rivers and lakes, which the Africans had known and sailed and fished
from all along, and without belabouring the often extremely racist and distorted descriptions
of African societies that they purveyed, it will suffice to say that the writings of some of these
foreign travellers increased knowledge of Africa in their own countries and ultimately helped
Africans to know their continent better.

The second reason stemmed from European ethnocentrism or racism, itself rooted partly in
Western Christianity. Implicit in the Christian doctrine (as well as in Islam, I might add) is the
requirement that followers of the faith spread the gospel (or the Koran) to others and win
converts. Since much of Africa followed their own traditional religious beliefs, Europeans felt
that there was a definite need to proselytize and convert Africans to Christianity. In the early
years of both Christianity and Islam, evangelical work was often carried out with military
campaigns. Later, other methods of persuasion were applied. Missionaries were dispatched
to Africa. They set up health clinics, schools, and social service centres. They treated the sick
and taught people how to stay healthy. They taught European languages to Africans, who in
turn assisted missionaries in translating the Bible into African languages to help disseminate
Christian doctrines. Individuals like Dr. David Livingstone were able to combine missionary
activities with extensive scientific research and geographic investigations. To this day, Africa
remains a favourite destination for missionaries.

The third reason was based on imperialism, the desire by European patriots to contribute to
their country’s grandeur by laying claim to other countries in distant lands. Imperial
Germany’s Karl Peters’ adventures secured Tanganyika for his Kaiser. Britain’s Cecil John
Rhodes’ exploits yielded a huge chunk of central Africa for his king. Henry Morton Stanley’s
expeditions to Africa paved the way for the Belgians’ King Leopold to acquire the Congo—
which he ironically named “The Congo Free State.”
And Portugal’s Prince Henry and others who followed founded an early Portuguese empire
in the Indian Ocean, Estado da India, and “the first Portuguese global empire, upon which
the sun never set.”
The three reasons mentioned earlier are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they are very much
interrelated. For example, scientific information collected by geographers was often

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 evaluated by European governments to determine if a certain area was worth laying claim to.
If the information collected suggested that a given area had a pleasant climate, friendly
people, evidence of natural resources, or good prospects for lucrative trade, and then plans
were laid down for a government-financed expeditionary force. Frequently, the explorers
themselves could not resist the temptation of greed and amassed large amounts of wealth or
precious cargo. Often, exploratory trips were sponsored and subsidized directly by European
governments or government-chartered learned organizations such as the Royal
Geographical Society. In other cases, when missionaries or other explorers encountered
hostility or when their lives were in danger (as happened, for instance, to Bishop Hannington,
who encountered religious resistance in Uganda and was eventually murdered on orders of
a local king), foreign troops were dispatched promptly either to punish the groups involved or
to protect other foreign nationals. When foreign troops came in, they invariably stayed and,
on short order, colonization expeditions arrived.

Other reasons included; Expansionism policy, world domination, free labour, raw materials
,need to settle the surplus population in Europe, market for surplus produce, and the urge to
get ahead among other western nations of the time.

COLONIAL STYLES OF ADMINISTRATION

One can identify four administrative styles or approaches that were used by the colonial
powers in Africa:
• Indirect rule, long associated with the British who used local chiefs as proxies for the colonial
masters
• Direct rule associated with France (Assimilation policy), Germany, and Portugal;
• Company rule, closely linked to the Belgians (Leopold treated Congo as a personal property
and not that of Belgium); and
• Hybrid approach or indirect company rule, linked to Cecil John Rhodes’ imperial efforts in
Southern Africa where he did it on behalf of the British.

The economics of colonialism

The specific economic policies and practices of the colonial powers lent strong credence to
the economic theory of imperialism, namely, that colonization had everything to do with greed
and very little, if at all, to do with race or religion. What we have tried to show is that there

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 were other important dimensions to the phenomenon of colonialism, and that, moreover,
there was a dynamic inter-correlation among the factors involved.
The seven specific economic policies and practices that we are going to discuss are the
following:
1. Expropriation of land
2. Exploitation of labour
3. The introduction of cash crops and the one-crop economy
4. Unfair taxation
5. The introduction of immigrant labour from India
6. Transfer of mineral wealth from Africa to Europe, and
7. The lack of industrialization.

BENEFITS OF COLONIAL RULE TO AFRICA

Broadly speaking, there are five benefits of colonization that many scholars are likely to agree
on.
• First is the introduction of Western medicine, which has made an incredible difference in the
survival rates of the African population. In fact, the rapid growth of the African population
began during the colonial era.
• Second, the introduction of formal education, anti-African as it might have been in so many
countries, deserves mention in helping to broaden the Africans’ outlook and to unlock the
hidden potential of the African people. Both education and health care were provided by
missionaries. Nearly all leaders who emerged after World War II to lead African colonies
toward independence acquired their rhetorical and organizational skills from colonial
education. Young political activists were able to challenge the status quo and to make
demands for the restoration of African dignity and freedom by using political and moral ideas
deeply rooted in Western education.
• Third, the small infrastructure that colonial authorities established became the foundation
upon which new African leaders built their new national institutions. Roads, railroads,
harbours, telephones, electric power, and water and sewerage systems were all built initially
to service the white colonial community or to support the very small urban settlements.
Africans acquired important skills by working for colonial bureaucracies. Later, their
experience was important in helping to maintain these services during the often tumultuous
period of political transition and afterwards.
• Fourth, the introduction of Islam and Christianity to African people greatly simplified African
spirituality and created a new basis for Africans with diverse backgrounds to come together.
Africans are a very spiritual people who believed in God and in life after death with ancestral

17
 spirits. It was unclear, however, what one needed to do in order to find salvation (defined as
being one with God or being completely at peace after one died and passed on into the spirit
world). The role of ancestral spirits was extremely significant and called for continual,
elaborate rituals to pacify or supplicate them. This kind of spiritual heritage, while satisfying
emotionally and spiritually, did, in many ways, stunt the development of rational thought and
science. Modern Christianity, despite its residual mysticism, was presented as a complete
and self-contained package of rules and procedures. It defined in simple terms why human
beings were created, the existence of eternal life after death, and how to live one’s life on
earth in such a way as to be assured of a wonderful life after death. Embracing one of these
Christian denominations, in exchange for giving up their spiritual heritage and practice, the
Africans freed themselves substantially from the uncertainties of daily sacrifices, rituals, and
cleansing ceremonies that were traditionally required. The African was liberated from the
belief that everything that happened to one in life was due entirely to the intervention of the
spirits, a belief that required frequent consultation of the mediums in order to determine what
one had to do to pacify those spirits and was also exceedingly fatalistic. Inherent in this
liberation was the notion of individual salvation. Although these foreign religions required their
adherents to evangelize and win more converts to their beliefs, ultimately the individual was
saved or damned on the basis of what he or she did or did not do in following the doctrines
of the various faiths. This individualism, of course, undermined the collective ethos and the
social fabric of the African traditional community, yet it also made individual progress and
personal growth possible. Christianity and Islam also created a new basis for community
organization and networking. And these religious organizations worked to improve living
conditions of people in many areas. They promoted literacy, health care, and self-help. They
created a new basis for Africans to come together and assist one another as they had
traditionally done.
• Fifth, by imposing arbitrary boundaries on the African people, countries were created with
the stroke of a pen. Colonization may have shortened considerably the process of state
formation in some areas. In past eras, states were formed slowly and painfully, as powerful
leader’s waged wars and annexed their weaker neighbours. There is ample evidence of
military annexations having occurred in Africa and certainly elsewhere in the world. Since
independence, some African states—Somalia and Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, Libya and
Chad, Morocco and Algeria—have fought with each other over inherited borders. There have
been brutal civil wars in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic
of Congo, and Côte d’Ivoire, to name a few. African leaders hesitate to put the issue of

18
colonial borders on the agenda. It would open a Pandora’s Box. If further flare-ups do not
occur—which does not seem likely at the moment, given the escalating crises Africa—
thereby saving the African people more pain, suffering, and death, colonialism can claim
some credit.

Other effects According to other scholars

Positive effects of colonialism in Africa
1. Introduction of the modern idea of government: One of the major impact of colonialism
was the introduction of new government ideas and this contributed positively in many African
countries. The influence of colonialism made Africans exhibit that structured kind of
government which colonial masters practiced during the time of colonialism. Take for
instance, the idea of separation of powers, which helps to avoid conflict between the arms of
the government was learned from the colonial masters. Also, the idea of a written constitution
was brought as a result of colonialism. You can recall that before colonialism, most African
countries had an unwritten constitution and this posed a lot of problem. The concept of a
written constitution therefore helps to reduce the work of the judicial arm of government in
the interpretation of the law.
2. Creation of a large political units: Another positive effect of colonialism was the creation
of large political units. This was advantageous because it helped most African countries like
Nigeria to grow faster. Before the coming of colonial masters to Africa, most African countries
had divided systems of government. Take for example, in Nigeria, there was the
Hausa/Fulani system of administration, there was the Yoruba system and even the Igbo
political system. All these political systems were greatly different from each other even
though the regions were not too far from themselves.
On arrival, the colonial master merged all the political systems to enable faster development
in the regions and to make governance easy for themselves.
3. Development of political parties: Before the coming of colonialism the concept of political
parties and election was abstract in Africa. It was the colonialism that necessitated the
creation of political parties and elections, which became the formal way of choosing political
leaders. The idea of political parties came into place due to the struggle for independence.
Indirectly, it can be seen that colonialism actually caused the establishment of political parties
in Africa. In Nigeria for instance, political parties like NNC, UPC, NNDP, AG etc, were
established to stand against colonialism in the country.

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4. Introduction of money currency: Trade by Barter was the only way of transacting in
Africa until the introduction of colonialism. The colonial masters introduced money and
educated Africans on how the money currency could solve the problems of trade by barter.
In 1912, the first silver coin was introduced by the British and the West African Currency
Board was setup.
Colonialism also introduced the banking system to Africa. Banks were created to keep money
and Africans really enjoyed this development because it solved a lot of problems with the
trade by barter system.
5. Common central bank: Colonialism in Africa also introduced a common central bank in
the French colony. Though this is with the exception of Guinea. The introduction of a central
bank which supplied all the French colonies the same currency helped to promote inter-state
trade among the colonies.
6. Development of modern transport and communication systems: Majority of the
celebrated technologies that has helped to make transportation easy in Nigeria and other
parts of Africa were put in place by the colonial masters. Transportation systems like railway,
seaports, airways, roads, bridges etc were used to solve the barrier to movement in the
colonies.
7. Common legal system: Another advantage of colonialism in Africa is the common legal
system which was introduced by the British to all her colonies. After the demise of colonialism,
this helped to build good relationship amongst African countries. Take for instance, the
common legal system in Africa allows for easy and safer international transactions. More so,
with the coming of colonialism, the larger system of Africa got a new shape. Punishment in
form of torture, banishment, sacrifices were taken away.
8. Development of the civil service: Colonialism thoroughly shaped and uniformed the civil
service in Nigeria and other parts of Africa too. The colonial masters made it in such a way
that the Civil service will look just like theirs and will also favor them too.
Negative effects of colonialism in Africa
1. Economic dependence and exploitation: In as much that the colonialism brought
development into Africa, it was also a form of exploitation too. The idea of colonialism was
introduced to make Africa forever dependent on the colonial masters. They took all the wealth
and resources of Africa to their own country. During the time of colonialism, people were
highly taxed by the colonial Masters so as to generate funds to make their plans of
colonization successful. Coupled with that, the colonial masters made sure that they were in

20
charge of all the metropolitan industries, thus making Africans economically dependent on
the colonizers.
2. It created the problem of disunity: Another negative effect of colonialism in Africa was
the disunity which it brought. Take for instance, in Nigeria today, it is argued that colonialism
is responsible for the religious and tribal disunity in the country. This was as a result of the
merging of all the regions in 1912 by lord Lugard.
Accordingly, the difference countries which colonized Africa also caused disunity in some
way. It divided Africa into French speaking countries and English speaking countries and that
is one of the major problems of the Economic Commission of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
3. Cultural imperialism: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has already said much on this.
From that book, we could see how the colonial masters treated African culture as inferior and
theirs as superior. They disregarded African culture, changed anything that wasn’t in their
favor and made gullible African to see the new culture as the best. The local language of
Africans, religions, names, education, dress, music, sport etc were replaced with foreign
ones.
4. High level of slave trade, deportation and humiliation of Africans: With the introduction
of colonialism, the idea of slave trade was introduced in Africa. In fact, it was actually
practiced by the colonial Masters because they were the ones in need of slaves then. This
negative effect of colonialism reduced the number of able-bodied men in Africa. Also,
colonialism reduced the prestige that was given to many African leaders. The colonial
masters literally controlled the leaders through threat and humiliation. Leaders who failed to
follow the rules of the colonial masters were deported and sometimes killed. Take for
instance, Oba Overamwen was deported in 1896 after the Berlin Massacre and he later died
in exile.
5. Alienation of people from the government: Before the inception of colonialism, Africans
had a type of political system were everybody took part in the political decision making of
their state. But when the colonial master introduced their own system of government, a lot of
Africans were no longer allowed to participate in the political decision making of their nation.
This was one of the causes of the Aba women riot of 1929.
Since the traditional rulers were made subordinate to foreign officials, the alienation from
government wasn’t really a problem to the people. This was the case in Africa until some
educated Nigerian nationalists started to enlighten the people and oppose the government.
6. Poor education system: Apparently, the system of government introduced by colonial
masters to Africa wasn’t as good as foreign education system. It was basically to enable

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African learn how to Read and write the language of the colonial masters. Intentionally, the
colonial masters neglected things like: technical, vocational and scientific studies so as to
restrict the knowledge of Africans and to make themselves superior to Africans.

IMPERIALISM AND ITS LEGACY

Imperialism is when a mother country takes over a smaller nation or colony for political, social,
and/or economic reasons. Imperialism has been a major force in shaping the modern world.
The effects of Imperialism have been interpreted from a variety of viewpoints. This major
Imperialism occurred during the late 19th Century and early 20th century. It had more
negative effects in the modern world today then positive effects.
Colonialism is where one nation assumes control over the other and Imperialism refers to
political and economic control, either formally or informally. Colonialism can be thought to be
a practice and imperialism as the idea driving the practice.
Effects of Imperialism
Positive effects
The nations built them roads, canals, and railways. Showed them the telegraph, newspaper,
established schools for them, gave them the blessing of their civilization, and overall made
them economized. They were part of modern culture after this occurred, introduced improved
medical care, and better methods of sanitation. There were new crops; tools and farming
methods, which helped, increase food production. These changes meant less death to
smaller colonies, and overall improve the state of living. They now could live longer and have
better sanitation compared to the earlier imperialism.

A negative effect is that the coloniser did not civilize the smaller colonies. They were put to
work as cheap labour. They had no freedom, had to do what the mother country said since
it has so much towering power over them, they were exploited and were taken advantage of.
Another negative effect is that when the white people came to the Africans they had nothing
but power over them. They came with the Bible and no land, and instead took their land and
forced the religion Christianity upon them. The whites came and killed the innocent. This
had many negative effects on Africa such as the African's were put to work as slaves but
more like cheap labour. Many of them died from this, they were resettled, exploited, weren't
taken at their free will and took all of their land. Africans were corrupted and given evil minds,
their money was all taken away, and most of all religion was forced upon them.

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Imperialism is never considered as a good cause and effect. At first when it occurs it may
seem as a positive effect, but in the long run, for example in this case it was a negative effect.
All Africans and Asians were heavily exploited and were given no rights to do anything even
though the mother countries gave them modern culture. Colonies inside colonies would fight
because they wanted independence and have their own government and rule. There were
many ethnics group that had nationalistic feelings but could not accomplish anything and
become a free nation because of Imperialism. The mother country's that did the taking over
were only after a few things and unfortunately did happen to accomplish what they were after.
They wanted raw materials, markets for goods, national glory, balance of power and they
also felt as though they needed to help smaller nations as though it was their burden, which
Europeans called "White Man's Burden." In their point of view they thought they were helping
people but really all they were doing was hurting the smaller colonies. Mother countries were
destroying ethnic groups and causing civil wars between smaller nations. This newer modern
Imperialism was never productive.
When a mother country took over a smaller colony for economic, political or social reason,
they were Imperialistic. As shown they changed the modern world plenty and pretty much
made it a harder world to live in at that time. It all depends on which viewpoints you may look
at. Some may think it was a positive thing but overall, it only led to things in this world that
were negative. Even thought the modern Imperialism occurred no more than 100 years ago,
it still affects us greatly, and how our nation is broken down.

THEORIES AND PARADIGMS OF DEVELOPMENT

Development theory is a conglomeration or a collective vision of theories about how desirable
change in society is best achieved. Such theories draw on a variety of social science
disciplines and approaches. In this article, multiple theories are discussed, as are recent
developments with regard to these theories. Depending on which theory that is being looked
at, there are different explanations to the process of development and their inequalities.

1. Modernization theory
This theory emphasizes the importance of economic growth, industrialization, and technological
progress as drivers of development. It suggests that countries like Uganda can achieve development
by following the path of Western countries, through a process of modernization that involves moving
away from traditional social and economic structures and embracing more modern, Western-style
institutions and values.

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2. Human development theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of human well-being,
including health, education, and social welfare, as key indicators of development. It suggests that
development should be measured not just by economic growth, but by improvements in the quality of
life for individuals and communities.
3. Post-development theory: This theory challenges the idea that development is a universal and
linear process that all countries must follow. Instead, it suggests that the Western idea of development
has been imposed on developing countries, and that genuine development requires challenging and
transcending this Western-centric model. It emphasizes the importance of local knowledge and culture,
and suggests that development should be more pluralistic and diverse, reflecting the unique needs and
aspirations of different societies.
These are just a few examples of the many different theories of development that can be applied to
Uganda. Each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of theory will depend on
the particular context and priorities of the country.
4. Participatory development theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of involving local
communities in the development process, and empowering them to take ownership of their own
development initiatives. It suggests that development should be a bottom-up process that prioritizes
the needs and aspirations of local people, rather than a top-down process imposed by external actors.
5. The independent theory of development
The theory of independent development, also known as the theory of self-determination or the theory
of self-sufficiency, emphasizes the importance of individual agency and autonomy in human
development.
According to this theory, individuals have the innate capacity to direct their own development, and
their personal growth and achievement are largely determined by their own choices and actions.
This theory stands in contrast to more deterministic perspectives on development that emphasize the
role of environmental factors, such as genetics, parenting, education, and social and cultural influences.
Instead, the theory of independent development emphasizes the active role of individuals in shaping
their own lives and the importance of self-directed learning and exploration in personal growth.
Proponents of the theory of independent development argue that individuals are motivated by natural
drive towards autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and that these needs must be supported in order
for individuals to reach their full potential. They also emphasize the importance of intrinsic motivation,
or the desire to engage in an activity for its own sake, rather than external rewards or punishments.
Critics of the theory of independent development argue that it may underestimate the role of social and
cultural influences in shaping individuals lives, and that some individuals may face significant barriers
to self-determination, such as poverty, discrimination, or disability.
However, proponents of the theory argue that even in the face of these challenges, individuals can still
exercise agency and take steps towards self-directed growth and achievement.
6. Dependency theory: As we discussed earlier, this theory suggests that developing countries like
Uganda are often held back by their dependence on more developed countries, and that genuine
development requires breaking free from these dependencies and establishing greater economic and
political autonomy.
7. Neo-liberalism
Neo-liberalism insists that developing countries remove obstacles to free market capitalism and allow
capitalism to generate development. The argument is that, if allowed to work freely, capitalism will
generate wealth which will trickle down to everyone.

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 Another way of putting this is that neoliberals believe that private enterprise, or companies should take
the lead in development. They believe that if governments promote a business friendly environment
that encourages companies to invest and produce, then this will lead to exports which will encourage
free trade. So encouraging ‘free’ trade is a central neoliberal strategy for development
The policies proposed are those that were first tried in Chile in the 1970s, then in Britain in the 1980s
under Thatcher. They include:
1. Deregulation – Removing restrictions on businesses and employers involved in world trade – In
practice this means reducing tax on Corporate Profits, or reducing the amount of ‘red tape’ or formal
rules by which companies have to abide – for example reducing health and safety regulations.
2. Fewer protections for workers and the environment – For the former this means doing things like
scrapping minimum wages, permanent contracts. This also means allowing companies the freedom to
increasingly hire ‘flexible workers’ on short-term contracts.
3. Privatisation – selling to private companies industries that had been owned and run by the state
4. Cutting taxes – so the state plays less of a role in the economy

THE DEPENDENCE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

The dependence theory of development is a critical theory that originated in the field of economics
and emphasizes the structural inequalities between developed and developing countries. According to
this theory, developed countries, often referred to as the core; exploit and dominate developing
countries, referred to as the periphery; through economic, political, and cultural means.
The dependence theory argues that the historical legacy of colonialism, as well as contemporary
patterns of international trade and investment, have created a global system of economic dependence
in which developing countries are forced to export primary commodities and import manufactured
goods from developed countries at disadvantageous terms. This results in a situation where the
periphery is dependent on the core for their economic survival and development.
Furthermore, the dependence theory argues that the core countries use their economic power to control
the political and cultural systems of the periphery, thereby maintaining their dominance and preventing
genuine development from taking place. This can take the form of supporting authoritarian regimes
that are friendly to their interests, promoting cultural homogenization through media and education,
and perpetuating a system of unequal trade relations.
Critics of the dependence theory argue that it overlooks the agency of developing countries and the
role of internal factors, such as corruption and poor governance, in hindering development. They also
point out that some countries in the periphery have been able to achieve significant economic growth
and development despite being part of the global system of dependence.
Overall, the dependence theory of development provides a critical perspective on the structural
inequalities that exist in the global economy and the challenges facing developing countries in
achieving sustainable development.

How does the dependence theory apply to LDCS?

The dependence theory of development has significant implications for the development of less
developed countries (LDCs). According to this theory, LDCs are often exploited and dominated by
more developed countries, which perpetuates their dependence and prevents genuine development
from taking place. Here are a few ways in which the dependence theory applies to LDCs:

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1. Economic dependence: LDCs are often heavily dependent on exports of primary commodities,
such as agricultural products and raw materials, while being heavily reliant on imports of manufactured
goods from more developed countries. This can result in a situation where LDCs are unable to add
value to their products, which keeps them locked into low-level production and perpetuates their
economic dependence on more developed countries.
2. Unequal trade relations: The dependence theory argues that LDCs are often forced to trade with
more developed countries on disadvantageous terms, which can perpetuate their economic
dependence. This can take the form of low prices for their exports, high prices for their imports, and
unequal access to markets.
3. Political dependence: The dependence theory argues that more developed countries often use their
economic power to influence the political systems of LDCs, which can perpetuate their dependence
and prevent genuine development from taking place. This can take the form of supporting authoritarian
regimes that are friendly to their interests, or intervening in the political affairs of LDCs in order to
maintain their dominance.
4. Cultural dependence: The dependence theory also argues that more developed countries often
promote cultural homogenization in LDCs through media and education, which can perpetuate their
cultural dependence and prevent the development of local cultures and identities.
Overall, the dependence theory highlights the structural inequalities that exist in the global economy
and the challenges facing LDCs in achieving sustainable development. It emphasizes the importance
of addressing these inequalities and promoting greater economic, political, and cultural autonomy for
LDCs in order to achieve genuine development.

Limitations of the dependence theory of development

While the dependence theory of development provides a critical perspective on the challenges facing
less developed countries (LDCs), there are several limitations to this theory. Here are a few:
1. Oversimplification: The dependence theory often presents a simplistic view of the relationship
between developed and developing countries, portraying the former as exploiters and the latter as
victims. In reality, the relationship between developed and developing countries is much more complex
and multifaceted.
2. Ignoring internal factors: The dependence theory tends to overlook internal factors, such as
corruption, poor governance, and conflict that can hinder development in LDCs. While external factors
may play a role in perpetuating underdevelopment, it is important to recognize the internal factors that
contribute to these problems as well.
3. Neglecting agency: The dependence theory sometimes neglects the agency of LDCs, portraying
them as passive victims of external forces. However, LDCs also have the capacity to make choices
and take actions that can promote their own development, even in the face of external challenges.
4. Lack of empirical support: The empirical evidence supporting the dependence theory is mixed.
While there are certainly examples of developed countries exploiting and dominating developing
countries, there are also cases where developing countries have been able to achieve significant
economic growth and development despite being part of the global system of dependence.
5. Inadequate solutions: The dependence theory does not offer clear solutions for promoting
development in LDCs. While it highlights the need to address structural inequalities in the global
economy, it does not provide concrete recommendations for how to do so. Overall, while the
dependence theory provides an important critique of the global economic system and the challenges

26
facing LDCs, it is important to recognize its limitations and consider alternative perspectives on
development as well.

Ways how the dependence theory of development apply to Uganda

The Dependence Theory of Development is a critical approach to the study of economic development
that emphasizes the negative effects of external influences on developing countries.
Here are ten ways in which the Dependence Theory of Development applies to Uganda:
1. Uganda’s economy is highly dependent on foreign aid, which accounts for a significant portion of
its budget. This reliance on foreign aid makes Uganda vulnerable to external pressures and conditions.
2. Uganda’s economic policies are often shaped by external factors such as the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which promote neoliberal economic policies that prioritize the interests
of developed countries and multinational corporations.
3. Uganda’s economic growth has been primarily driven by the export of raw materials such as coffee,
tea, and tobacco. This reliance on primary commodities leaves Uganda vulnerable to fluctuations in
global commodity prices.
4. Uganda’s agricultural sector is dominated by large-scale commercial farming operations owned by
multi-national corporations. This has led to the displacement of small-scale farmers and the
concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
5. Uganda’s manufacturing sector is underdeveloped, which limits the country’s ability to add value
to its raw materials and export finished products.
6. Uganda’s educational system is heavily influenced by Western models, which prioritize technical
skills over critical thinking and creativity. This limits the country’s ability to develop innovative
solutions to its development challenges.
7. Uganda’s political system is highly centralized, with power concentrated in the hands of a few elites.
This limits the participation of ordinary citizens in the development process and perpetuates inequality.
8. Uganda’s natural resources are often exploited by foreign companies, which extract wealth from the
country without providing adequate compensation or benefits to local communities.
9. Uganda’s infrastructure is often designed to serve the needs of foreign investors rather than local
communities. This results in inadequate access to basic services such as healthcare, education, and
transportation for many Ugandans.
10. Uganda’s dependence on external sources of financing and expertise limits its ability to pursue
development policies that prioritize the needs of its own citizens over those of foreign actors. This
perpetuates a cycle of dependency that hinders the country’s long-term development prospects.

Modernization Theory
Modernization theory casts development as a uniform evolutionary route that all societies follow, from
agricultural, rural, and traditional societies to post-industrial, urban, and modern forms. In other words,
all societies, once engaged in the modernization process, follow a predetermined sequence
of developmental stages: traditional economies, transition to take off, take off itself, drive to maturity,
age of high consumption, and post-industrial society . Modernization theory emphasizes internal forces
and sources of socioeconomic development such as formal education, market-based economy, and
democratic and secular political structures. Although modernization theory does not rule out external
forces and sources of social change and economic development, it focuses less on foreign influences.

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 Among external influences, however, science is exceptional because it is considered beneficial to
developing countries by way of ‘knowledge and technology transfer’ from developed countries. In
other words, societies can be fast-tracked to modernization by ‘importing’ Western technical capital,
forms of organization, and science and technology to developing countries.
Rostow argues that adoption of scientific methods and scientific ways of thinking and acquisition of
techno scientific skills are critical at the ‘transition to take-off stage of development. Essentially,
proponents of modernization theory view science and technology as catalysts for development. Science
and technology provide conducive environments for economic growth in developing countries through
their ability to provide rational protocols in decision making for the efficient use of material and human
resources
As far as modernization theory is concerned, development is simply a matter of knowledge and
technology transfer that is unproblematic and straightforward, context free, and not disruptive of
existing social and cultural arrangements in developing countries
Modernization theory also seems to be unmindful of the fact that much of the knowledge and
technology critical for national development and national competitiveness are within the domain of
proprietary knowledge production. In a way, modernization theory implies a monolithic, one-way, and
top-down development scheme that holds true for all identities, for all time, for all places, and for all
contexts. The same holds true for knowledge generation, production, dissemination, and
representation. In this top-down development model, the sources of knowledge are foreign to the places
and identities to which knowledge is applied or exported. As a model for social change and
development, modernization theory fails to consider the possibility of having an interactive and
multifarious process of knowledge generation and exchange, which is made possible by recent
advances in ICT.

The earliest principles of modernization theory can be derived from the idea of progress,
which stated that people can develop and change their society themselves especially if they
embrace technology. This theory states that technological advancements and economic
changes can lead to changes in moral and cultural values. Some of the proponents of this
theory include Marquis de Condorcet, Émile Durkheim, David Apter, Seymour Martin Lipset,
David McClelland, and Talcott Parsons.
➢ Linear stages of growth model
The linear stages of growth model, is an economic model which assumes that economic
growth can only be achieved by industrialization. Growth can be restricted by local institutions
and social attitudes, especially if these aspects influence the savings rate and investments.
The constraints impeding economic growth are thus considered by this model to be internal
to society. According to the linear stages of growth model, a correctly designed massive
injection of capital coupled with intervention by the public sector would ultimately lead to
industrialization and economic development of a developing nation.
The most commonly known linear stages of growth model include Walt W. Rostow’s theory.

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Walt W. Rostow identified five stages through which developing countries had to pass to
reach an advanced economy status:

(1) Traditional society,

(2) Preconditions for take-off,
(3) Take-off,
(4) Drive to maturity,
(5) Age of high mass consumption.

He argued that economic development could be led by certain strong sectors; this is in
contrast to for instance Marxism which states that sectors should develop equally. According
to Rostow’s model, a country needed to follow some rules of development to reach the take-
off:
(1) The investment rate of a country needs to be increased to at least 10% of its GDP,
(2) One or two manufacturing sectors with a high rate of growth need to be established,
(3) An institutional, political and social framework has to exist or be created in order to
promote the expansion of those sectors.
The Rostow model has serious flaws, of which the most serious are:
(1) The model assumes that development can be achieved through a basic sequence of
stages which are the same for all countries, a doubtful assumption;
(2) The model measures development solely by means of the increase of GDP per capita;
(3) The model focuses on characteristics of development, but does not identify the causal
factors which lead development to occur.
As such, it neglects the social structures that have to be present to foster development.
Critics of modernization theory
Modernization theory observes traditions and pre-existing institutions of so-called "primitive"
societies as obstacles to modern economic growth. Modernization which is forced from
outside upon a society might induce violent and radical change, but according to
modernization theorists it is generally worth this side effect. Critics point to traditional
societies as being destroyed and slipping away to a modern form of poverty without ever
gaining the promised advantages of modernization.

THE CORE VALUES OF DEVELOPMENT

There are three core values of development: (i) sustenance, (ii) self- esteem, and (iii) freedom.
The current approach to development owes a great deal to the writings and views of

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Noble Laureate Dr. Amartaya Sen. as Sen put it, ``Economic growth cannot be sensibly treated as an
end in itself. Development has to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms
we enjoy.” This new approach is popularly known as Sen’s Capabilities Approach.
According to this approach, development is not just about increasing the availability of commodities
(focus of the per-capita income approach) but expanding the capabilities of individuals to use these
commodities and enhancing the freedom of choice of people.
Higher income is important an element of one’s well being. But, well being of individuals also depends
on their health, education, geographical and social environment, and political system. There are three
core values of development: (i) sustenance, (ii) self esteem, and (iii) freedom.

Sustenance: Sustenance is the ability to meet basic needs of people. All people have certain basic
needs without which life would be impossible. These basic needs include food, shelter, health, and
protection. People should have access to these basic needs.
Self-Esteem: Sense of worth and self-respect and feeling of not being marginalized are extremely
important for individual’s well being. All peoples and societies seek some form of self-esteem
(identity, dignity, respect, honor etc.). The nature and form of self esteem may vary from on culture to
another and from time to time. Self-esteem may be based on material values: higher income or wealth
may be equated with higher worthiness. One may consider individuals worthy based on their intellect
or public service.
Freedom from Servitude: Human freedom, the ability to choose, is essential for the well being of
individuals. Freedom involves an expanded range of choices for societies: economic and political. It
involves freedom from bondage, serfdom, and other exploitative economic, social, and political
relationships.
The new view about the development process suggests that one cannot capture the process of
development by just per-capita income. It cannot reflect the multidimensional nature of development
process. In recent years, a number of different types of measures have been developed to better reflect
the multidimensional nature of development process. In next few lectures, we will study extensively
some of these new measures.

DEPENDENCY THEORY
Dependency theory is essentially a follow up to structuralist thinking, and shares many of its
core ideas. Whereas structuralists did not consider that development would be possible at all
unless a strategy of delinking and rigorous import substitution industrialisation (ISI) was
pursued, dependency thinking could allow development with external links with the developed
parts of the globe. However, this kind of development is considered to be "dependent
development", i.e., it does not have an internal domestic dynamic in the developing country
and thus remains dependent.
Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and
underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the

30
former. It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and
rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system". This theory
was officially developed in the late 1960s following World War II, as scholars searched for
the root issue in the lack of development in Latin America.
The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development
which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's
underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at
some time in the past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out
of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by
various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world
market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are
not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures
of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world
market economy.
Dependency theorists can typically be divided into two categories: liberal reformists and neo-
Marxists. Liberal reformists typically advocate for targeted policy interventions, while the neo-
Marxists believe in a command-centered economy.
Dependency thinking starts from the notion that resources flow from the ‘periphery’ of poor
and underdeveloped states to a ‘core’ of wealthy countries, which leads to accumulation of
wealth in the rich states at the expense of the poor states. Contrary to modernization theory,
dependency theory states that not all society’s progress through similar stages of
development. Periphery states have unique features, structures and institutions of their own
and are considered weaker with regards to the world market economy, while the developed
nations have never been in this colonized position in the past. Dependency theorists argue
that underdeveloped countries remain economically vulnerable unless they reduce their
connections to the world market.
Dependency theory states that poor nations provide natural resources and cheap labour for
developed nations, without which the developed nations could not have the standard of living
which they enjoy. When underdeveloped countries try to remove the Core's influence, the
developed countries hinder their attempts to keep control. This means that poverty of
developing nations is not the result of the disintegration of these countries in the world
system, but because of the way in which they are integrated into this system.

NEO-LIBERALISM AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

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Basically, Neo-liberalism is a market-driven approach to development based on economic,
social policy and neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the efficiency of private
enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets. Neo-liberalism seeks to maximize
the role of the private sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the country.
Neo-liberalism is based on the following principles;
(1) Liberalization; enabling free competition
(2) Privatization; sell off public sector
(3) De-regulation; reducing the role of law and state
(4)Lowering direct taxes; increasing consumers choice
(5)Market proxies in residual public sector
(6) Internationalization; allowing inward and outward trade flows.
Since the 1970s, significant transformations have occurred in the global market for both
developed and developing economies. With the change in the global economic conditions
through the oil crisis, emergency of the capitalist economy, increasing global competition,
etc., the neoliberal ideology, which had been advocated since 1930s, became popular in the
context of the late 1970s. This new order brought increasing foreign trade, interest rate
liberalization, deregulation, privatization, decrease in state expenditures on social service
and liberal foreign exchange regime instead of the state interventionism (Balkan and Sarvan
(2002).
However, neo-liberalism has certainly not only been dominant at the ideological level, but
they were also applied as policies. Keynesianism, with its emphasis on state intervention and
the social protections of the welfare state, was abandoned in the First World as a result of
neoliberal policies. In a very similar way, the development framework for developing
countries which was dominant during 1950s and 1960s came to an end as a result of their
inability to deliver on all their promises. The emergence of development economic in poorer
countries was based on an economic structural adjustment programs which were imposed
by IMF and the World Bank. Bauer refers to it as creating rent-seeking society where poorer
countries will forever be indebted to western economy (Bauer, 1981: 12-13, 174). Hoogvelt
coined it ‘debt peonage’ (Hoogvelt, 1997), while George (2004) was of the opinion that this
sort of control over poorer economics required minimal effort as does not require physical
administration but through invisible factors such as market policies and restrictions.

Good Governance

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Good Governance has become the major buzzword in aid policy and development thinking
today. The concept is often defined as a political regime based on the model of a liberal
democratic polity, which protects human and civil rights, combined with a competent, non-
corrupt and accountable public administration. Good Governance is an approach to
government that is committed to creating a system founded in justice and peace that protects
individual’s human rights and civil liberties.
Features of good governance
Good governance as a principle obliges the state to perform its functions in a manner that
promotes the values of efficiency, no corruptibility, and the responsiveness to civil society.
Good Governance is measured by the eight factors of Participation, Rule of Law,
Transparency, Responsiveness, Consensus Oriented, Equity and Inclusiveness,
Effectiveness and Efficiency, and Accountability.
Participation requires that all groups, particularly those most vulnerable, have direct or
representative access to the systems of government. This manifests as a strong civil society
and citizens with the freedom of association and expression.
Rule of Law is exemplified by impartial legal systems that protect the human rights and civil
liberties of all citizens, particularly minorities. This is indicated by an independent judicial
branch and a police force free from corruption.
Transparency means that citizens understand and have access to the means and manner
in which decisions are made, especially if they are directly affected by such decisions. This
information must be provided in an understandable and accessible format, typically translated
through the media.
Responsiveness simply involves that institutions respond to their stakeholders within a
reasonable time frame.
Consensus Oriented is demonstrated by an agenda that seeks to mediate between the
many different needs, perspectives, and expectations of a diverse citizenry. Decisions needs
to be made in a manner that reflects a deep understanding of the historical, cultural, and
social context of the community.
Equity and Inclusiveness depends on ensuring that all the members of a community feel
included and empowered to improve or maintain their well being, especially those individuals
and groups that are the most vulnerable.
Effectiveness and Efficiency is developed through the sustainable use of resources to meet
the needs of a society. Sustainability refers to both ensuring social investments carry through
and natural resources are maintained for future generations.

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 Accountability refers to institutions being ultimately accountable to the people and one
another. This includes government agencies, civil society, and the private sector all being
accountable to one another as well.
Most states are not near to achieving sustainable development due to lack of vigorous
working democracy which respects the rule of law, a free press, energetic civil society and
effective and independent public bodies: Inspectorate of Government, Auditor General, Equal
Employment Opportunities Commission, Human Rights Commission etc.

ACTORS IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Learning Outcome: Learners will understand the role of state and non state actors as
complimentary as well as competitors in the development sphere as well as the impact of
debt on nation-states.
THE STATE, DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT
Today the state has emerged as an active participant in the process of development in
several ways.
a) Democracy embodies four basic principles: freedom, justice, free participation of citizens and
human rights. Democracy should however reflect the specific social, cultural and economic
context of a given society. In so doing, a democratic society must be aware of three (3)
potential pitfalls:
1. Majority domination
2. Political representation doesn’t guarantee harmony and sometimes may exacerbate
problems
3. The need for cultural diversity
Democracy only works when people respect differences, discuss them, and are willing to
share power
Development includes a whole range of economic, social and cultural progress which people
aspire. As such, development (like democracy) should be tailored to cultural contexts
Relationship between Democracy and Development: there is now a widespread agreement
that a close relationship exists between the two concepts. The relationship is thought to be
complimentary and mutually reinforcing. A “true democracy” is thought to require a minimum
level of development. On the other hand, efficient development is thought to require
democratic governance.
Both democracy and development need a robust, capable, democratic developmental state.
A democratic developmental state operates in such a way that it leaves ample room for other

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key non-state actors to make their critical input in the development agenda and the
democratization process.

NGOs, CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Civil society can be defined as the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and
institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens. Civil society includes the family and the
private sphere, referred to as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and
business. Sometimes the term civil society is used in the more general sense of "the elements
such as freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, etc., that make up a democratic
society" The term also refers to the entire range of organized groups and institutions that are
independent of the state, voluntary, and at least to some extent self-generating and self-
reliant. This of course includes non-governmental organizations, but also independent mass
media, think tanks, universities, and social and religious groups etc.
Civil society roles include:
✓ Service provider (for example, running primary schools and providing basic community
health care services)
✓ Advocate/campaigner (for example, lobbying governments or business on issues
including indigenous rights or the environment)
✓ Watchdog (for example, monitoring government compliance with human rights
treaties)
✓ Building active citizenship (for example, motivating civic engagement at the local level
and engagement with local, regional and national governance)
✓ Participating in global governance processes (for example, civil society organisations
serve on the advisory board of the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds).
✓ Civil society has created positive social change in numerous places throughout the
world. For example, WaterAid UK provided over 1.3 million people with safe drinking
water in 2017/18, whilst in El Salvador, the government passed a law in 2017 banning
environmentally and socially harmful metal mining practices following civil society
action since 2004. However, questions about civil society’s value, legitimacy and
accountability are increasingly. Reasons for this include:
• recent NGO scandals, such as Oxfam workers in Haiti
• a growing disconnect between traditional CSOs and their beneficiaries

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 • a tough funding climate which has encouraged some CSOs to ‘follow the money’ and
move away from their core mandates
• the growing role of new social movements which are able to connect with and mobilise
large numbers of people
Challenges facing civil society organisations working on Human Rights in the EU
1. Enabling the Regulatory Environment. ...
2. Finance and Funding. ...
3. Right to participation. ...
4. Ensuring a safe space for civil society. ...
5. Space for exchange and dialogue.

THE UN AND THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

The United Nations
Since its formation in September 1945 the United Nations has several roles:
1. Maintain International Peace and Security
The United Nations came into being in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World
War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN
does this by working to prevent conflict; helping parties in conflict make peace; peacekeeping;
and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap
and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The UN Security Council has the primary
responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-
General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and
bodies.
2. Protect Human Rights
The term “human rights” was mentioned seven times in the UN's founding Charter, making
the promotion and protection of human rights a key purpose and guiding principle of the
Organization. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought human rights into
the realm of international law. Since then, the Organization has diligently protected human
rights through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities.
3. Deliver Humanitarian Aid
One of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in its Charter, is "to achieve international
co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or
humanitarian character." The UN first did this in the aftermath of the Second World War on

36
 the devastated continent of Europe, which it helped to rebuild. The Organization is now relied
upon by the international community to coordinate humanitarian relief operations due to
natural and man-made disasters in areas beyond the relief capacity of national authorities
alone.
4. Promote Sustainable Development
From the start in 1945, one of the main priorities of the United Nations was to “achieve
international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural,
or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and
for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or
religion.” Improving people’s well-being continues to be one of the main focuses of the UN.
The global understanding of development has changed over the years, and countries now
have agreed that sustainable development – development that promotes prosperity and
economic opportunity, greater social well-being, and protection of the environment – offers
the best path forward for improving the lives of people everywhere.
5. Uphold International Law
The UN Charter, in its Preamble, set an objective: "to establish conditions under which justice
and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can
be maintained". Ever since, the development of, and respect for international law has been a
key part of the work of the Organization. This work is carried out in many ways - by courts,
tribunals, multilateral treaties - and by the Security Council, which can approve peacekeeping
missions, impose sanctions, or authorize the use of force when there is a threat to
international peace and security, if it deems this necessary. These powers are given to it by
the UN Charter, which is considered an international treaty. As such, it is an instrument of
international law, and UN Member States are bound by it. The UN Charter codifies the major
principles of international relations, from sovereign equality of States to the prohibition of the
use of force in international relations.

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

International financial Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund are facing varied economical, financial, political, social and environmental issues today.
Their role with regards to the administration of global distributive justice, minimizing poverty
or aiding in the developmental processes is being called into question. In this paper, the
author has tried to expose the internal working procedure of these institutions and the effects
of their policies which have been debated vigorously as scepticism looms large in the wake

37
of a worsening economic situation and living standards especially in the Developing and
Least Developed countries.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

IMF is an international organization that was initiated in 1944 but was formally created after
more than three years in 1947 by twenty-nine countries. The membership of the IMF has
grown by leaps and bounds to 187 countries which constitute 98% of the world population.
Interestingly it excludes countries like Cuba, Myanmar and North Korea.
The IMF has various aims but the important among them being reduction of poverty, helping
countries attain financial stability and to promote monetary cooperation. The people in IMF
believe that it has played a very critical role in the various financial disturbances since its
inception which was almost some seven decades ago, however such rosy picture is in
contravention with various grim realities and such facts are widely documented by various
.Before the financial turmoil that erupted in 2008, the Fund’s budget was in such poor shape
that staff cuts were imposed. Not the first time that good times had side-lined the IMF to the
point that it was handicapped in responding to crisis and to what extent has been the
institution been able to minimise the global economic imbalances which are on a rapid surge.
One of the basic criticisms of the IMF has been that voting procedure in the governing body
gives abundant voting rights to the states which are major contributors to its fund. The
procedure is based on the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) which is supplementary foreign
exchange reserves. It instead represents a claim to currency held by member countries for
which they may be exchanged. This means that the decision making power of each country
depends on its SDR quota and is clearly against the interests of the poorer countries.
Moreover these countries that hold majority are the capitalistic countries and their grip over
the decision making is bound to invite criticism and it does invite criticism. Let us take the
example of the United States which hold 17% of the total votes in the IMF; the irony is that to
take any special decision according to the Articles of agreement out of the total number of
votes 85% majority is required which means that the United States has the extraordinary
power of effectively vetoing every important policy making decision. This is just one of the
many ways in which a group of four –five countries have literally hijacked the working of the
IMF. This also implies that such right quite emphatically excludes the majority of the member
states in as far as the working procedure is concerned. The pattern of this trend has continued
to tilt in favour of the more powerful countries which in turn leaves the poorer countries in a
state of utter discontent because they as members and beneficiaries of certain policies are

38
bound by the commitments of this polarised system. What has been very interesting is the
increase in the vote share of the certain Asian countries like China and India which has
changed the equations of power in the institution but it is also due to the fact that these states
are the beneficiaries of the SDR procedure, which means that this should not excite the
sceptics anytime soon because the bottom line remains that there is no respite from the fact
that countries with less economic power and especially the debt-holders remain at the
receiving end of what its promoters is a system of “justice”. After all the system was meant to
help the less privileged countries and not countries with rapidly thriving economies who in the
current state of affairs seem to be the chief benefactors of the existing setup.
The architects of the Bretton Woods Agreement, John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter
White, envisioned an institution that would oversee the international monetary system,
exchange rates, and international payments to enable countries and their citizens to buy
goods and services from each other. They expected that this new global entity would ensure
exchange rate stability and encourage its member countries to eliminate the exchange
restrictions that hindered trade. Officially, the IMF came into existence in December 1945
with twenty-nine member countries. (The Soviets, who were at Bretton Woods, refused to
join the IMF.)
In 1947, the institution’s first formal year of operations, the French became the first nation to
borrow from the IMF. Over the next thirty years, more countries joined the IMF, including
some African countries in the 1960s. The Soviet bloc nations remained the exception and
were not part of the IMF until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The IMF experienced another
large increase in members in the 1990s with the addition of Russia; Russia was also placed
on the IMF’s executive committee. Today, 187 countries are members of the IMF; twenty-
four of those countries or groups of countries are represented on the executive board.

The purposes of the International Monetary Fund are as follows:

1. To promote international monetary cooperation through a permanent institution which
provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary
problems.
2.To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute
thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income and
to the development of the productive resources of all members as primary objectives of
economic policy.

39
3.To promote exchange stability, to maintain orderly exchange arrangements among
members, and to avoid competitive exchange depreciation.
4.To assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments in respect of current
transactions between members and in the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions which
hamper the growth of world trade.
5.To give confidence to members by making the general resources of the Fund temporarily
available to them under adequate safeguards, thus providing them with opportunity to correct
maladjustments in their balance of payments without resorting to measures destructive of
national or international prosperity.
6. In accordance with the above, to shorten the duration and lessen the degree of
disequilibrium in the international balances of payments of members.
7.In addition to financial assistance, the IMF also provides member countries with technical
assistance to create and implement effective policies, particularly economic, monetary, and
banking policy and regulations.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

A Special Drawing Right (SDR) is basically an international monetary reserve asset. SDRs
were created in 1969 by the IMF in response to the Triffin Paradox. The Triffin Paradox stated
that the more U.S. dollars were used as a base reserve currency, the less faith that countries
had in the ability of the US government to convert those dollars to gold. The world was still
using the Bretton Woods system, and the initial expectation was that SDRs would replace
the U.S. dollar as the global monetary reserve currency, thus solving the Triffin Paradox.
Bretton Woods collapsed a few years later, but the concept of an SDR solidified. Today the
value of an SDR consists of the value of four of the IMF’s biggest members’ currencies—the
U.S. dollar, the British pound, the Japanese yen, and the euro—but the currencies do not
hold equal weight. SDRs are quoted in terms of U.S. dollars. The basket, or group of
currencies, is reviewed every five years by the IMF executive board and is based on the
currency’s role in international trade and finance. The following chart shows the current
valuation in percentages of the four currencies.
Currency Weighting
U.S. dollar 44 percent
Euro 34 percent
Japanese yen11 percent
British pound 11 percent
The SDR is not a currency, but some refer to it as a form of IMF currency. It does not
constitute a claim on the IMF, which only serves to provide a mechanism for buying, selling,
and exchanging SDRs. Countries are allocated SDRs, which are included in the member
country’s reserves. SDRs can be exchanged between countries along with currencies. The
SDR serves as the unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations,
and countries borrow from the IMF in SDRs in times of economic need.

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 Criticism and Challenging Areas for the IMF
The IMF supports many developing nations by helping them overcome monetary challenges
and to maintain a stable international financial system. Despite this clearly defined purpose,
the execution of its work can be very complicated and can have wide repercussions for the
recipient nations. As a result, the IMF has both its critics and its supporters. The challenges
for organizations like the the IMF and the World Bank center not only on some of their
operating deficiencies but also on the global political environment in which they operate. The
IMF has been subject to a range of criticisms that are generally focused on the conditions of
its loans, its lack of accountability, and its willingness to lend to countries with bad human
rights records. These criticisms include the following:
1. Conditions for loans. The IMF makes the loan given to countries conditional on the
implementation of certain economic policies, which typically include the following:
1.Reducing government borrowing (higher taxes and lower spending)
2.Higher interest rates to stabilize the currency
3.Allowing failing firms to go bankrupt
4.Structural adjustment (privatization, deregulation, reducing corruption and bureaucracy

The austere policies have worked at times but always extract a political toll as the impact on
average citizens is usually quite harsh. The opening case on “International Trade and Foreign
Direct Investment” presents the current impact of IMF policies on Greece. Some suggest that
the loan conditions are “based on what is termed the ‘Washington Consensus,’ focusing on
liberalisation of trade, investment and the financial sector—, deregulation and privatisation of
nationalised industries. Often the conditionalities are attached without due regard for the
borrower countries’ individual circumstances and the prescriptive recommendations by the
World Bank and IMF fail to resolve the economic problems within the countries. IMF
conditionalities may additionally result in the loss of a state’s authority to govern its own
economy as national economic policies are predetermined under IMF packages.”
2. Exchange rate reforms. “When the IMF intervened in Kenya in the 1990s, they made the
Central bank remove controls over flows of capital. The consensus was that this decision
made it easier for corrupt politicians to transfer money out of the economy (known as the
Goldman scandal). Critics argue this is another example of how the IMF failed to understand
the dynamics of the country that they were dealing with—insisting on blanket reforms.”
3. Devaluations. In the initial stages, the IMF has been criticized for allowing inflationary
devaluations.

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 4. Free-market criticisms of the IMF. “Believers in free markets argue that it is better to let
capital markets operate without attempts at intervention. They argue attempts to influence
exchange rates only make things worse. it is better to allow currencies to reach their market
level.” They also assert that bailing out countries with large debts is morally hazardous;
countries that know that there is always a bailout provision will borrow and spend more
recklessly.
5. Lack of transparency and involvement. The IMF has been criticized for “imposing policy
with little or no consultation with affected countries.”
6. Supporting military dictatorships. The IMF has been criticized over the decades for
supporting military dictatorships.

THE WORLD BANK (WB)

The World Bank group as it exists today is a member of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and consists of:
• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
• International Development Association (IDA)
• International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
• International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
A look at the Articles of Agreement makes it amply clear that the basic function of the Group
is the eradication of poverty in addition to the ancillary objects of foreign investment,
international trade and the facilitation of capital investment. Its finances are taken care of by
the shareholders, investors and the donors and other details as to its functioning have also
been laid down in detail.
To its credit the WB has done a commendable job over the years and more particularly in the
past two decades in the economic development of the developing countries by emphasising
on the transfer of information, expertise and knowledge in addition to money. In recent years,
the World Bank has cooperated with many partner agencies in striving to attain the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) and now Agenda 2030 (The Sustainable Development Goals).
Functions of the World Bank
1.It helps the war-devastated countries by granting them loans for reconstruction.
2.Thus, they provide extensive experience and the financial resources of the bank help the
poor countries increase their economic growth, reducing poverty and a better standard of
living.
3. Also, it helps the underdeveloped countries by granting development loans.

42
 4. It also provides loans to various governments for irrigation, agriculture, water supply,
health, education, etc.
5. It promotes foreign investments to other organizations by guaranteeing the loans.
6. Also, the World Bank provides economic, monetary, and technical advice
7. Also, the World Bank provides economic, monetary, and technical advice to the member
countries for any of their projects.
8. Thus, it encourages the development of of-industries in underdeveloped countries by
introducing the various economic reforms.
Objectives of the World Bank
• This includes providing long term capital to its member nations for economic development
and reconstruction.
• Thus, it helps in inducing long term capital for improving the balance of payments and thereby
balancing international trade.
• Also, it helps by providing guarantees against loans granted to large and small units and
other projects for the member nations.
• So, it ensures that the development projects are implemented. Thus, it brings a sense of
transparency for a nation from war-time to a peaceful economy.
• Also, it promotes the capital investment for member nations by providing a guarantee for
capital investment and loans.
• So, if the capital investment is not available than it provides the guarantee and then IBRD
provides loans for promotional activities on specific conditions.
• It wants to provide loans with low-interest rates and interest-free credits.

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 THE ASIAN TIGERS AND DEVELOPMENT
The four Asian Tigers (Hongkong, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore) have been the fastest
growing countries in the world for the past three decades. These countries have been hailed
as models of development for other emerging economies. The main factors argued for their
growth are mainly high saving rates and investment rates, outward orientation, factor
productivity macro discipline, and other public policies. However there is continued lack of
consensus over these factors despite most of the researchers agreeing over the promotion
of dynamic export sector and factor productivity as the major factors of growth.
Common characteristics of Asian Tigers
• Focus on exports: Where as other developing countries use import substitution strategies for
economic development, the Asian tigers focused on export oriented industrial development
to richer countries. Domestic production was discouraged through government policies such
as high tariffs. also trading the surplus with the richer countries
• Human capital development – they developed specialized skills for their personnel in order
to improve productivity
• They had an abundance of cheap labour
• Sustained rate of high growth rates (probably double digits) for decades
• Non democratic and relatively authoritarian political systems during the early years
• High tariffs on imports in the early days
• Undervalued currencies
• High saving rate
A case of Singapore in particular between 1966 and 1990, the economy grew at remarkable
8.5% per annum, 3 times faster than that of the US growth, per capita income grew at 6.6%
rate roughly doubling every decade. This achievement seems to be the kind of economic
miracle. The employed share of the population surged from 27% to 51%. The educational
standards of that workforce were dramatically upgraded. Also the country grew awesome
levels of physical capital, investment as share of output rose from 11% to more than 40%.
Factors that engineered the robust growth in Asian economies
Although consensus has not yet been reached by different scholars/researchers and policy
makers, the following are the mostly argued to be the factors behind the Asian tigers growth;
1. Skilled labour force- In the 1960s these nations were poor and had abundance of cheap
labour. This excess labour was absorbed by labour intensive industries. Eg in 1965 Korea
industry sector only employed 9.4% as opposed to 21.6% in 1980 yet agriculture employment
fell from 58.6% to 34% over the same period. The excess labour was transformed into

44
productive workforce through the education reform and yet remained competitively cheap.
The focus was placed on education at all levels, all children attending elementary education
and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving college and
university system.
2. Capital accumulation With respect to physical capital, the reasons can primarily be traced
to the high savings rates. Policies also probably played a significant role in increasing the
investment rate of the economy (High savings rates do not automatically translate into high
domestic investment rates but nevertheless, the high savings rates have led to high domestic
investment rates in Taiwan for example).As much as capital accumulation was key to the
growth of these countries, capital productivity (recall labor transferred to industrial sector was
accompanied with education reforms to add to its productivity) was essential. Capital
productivity was attained through adopt foreign knowledge and technology. The technological
catch up coupled with capital accumulation was significant to the Asian tiger’s growth.
Note For most researchers they argue that factor productivity (labour should be enhanced
with education and capital enhanced with technological progress) is key for economic growth.
3. Outward oriented strategies/policies- The more rapid growth can be growth can be
associated with much greater openness. Both exports and imports grew about twice as fast
in the Asian economies as they did in the latin America. Asian economies maintained much
high ratios of exports and imports to GDP. In hongkong and Singapore openness was
achieved by ending all restrictions on imports and giving free rein to export sector. In Japan
and Korea, and Taiwan, trade barriers were initially during the early 1970s however, the tariffs
were gradually reduced. Among the tactics used in different countries were: exchange rate
policies to favor exporters, export incentives, and selective tariff protection; financial
repression, slowing financial sector development and consumer lending to provide cheap
financing to industry – for exports, and for key industries; a high level of consultation between
bureaucrats and business – both individual companies and industry groupings.
4. Slow growth rates of population- This played a great role in reducing family sizes
(dependency ratios), creation of an educated labour force, accumulation of household and
government savings, rise in wages and impressive growth of investments in manufacturing
technology. 1965 each of the Asian tigers established family planning programmes and as a
result fertility declined. Emphasis was also placed on civil education, increasing the rate of
entry of women into the workforce and education sector; leading to delayed marriages. By
1995, the average fertility level was an average of two children per family (couple). Compare
it with the Uganda’s current fertility rate of 6.7 births per mother. Smaller families produced 3

45
major demographic changes; slowed growth in the number of school-age children, a lower
ratio of dependants to the working age adults and a reduced rate of labour force growth.
5.Culture and Religious beliefs- Racial and religious harmony is regarded by the
government as a crucial part of Singapore's success and played a part in building a
Singaporean identity. Due to the many races and cultures in the country, there is no single
set of culturally acceptable behaviours. BUddism is the most widely practiced religion in
Singapore, with 33% of the resident population declaring themselves adherents at the most
recent census. The religious beliefs of Singapore, hard work, innovativeness coupled with
their culture of openness and harsh punishments for criminal offences led to a corruption free
economy.
6. Flying Geese Hypothesis-In this case, countries in East Asia aligned successively behind
the developed or advanced industrialized countries in their order of different stages of growth
in the wild geese flying pattern. In this pattern the leading goose pattern is Japan, the second
tier of countries are four tigers (Hongkong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan) where as the third
3rd stage consisted of countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia).China and
Vietnam served as the rear guard in the formation. The “flying geese” hypothesis predicts as
labor cost surges in one economy, firms tend to move their investment to the less developed
neighboring countries or regions to take advantage of lower wage rates.In the recent East
Asian economic history, the phase of flying geese lasts less than two decades. The New
Industrializing Economies (South Korea, TheTaiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong) absorbed
most of the Japanese investment in the1960s and 1970s when the production cost in Japan
rocketed up Eg in the early years Japan influenced most of these countries like Taiwan after
the 2nd world war and these countries adopted the Japanese economic model of economic
development. E.g. China external trade development council and the bureau of industrial
development were based on the Japanese models. Japan beyond being major trading
company with developed countries, it became a major trading company with the Asian tigers
e.g. under the policy of agriculturising Taiwan and industrialization of Japan, the Japanese
heavily invested in Taiwanese agriculture.
7. Knowledge driven economy-it was realized that there is need for research and
development if a country was to grow to economic maturity. The Asian Tiger governments
committed to improving research and development. E.g. in Malaysia the research activity
was/is determined by the needs of the industry including the needs of Small & medium
industries. Even in these countries, the skills focus was professional and managerial
occupational skills, research skills, professorship skill and technical skills. The industries

46
became knowledge driven industries and e.g. in Singapore gradually 2 out of 3 jobs were for
knowledged and skilled workers in manufacturing sector and 3 out of 4 of the export services
sector. Investment in R&D meant that evidence advised policy decision making in these
countries.
8.Effective and stringent public policies. This consisted of credible macro economic
policies that kept inflation low, interest rates low, fiscal policies that focused on raising saving
rates and investment rates, as well as policies that enhanced the development of
infrastructure. These factors consequently promoted private investment and growth. For
example, in Singapore despite the lack of natural resources and the absence of a large
domestic market, high growth rates and eventually development were realised. This
remarkable success has been attributed largely to sensible and effective policies and the
early attention paid to Singapore’s infrastructure
9. Politically, many of the tiger economies have a recent history of military rule.
However, a number of them have liberalized in recent years and Taiwan, Thailand, and South
Korea are now amongst the most democratic countries in Asia. This political liberalization
may make it more difficult for the tiger governments to resist demands to expand the size of
their higher education systems still further. This kind of political system gives government
the leverage to meet its development goals according to what it considers priorities as
opposed to a democratic system where issues of equity, gender, ethics, etc are paramount.
10. Pegging performance to milestones
Much has been written about pegging remuneration to performance in the business world.
The unique feature of the Singapore system is that public service remuneration was pegged
to performance which was benchmarked against the milestones that had been agreed upon
by the agencies and the parent ministries. At the highest levels, political office holders and
senior public servants had their salaries pegged to economic performance and the salaries
of the top echelons of a group of key professional classes. At the lower levels, compensation
was pegged against performance against milestones.
11. Quality and standardization: Emphasis was placed onproduction of high quality
standardized goods that would compete at the global level. Experts on Standardisation and
quality assurance were brought in from Japan, US and UK.

DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT

In this age of rapid growth and development in every field of life, it is very difficult rather
impossible for a country to finance all of its development expenditures with its own resources.

47
Therefore, to cover up the gap between its expenditures and revenues, it has to borrow
somehow from internal and external resources. This practice is normal in certain limits but
from the last few decades, we notice an extraordinary debt growth in all the countries
generally, and developing countries in particular. The purpose of this discussion is to
elaborate the origin and impact of the external debt on the developing economies.

The emergence of the debt

In last few years most major types of debt have grown rapidly. The major reason for this rapid
growth of indebtedness was the high deficits in the national budgets. Not only this, but in
addition, corporate and household debts have al so increased. The problem of high debt
growth in developing countries is not a small one. Many efforts by IMF (International Monetary
Fund) are in progress to help the developing countries but the results are not quite hopeful.
The developing countries are going deeper and deeper in debt. Even the debt servicing
obligations are met with more and more debt. This condition is being called “debt trap
peonage” by Chinweizu

Chinweizu (1985) says that in classic peonage, worker, though legally free is held by his
master. Because his wage is too low to buy the necessities of the life, the master keeps on
granting him the credit but restricts the worker to buy overpriced goods from master’s own
store. As a result of this, each month the peon goes deeper and deeper into debt. As long as
the peon is alive, he cannot pay off his debt therefore he must continue working for his master
and that is what his master wants. The master’s aim is neither to starve the peon nor to see
him free from the chain of debt, but rather to keep him working until he dies. Peon cannot
even run because the law will enforce him to pay back the loans before he goes anywhere
else. The third world countries, accumulating massive debts, are in the same situation. They
do not earn enough from the exports of their mineral and agricultural products to pay for the
expensive finished goods they import. The developed nations, through international banks
and government aid, lend them the difference. Each year they need more and more loans to
make up their deficits, and so their debt goes on accumulating. These less developed
countries are obliged to supply their low priced raw materials to their rich creditors and unable
to utilize their resources for developing their own economies.
It is no gainsaying the fact that some of the developing countries are even having problems
with their debt service obligations, they may even default, which can worsen the situation.

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Several reasons are given for high growth of developing countries’ debt but,
1) Deficit in the budgets,
2) Capital flight,
3) Foreign exchange problems and
4) High interest rate, are important.

First of all, deficit in the government budgets originates when the revenues are less than
expenditures. Nearly all of the developing countries’ are facing this problem.

Second reason for the high growth of debt is the capital flight. Many developing countries’
have experienced economic instabilities characterised by inflation, have carried out
devaluation etc, and as a result there was a capital flight.
Third major reason is the shortage of foreign exchange. Due to high deficits in balance of
payments, most of the developing countries have to borrow from abroad to finance their
projects.
Fourthly, in the early 1980’s, inflation fell sharply but nominal interest rates remained high as
11 % in 1982. In this condition nobody wanted to borrow but most of the developing countries
had to borrow to pay their old debts and for their interest payments. Before 1979, five major
developing countries debtors (Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, and Argentina) owed about
half of the total external debt. They did not have any problems in meeting their debt service
obligations. But in 1980, a number of developing countries faced serious difficulties to repay
their debts.
A major crisis started in 1982 and 1983, when large debtor countries (Brazil and Argentina)
started defaulting in their debt payments. Indeed many of the developing countries had the
only one choice and that is to default their debt obligations as many of them did in 1930’s. By
1986, nearly forty of the developing countries including all Latin American countries were
forced to default in their debt obligations. The outflow of capital was at substantial levels in
1985 when developing countries paid nearly $ 50 billion in interest alone to overseas creditors
and this was $ 22 billion more than the loan they received in this year.

One most important reason of debt growth was the rise in the oil prices in 1973-1974 and
1979-1980, followed by high real interest rates in 1980-1982, the Asian Financial Crisis in
1997 and the Financial Crisis especially in the US 2007-2008.

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Effects of foreign debt
A developing nation has to use all of the available and possible resources to raise funds for
the implementation of its development plans. It has to utilize surplus revenues, tax revenues,
seek for external aid and borrow in addition. Public borrowing can be domestic or foreign. In
developing countries’ savings are too low, therefore developing countries’ government has
to borrow from abroad. Foreign debt has two dimensions, on one hand it is helpful in the
development process and on the other hand, excessive borrowing can cause many serious
problems.
On the first instance, foreign loans help to bridge up the gap between govt. expenditures and
revenues which may not be covered by domestic savings.

Secondly, foreign debt helps the economy to import the capital goods, machinery and
technology for investment purposes which is sometimes impossible for the developing
countries without the foreign aid, and is necessary for the development plans.
Thirdly, foreign debt can be used for export promotion or import substitution industries, which
can help in reducing the dependency on foreign debt in future.
On the other hand, external debt transfers wealth when the loans are repaid with the interest.

External debt also cause direct burden on the community because of the raised taxes by the
government to generate additional revenues for the debt servicing. Because of the fact that
debt is to be paid by future income, it reduces future savings.

Lastly, in addition to all of these factors, political strings attached with loans as called “debt
trap peonage” by Chinweizu, destroy the independence of the country.
Foreign debt can affect the economy by changing consumption, investment, savings and
income levels. Nature of the effects depends upon the use of debt.

Effects on consumption and spending:-

Foreign debt has two sided effects on consumption and spending. On one hand,
governments of debtor country spend more to complete its projects. More money means
more income and more income means more consumption. If the aggregate supply is not
enough to satisfy the increased aggregate demand, it will create inflation in the country.

50
On the other hand it has indirect negative effect on consumption. We know that debt is a
burden that requires higher taxes to meet indirect payments; therefore more taxes will leave
less disposable income which will reduce the consumption too.
Effects on savings:-
Effects of foreign debt again depend upon the use of debt. If the debt is used to finance the
investment which will further increase the income of the people, then savings will increase
out of increased income. On the other hand, if it is used on non-productive projects, it will
depress savings by increasing aggregate demand and creating inflation.
Effects on investment:-
If foreign debt is used for capital investment, it will further increase the private domestic
investment, because increased aggregate supply will balance the increased aggregate
demand, caused by the increased income. On the other hand, increased expenditures on
non-productive projects will cause higher interest rates which will depress incentives for
investments.
Effects on monetary policy:-
If the borrowed money is spent on non-productive issues, the new expenditures will shift the
curve upward; increasing the deficit and causing higher interest rates with reduce investment.
therefore federal bank will increase the money supply, (to offset the additional demand
created by shift in is curve) therefore lm curve will move forward, causing new equilibrium
with the interest rates at its initial levels but at higher income and output level. If federal bank
does not increase the money supply, additional demand created by increased expenditures
will cause inflation.
Effects on financial system:-
By 1982, 50 % of the total debt of the developing countries was owned by the commercial
banks. Given the importance of the financial system of the world, there could be a great loss
of capital for these banks in the case of default by the debtor countries.
In summary, in addition to the effects on savings, spending, investment and monetary
system, foreign debt has far reaching effects on the financial system. If cash flow available
to the countries is interrupted for any reason then some of the developing countries will find
no other way but to default in their debt obligations. Therefore they will be forced to reduce
the demand for goods and services causing serious recession. Even if a country does not
default in his payments, the interest on debt service is too high to absorb their export
earnings. Another effect of debt is the fact that it restricts freedom of action when income
decreases and debt servicing needs much of the income which is left.

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 ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
Learning Outcome: Learners will unravel the dimension of poverty and inequality, the role of
foreign aid, the IMF and World Bank development interventions as well as global
interventions to development
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
‘If you want to do something and have no power to do it, it is talauchi (poverty).’ (Narayan,
2000)
Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see
a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not
having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness
brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and lack
of freedom (Narayan, 2000).
Poverty is general scarcity or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material
possessions or money (Merrian-Webster, 2013). Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which
includes social, economic, and political elements.
• Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the lack of means necessary to meet basic needs
such as food, clothing and shelter.
• Relative poverty occurs when people in a country do not enjoy a certain minimum level of
living standards as compared to the rest of the population and so would vary from country to
country, or sometimes within the country.
By 2012 it is estimated that, given a poverty line of $1.25 a day 1.2 billion people lived in
poverty.
Poverty is often measured in economic terms: ‘one billion people live on less than one dollar
a day’. This is because a person’s income is a major determinant of their standard of living.
Higher income allows a person to invest in important things like land, education and health –
and often to achieve social and political influence. Of course, income is not the only factor
that influences quality of life. In some cases, societies have achieved better general
standards of living than might have been expected given their income levels. In others, high
incomes have translated into less improvement in welfare than might have been expected.
For this reason, other indicators such as life expectancy and literacy are sometimes used
when quantifying poverty. (UNDP, Human Development Report, 1990)

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However, statistical measures alone do not take account of the myriad social, cultural and
political aspects of the poverty. Poverty is not only deprivation of economic or material
resources but a violation of human dignity too. The UN provides a broader definition of
poverty:
‘A human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources,
capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate
standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.’ (UN, 2001).
The UN definition brings together two important and related themes in contemporary
understandings of poverty: the ‘capability approach’ of Nobel-prize winning economist
Amartya Sen and the ‘human rights’ approach.

The ‘capability approach’ addresses poverty as ‘the deprivation of basic capabilities rather
than merely as lowness of incomes.’ (Sen, 1999). Suggested basic capabilities for a life with
human dignity include the capability to live a human life of normal length, to ensure one’s
bodily health and integrity, to be treated as someone whose worth is equal to that of others,
to have control over one’s political and material environment (Nussbaum, 1999). The
understanding of poverty as a deprivation of these capabilities thus includes situations of low
income, under-nourishment, illiteracy, premature mortality, and also social stigmatization and
low self-esteem. The capability approach allows some situations of relative poverty (e.g.
people in poverty in the UK living on less than 60 per cent of median income) to be viewed
as absolute poverty.

The ‘human rights approach’ sees poverty as a violation of economic, political, social and
civil rights. These may include the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living
and the right to education and employment opportunities. These rights are established in
numerous international documents, including the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The idea of human rights may be interpreted as implying the following moral principle: the
capabilities of human beings should not be permitted to fall below a certain level, insofar as
nation-states and the international community are able to produce that minimum threshold
for everyone. To the extent that citizens affect the actions of their governments and public
agencies, they are responsible for the implementation, or failure to implement, the conditions
that promote a fair level of capabilities for everyone. The advantage of the human rights

53
approach is that it helps determine where responsibility lies for tackling poverty. In principle,
human rights are everyone's business. (Garret, 2004).
Perhaps more important than academic definitions of poverty is the lived experience of
people in poverty. At its most basic, poverty is experienced as a source of pain. Sometimes
this is physical, as in the case of violence or ill health; at other times it is emotional or
psychological. There is often a perception that people in poverty are to blame for their
circumstances – even if they are striving hard to overcome them – which can lead to a sense
of stigma or shame. If people in power refuse to listen or respond to the needs of people in
poverty, as happens all too often, there may also be a sense of helplessness. People in
poverty do influence the course of their own lives: but poverty makes it harder for them to do
so.
Oxfam’s last attempt to define poverty occurred in 1998 in the Fundamental Review of the
Strategic Intent (FROSI). After noting four major approaches to poverty (income poverty, the
capability approach, relative poverty and social exclusion), the review came to the following
conclusion:
‘One approach is insufficient to define poverty in totality. In particular, there are four aspects:
not having enough to live on, not having enough to build from, being excluded from wealth,
and being excluded from the power to change things for the better.
This not only sits comfortably with our analysis and Oxfam's beliefs, but also reflects the
outlook of poor people themselves. Further, it is only when looking at the four aspects
together that Oxfam can gain insights into the causes of poverty and its solutions.’ (Oxfam,
FROSI)

Inequality
Inequality refers to how variables are distributed among individuals in a group, among groups
of a population, or among countries. Development theory has largely been concerned with
inequalities in standards of living, such as inequalities in income/wealth, education, health,
and nutrition. However there could be social inequality too that is blended based on the
previous variables but also social class and gender.

Why does inequality matter in a poverty context?

There are two main arguments about the importance of inequality in the poverty debate. One
is pragmatic, arguing that inequality can exacerbate poverty; the other is moral, arguing that
inequality is a form of poverty.

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The pragmatic approach
The availability of internationally comparable data since the mid-1990s has led to a
proliferation of cross-country studies examining the effect of initial inequality on growth.
Starting with results from Persson and Tabellini (1994) and Alesina and Rodrik (1994), the
majority of studies have found inequality to have a significantly negative impact on growth.
Benabou (1996) compares the studies; the more recent draft World Development Report
(2006) confirms his interpretation. A number of explanations have been proposed as to why
inequality should inhibit growth including capital market imperfections, political economy
considerations and social conflict.
A note of caution: causal links between inequality and growth probably goes in both
directions, and there have been some challenges to the statistical results. Still, two recent
studies add weight to the idea that inequality is harmful to growth. Birdsall and Londono
(1997) find strong evidence that high asset inequality inhibits growth, while Barro (2000) finds
that inequality is a particular hindrance to growth in developing countries.
As well as being bad for growth, inequality is certainly bad for poverty reduction at any level
of growth. For example: if the poorest decile (10 per cent of the population) only has a one
per cent share in national income, as in Lesotho, then, even if there is no worsening in
inequality, this decile will capture only one per cent of the benefits of growth. At current rates
of growth, it will take the average person in the poorest decile of Lesotho 48 years to escape
absolute poverty - four times as long as her counterpart in Indonesia, even though the two
countries have similar GDP per capita levels and similar growth rates. The difference is purely
due to greater inequality of income distribution in Lesotho.
The moral approach
Inequality is sometimes seen as a form of poverty, and the capability approach to poverty
shows us why. By definition, any society with inequality means that some people have less
money, resources or power than others do. These people will often be described as ‘relatively
poor’ but there are sometimes questions about whether they are ‘absolutely poor’. From a
purely financial perspective, they may even seem well off. Can someone living in Europe or
North America, however low their income, really be compared to someone in a Least
Developed Country who earns less than one dollar a day?
At this point it is helpful to think in terms of human freedoms or capabilities. The requirements
to realise one’s basic needs are often higher in rich countries. For example, a secondary
education may be necessary to find a steady job in industrialised countries, whereas this may
not be necessary in a developing country. Someone with material resources may thus still be

55
‘absolutely poor’, i.e. lacking basic capabilities. This may explain why almost all societies
place some intrinsic value on equality, as well as much political philosophy, the international
system of human rights, and many of the core moral and ethical teachings of the world’s
leading religions.
How inequalities interact and are perpetuated
Inequality is not just about income. Different ethnic, racial or religious groups often have
different rights or opportunities. In almost all societies, women and men face different
expectations, are accorded different opportunities and have different degrees of access to
resources. Various kinds of inequality interact, so access to schooling, clinics, water and
sanitation, electricity and other infrastructure is systematically unequal across categories
such as geographic location, gender, ethnic, racial or social group.
Recent research also highlights the ‘stickiness’ of poverty – that is, the extent to which it
persists across generations – the ultimate form of chronic poverty. Disadvantaged children
from families at the bottom of the wealth distribution do not have the same opportunities as
richer children to receive good quality education. So, they can expect to earn less as adults.
If wealth is in any way related to political participation, they will—like their parents—be less
able to participate in the political process, and thus less able to influence decisions to improve
public schools for their children. And the cycle continues. This phenomenon is known as the
‘inequality trap’ (World Development Report, 2006).

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STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMMES (SAPs)
Their purpose is to adjust the country's economic structure, improve international
competitiveness, and restore its balance of payments. ... SAPs are created with the
stated goal of reducing the borrowing country's fiscal imbalances in the short and
medium term or in order to adjust the economy to long-term growth.
Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) consist of loans (structural adjustment loans;
SALs) provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to
countries that experience economic crises. Their purpose is to adjust the country's economic
structure, improve international competitiveness, and restore its balance of payments.
The IMF and World Bank ( Bretton Woods institutions) require borrowing countries to
implement certain policies in order to obtain new loans (or to lower interest rates on existing
ones). These policies are typically centered around increased privatization, liberalizing trade
and foreign investment, and balancing government deficit. The conditionality clauses
attached to the loans have been criticized because of their effects on the social sector.
SAPs are created with the stated goal of reducing the borrowing country's fiscal imbalances
in the short and medium term or in order to adjust the economy to long-term growth. By
requiring the implementation of free market programmes and policy, SAPs are supposedly
intended to balance the government's budget, reduce inflation and stimulate economic
growth. The liberalization of trade, privatization, and the reduction of barriers to foreign capital
would allow for increased investment, production, and trade, boosting the recipient country's
economy. Countries that fail to enact these programmes may be subject to severe fiscal
discipline. Critics argue that the financial threats to poor countries amount to blackmail, and
that poor nations have no choice but to comply.

Since the late 1990s, some proponents of structural adjustment, such as the World Bank,
have spoken of "poverty reduction" as a goal. SAPs were often criticized for implementing
generic free-market policy and for their lack of involvement from the borrowing country. To
increase the borrowing country's involvement, developing countries are now encouraged to
draw up Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), which essentially take the place of
SAPs. Some believe that the increase of the local government's participation in creating the
policy will lead to greater ownership of the loan programs and thus better fiscal policy. The
content of PRSPs has turned out to be similar to the original content of bank-authored SAPs.
Critics argue that the similarities show that the banks and the countries that fund them are
still overly involved in the policy-making process. Within the IMF, the Enhanced Structural

57
 Adjustment Facility was succeeded by the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, which is
in turn succeeded by the Extended Credit Facility.
Typical stabilization policies include:
• balance of payments deficits reduction through currency devaluation
• budget deficit reduction through higher taxes and lower government spending, also known
as austerity
• restructuring foreign debts
• monetary policy to finance government deficits (usually in the form of loans from central
banks)
• eliminating food subsidies
• raising the price of public services
• cutting wages
• Decrementing domestic credit.
Long-term adjustment policies usually include:
• liberalisation of markets to guarantee a price mechanism
• privatization, or divestiture, of all or part of state-owned enterprises
• creating new financial institutions
• improving governance and fighting corruption
• enhancing the rights of foreign investors vis-à-vis national laws
• focusing economic output on direct export and resource extraction
• Increasing the stability of investment (by supplementing foreign direct investment with the
opening of domestic stock markets).
These conditions have also been sometimes labelled as the Washington Consensus.

Advantages
• Autonomy: During the entire SAL loan process, member countries always have the initiative
in policy selection. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are obliged to
provide member countries with advice, guidance and policy building, but they have no right
to replace members. The country’s arbitration guarantees the economic autonomy of the
member states.
• Flexibility. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have always taken flexible
measures to avoid rigid lending regulations due to insufficient understanding of a country’s
situation. For example, taking into account the difficulties and uncertainties in the

58
 implementation of long-term policies by a country’s domestic government, member countries
are usually allowed to amend their adjustment plans.
• Continuity. Due to the long time required for structural adjustment, the IMF and the World
Bank generally prefer to provide a series rather than a loan to ensure the periodicity and
continuity of the structural adjustment plan. Therefore, the loan becomes a catalyst for
obtaining additional financing. This provides a guarantee for the fundamental structural
adjustment of the comprehensive measures of key departments, and avoids the possible
adverse effects of the inconsistency of the project loan cycle and the pace of policy reform.
• Thoroughness: The purpose of rooting out bad economic performance and supplemented
by a series of supporting comprehensive policy measures, although this may make a country
pay adjustment costs in the short term, but in the long run, it will definitely help As a country
’s economy is on track and achieving a virtuous circle, this is precisely the key to the difficulty
of obtaining long-term benefits in the past, such as project loans and other forms of loans
In addition, SAL also has the advantages of long loan life, low loan interest rate, loose loan
conditions, and easy negotiation. Because of this, SAL has been welcomed by many
developing countries and has played a role of positive for the improvement of economic
conditions in these countries.

Criticisms
There are multiple criticisms that focus on different elements of SAPs
a. Undermining national sovereignty
Critics claim that SAPs threaten the sovereignty of national economies because an outside
organization is dictating a nation's economic policy. Critics argue that the creation of good
policy is in a sovereign nation's own best interest. Thus, SAPs are unnecessary given the
state is acting in its best interest. However, supporters consider that in many developing
countries, the government will favour political gain over national economic interests; that is,
it will engage in rent-seeking practices to consolidate political power rather than address
crucial economic issues. In many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, political instability has
gone hand in hand with gross economic decline.
b. Neo-colonialism
SAPS are viewed by some post colonialists as the modern procedure of colonization. By
minimizing a government's ability to organise and regulate its internal economy, pathways
are created for multinational companies to enter states and extract their resources. Upon
independence from colonial rule, many nations that took on foreign debt were unable to repay

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 it, limited as they were to production and exportation of cash crops, and restricted from control
of their own more valuable natural resources (oil, minerals) by SAP free-trade and low-
regulation requirements. In order to repay interest, these postcolonial countries are forced to
acquire further foreign debt, in order to pay off previous interests, resulting in an endless
cycle of financial subjugation.
c. Privatization
A common policy required in structural adjustment is the privatization of state-owned
industries and resources. This policy aims to increase efficiency and investment and to
decrease state spending. State-owned resources are to be sold whether they generate a
fiscal profit or not.
Critics have condemned these privatization requirements, arguing that when resources are
transferred to foreign corporations and/or national elites, the goal of public prosperity is
replaced with the goal of private accumulation. Furthermore, state-owned firms may show
fiscal losses because they fulfil a wider social role, such as providing low-cost utilities and
jobs. Some scholars have argued that SAPs and neoliberal policies have negatively affected
many developing countries.

d. Austerity
Critics hold SAPs responsible for much of the economic stagnation that has occurred in
borrowing countries. SAPs emphasize maintaining a balanced budget, which forces austerity
programs. The casualties of balancing a budget are often social programs.
For example, if a government cuts education funding, universality is impaired and therefore
long-term economic growth. Similarly, cuts to health programs have allowed diseases such
as AIDS to devastate some areas' economies by destroying the workforce.
e. Empirical evidence
There are some serious problems in measuring the empirical success of Fund programs. It
is extremely difficult to calculate the counterfactual; that is, what would have happened had
the Fund not intervened. Even so, a study in the journal World Development found that the
programs "often do not work", citing "high rates of recidivism, low rates of completion, and an
insignificant catalytic effect on other capital flows".
FOREIGN AID AND DEVELOPMENT
Foreign Aid is financial aid given by governments and other agencies to support the
economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. The term
development co-operation, which is used, for example, by the World Health Organization

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 (WHO) is used to express the idea that a partnership should exist between donor and
recipient, rather than the traditional situation in which the relationship was dominated by the
wealth and specialised knowledge of one side. Most development aid comes from the
Western industrialised countries but some poorer countries also contribute aid.
Aid may be bilateral: given from one country directly to another; or it may be multilateral:
given by the donor country to an international organisation such as the World Bank or the
United Nations Agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNAIDS, etc.) which then distributes it among the
developing countries. The proportion is currently about 70% bilateral 30% multilateral.
About 80-85% of developmental aid comes from government sources as official development
assistance (ODA). The remaining 15-20% comes from private organisations such as "non-
governmental organisations" (NGOs), foundations and other development charities
(e.g., Oxfam). In addition, remittances received from migrants working or living in Diaspora
form a significant amount of international transfer.
Some governments also include military assistance in the notion "foreign aid", although many
NGOs tend to disapprove of this.
Official development assistance is a measure of government-contributed aid, compiled by the
Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) since 1969. The DAC consists of 34 of the largest aid-donating
countries.

Importance of Foreign Aid

Foreign aid is a controversial issue. Some people say that foreign aid helps in promoting the
economic growth. While others argue that capital is not a single factor in increasing the rate
of development in the country. It increases the burden of debt. Following are its main benefits:
1) Increase in Production. The inflow of capital and technology increases the production
capacity of the various sectors of the economy. It also helps to establish the new industries
in the country.
2) Increase in Investment. In the less developed countries like India and Pakistan rate of savings
is very low. We cannot meet the investment requirements of the country. So foreign loan fill
the gap between savings and investment. It increases the rate of investment. In India or
Pakistan saving rate is 14% of GNP, which is not sufficient to meet the requirements.
3) Closes the Trade Deficit. The less developed countries balance of payment remains deficit.
So this deficit is met by the foreign aid. The exports earning in these countries are falling
short of import requirements. So this foreign exchange gap is met with inflow of capital.

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4) Increase in Employment. With the help of foreign aid different development plans can be
started. It increases the rate of employment in the country. For instance, when new factory
will be established, new workers will be also employed.
5) Increase in Real Wages. The foreign resources are very helpful in improving the efficiency of
the workers. So their real wages will increase according to their marginal product. In flow of
technology improves the per capita output.
6) Increase in Government Revenue: The profit earned on foreign investment is taxed by the
government. In this way revenue of the state increases. As the new projects are started by
the foreign investor’s revenue also increases.
7) External Economies: Due to the flow of foreign aid, the firms can avail the benefits of the
external economies like training of labour and introduction of new machinery.
8) Improvement in the Quality of Production: Foreign aid increases the number of industries in
the country. The inflow of technology improves the quality of production and reduces the cost.
9) Increases the Rate of development: the economic history of U.S.A, Canada, Australia and
Norway shows that they borrowed the foreign resources in the initial stage of development
and today they are in the list of advanced countries. So the proper use of foreign aid can be
also useful in developing countries.
10) Creates Love and Brotherhood: Foreign aid creates love and brotherhood among the rich
and poor nations of the world. The inflow of foreign aid makes the poor nation prosperous.

DISADVANTAGES or COSTS
1. Increases in the Burden of Debts: The burden of debt increases as the time passes. In this
regard we can examine the record of Pakistan and Brazil. The debt burden of Pakistan
increasing day by day. Debt servicing as a percentage of GDP is 33% on outstanding debt.
2.Payment of Interest: The rate of interest is very high in the world market and its payment
becomes a problem for the borrower country. Major portion of the exports is used to debt
servicing in these countries.
3.Dangerous for Freedom: Foreign aid also brings political pressure with it, which is harmful
for the independence of the country. Even Donating countries cannot frame the foreign policy
according to its own wishes.
4.Tied Loans: Sometimes conditions are accompanied with the foreign aid which becomes
harmful for the recipient. For example in the period of Bhutto 131% devaluation of currency
was suggested by IMF and Pakistan accepted because economic aid was needed.

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5.Delay in Receipt of Aid: Sometimes foreign aid is not received in time which causes the
failure of the plan. For example in Pakistan the major cause of failure 3rd five year plan was
the delay in the receipt of foreign aid.
6.Foreign Dependence: If once the country borrows the foreign aid it becomes dependent
forever. So it is better that one should maximum rely upon the domestic resources.
7. Cause of Inflation: If foreign aid is misused for unproductive purpose then it may create
inflation which is harmful for the economy. In spite of many problems we can say that aid can
speed up process of economic development if it is used carefully for the productive purposes
only.
8.On the other hand if government of the country is ineffective education standard is low then
only foreign aid cannot improve the rate of development in the country.

PARIS DECLARATION ON AID EFFECTIVENESS

In February 2005, the international community came together at the Paris High Level Forum
on Aid Effectiveness, hosted by the French government and organised by the OECD. The
role of aid in promoting development was attracting increasing public scrutiny in the run-up
to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and the global campaigns such as Make Poverty
History.
While some progress had been made in harmonising the work of international aid donors in
developing countries, it was acknowledged that much more needed to be done. The aid
process was still too strongly led by donor priorities and administered through donor
channels, making it hard for developing countries to take the lead. Aid was still too
uncoordinated, unpredictable and un-transparent. Deeper reform was felt to be essential if
aid was to demonstrate its true potential in the effort to overcome poverty.
At the Paris meeting, more than 100 signatories—from donor and developing-country
governments, multilateral donor agencies, regional development banks and international
agencies—endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The Paris Declaration went
much further than previous agreements; it represented a broader consensus among the
international community about how to make aid more effective. At its heart was the
commitment to help developing-country governments formulate and implement their own
national development plans, according to their own national priorities, using, wherever
possible, their own planning and implementation systems.
The Paris Declaration contains 56 partnership commitments aimed at improving the
effectiveness of aid. It lays out 12 indicators to provide a measurable and evidence-based

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 way to track progress, and sets targets for 11 of the indicators to be met by 2010. Some
country-level aid information management systems, such as the Development Assistance
Database, are tracking indicators based on the principles of the Paris Declaration for tracking
aid effectiveness and measuring donor performance.
The Declaration is focused on five mutually reinforcing principles:
1. Ownership: Developing countries must lead their own development policies and strategies,
and manage their own development work on the ground. This is essential if aid is to contribute
to truly sustainable development. Donors must support developing countries in building up
their capacity to exercise this kind of leadership by strengthening local expertise, institutions
and management systems. The target set by the Paris Declaration is for three-quarters of
developing countries to have their own national development strategies by 2010.
2. Alignment: Donors must line up their aid firmly behind the priorities outlined in developing
countries’ national development strategies. Wherever possible, they must use local
institutions and procedures for managing aid in order to build sustainable structures. In Paris,
donors committed to make more use of developing countries’ procedures for public financial
management, accounting, auditing, procurement and monitoring. Where these systems are
not strong enough to manage aid effectively, donors promised to help strengthen them. They
also promised to improve the predictability of aid, to halve the amount of aid that is not
disbursed in the year for which it is scheduled, and to continue to “untie” their aid from any
obligation that it be spent on donor-country goods and services.
3. Harmonisation: Donors must coordinate their development work better amongst themselves
to avoid duplication and high transaction costs for poor countries. In the Paris Declaration,
they committed to coordinate better at the country level to ease the strain on recipient
governments, for example by reducing the large numbers of duplicate field missions. They
agreed on a target of providing two-thirds of all their aid via so-called “programme-based
approaches” by 2010. This means aid is pooled in support of a particular strategy led by a
recipient country—a national health plan for example—rather than fragmented into multiple
individual projects.
4. Managing for results: All parties in the aid relationship must place more focus on the result of
aid, the tangible difference it makes in poor people’s lives. They must develop better tools
and systems to measure this impact. The target set by the Paris Declaration is for a one-third
reduction by 2010 in the proportion of developing countries without solid performance
assessment frameworks to measure the impact of aid.

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5. Mutual accountability: Donors and developing countries must account more transparently to
each other for their use of aid funds, and to their citizens and parliaments for the impact of
their aid. The Paris Declaration says all countries must have procedures in place by 2010 to
report back openly on their development results.

A first round of monitoring of the 12 Paris Declaration indicators was conducted in 2006 based
on activities undertaken in 2005 in 34 countries. A second survey was organised in early
2008 in which 54 developing countries examined progress against the targets at country
level. This 2008 Survey covers more than half all the official development assistance
delivered in 2007—nearly USD$45 billion. The evidence so far suggests that progress has
been made.
For example, more than one third of developing countries surveyed had improved their
systems for managing public funds; almost 90% of donor countries had untied their aid; and
technical cooperation is more in line with developing countries’ own development
programmes. Despite these improvements, however, the results of the Survey show that the
pace of progress remains too slow to reach the targets set in 2010. In particular, although
many countries have made significant efforts to strengthen their national systems (for
instance by improving how they manage their public funds), in many cases donors are still
reluctant to use them.
The predictability of aid flows also remains low (with just over a third of aid disbursed on
schedule), thereby making it hard—or impossible—for governments to plan ahead. In
summary, whilst some progress has been made there are still many areas where the pace of
change must be accelerated if the targets set for 2010 are to be reached. In addition to the
data from the monitoring survey a useful way of understanding donor and recipient country
performance is to examine donor and recipient country self-assessments, donor evaluations
and Development Assistance Committee Peer Reviews.
In some quarters, the Paris Declaration is almost synonymous with aid effectiveness; it is
expected that aid will be effective and achieve development outcomes when the principles
are observed for government sector aid. However, there continue to be criticisms and
alternative views, particularly from non-government aid organisations. Implementation of the
Paris Declaration still needs to be significantly stepped up, according to the results of the
2008 Monitoring Survey. Concrete targets set for 2010 (such as an increased proportion of
aid to be untied; establishment of "mutual accountability" mechanisms in aid recipient
countries; and for two-thirds of aid to be delivered in the context of so-called programme

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 approaches rather than projects) may be difficult to meet. Independent NGOs, such as
Eurodad, also release their own evaluations, showing that the Declaration is not being
implemented as planned. The Overseas Development Institute has specified that better
monitoring of the relationship between the Paris Principles and development results at sector
level is necessary.

GLOBAL INTERVENTIONS: THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) AND

THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)
In 2000, the UN adopted 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were to be achieved
by 2015. A few years before the expiry of the MDGs it was realized that their level of
achievement was a mixed bag of successes and failures in different countries and therefore
more goals were mooted and these were called sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of targets relating to future
international development. They are created by the United Nations and promoted as the
Global Goals for Sustainable Development. They replaced the Millennium Development
Goals that expired at the end of 2015. The SGDs run from 2015 to 2030. There are 17 goals
and 169 specific targets for those goals.
Goals
In August of 2015 193 countries agreed to the following 17 goals:
1. No poverty
2. Zero hunger
3. Good health and wellbeing
4. Quality education
5. Gender equality
6. Clean water and sanitation
7. Affordable and clean energy
8. Decent work and economic growth
9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10. Reduce inequality
11. Sustainable cities and communities
12. Responsible consumption and production
13. Climate action

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14. Life below water
15. Life on land
16. Peace and justice. Strong institutions
17. Partnerships for the goals
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
Despite many new local, national and international laws focusing on development, equality
and human rights, despite many reports of positive change in deed and attitude on the part
of governments, religious and other institutions, it is still necessary, when looking at the key
development issues, to look at these through gendered lens - looking at how development
decisions and practices affect both men and women.
Gender is a complex variable that is a part of social, cultural, economic and political contexts.
It is also relevant for the work of governments, international agencies, and civil society
movements. Gender refers to socially constructed differences between men and women,
whereas Sex refers to biological differences between men and women. Being socially
constructed gender differences vary depending on age, marital status, religion, ethnicity,
culture, race, and class/caste and so on. Sexual differences vary little across these variables.
Development analysts have recognized now for several decades the need to ensure that
gender is examined and integrated into development projects. In integrating gender into
development, practitioners are responding to the priority needs of women and men, and being
aware of what benefits or adverse effects could impact either.

Why is Gender Relevant for Development?

In taking account of gender, development practitioners and social movement activists are
looking at disparities that exist in male and female rights, responsibilities, access to and
control over resources, and voice at household, community and national levels. Men and
women often have different priorities, constraints and preferences with respect to
development and can contribute to, and be affected differently by, development projects and
campaigning interventions. To enhance effectiveness, these considerations must be
addressed in all program and campaign design and interventions. If such considerations are
not addressed thoughtfully and adequately, these interventions can lead not only to inefficient
and unsustainable results, but may also exacerbate existing inequities. Understanding
gender issues can enable projects to take account of these and build in capacity to deal with
inequitable impacts and to ensure sustainability.

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When we talk about Gender Equality, we are referring to a combination of legal equality and
equal opportunities including opportunities to speak out. More often, this is about making
better opportunities in all of these areas for women.
Women’s rights are protected by many international instruments and laws. The best known
is probably the Convention for Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979)
– a UN Treaty adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 and signed initially by 64 states in
July the following year. An optional protocol was later developed setting out a mechanism
by which states would be held accountable to the treaty. There have been subsequent
international declarations and pledges which have been used as bench marks to measure
progress in relation to specific women’s issues. These include the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action (1995), and the Millennium Development Goals (2001) which include
gender considerations in almost half of the clauses. The MDGs have been mutually
reinforcing; progress toward one goal affects progress toward the others. But, the third goal
addresses gender equality specifically. The successor Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), adopted in 2015 as part of a broad Sustainable Development Agenda, include
achieving ‘gender equality and empower all women and girls’ as the Goal 5.

Historical trends in integrating gender into development

An early approach involved targeting women by project design and interventions which
focused on women as a separate group. This was commonly referred to as WID (Women in
Development). Critics of this approach pointed out that this did not address men, and a later
model usually referred to as GAD (Gender and Development) concentrated more on project
design and interventions that were focused on a development process that transforms
gender relations. This aimed to enable women to participate on an equal basis with men in
determining their common future. The Gender Equality approach is therefore about men and
women and is thus a more comprehensive approach to analysis and design of development
interventions because it takes into account the situation and needs of both men and women.
It aims to involve both women and men in addressing their development problems, to reform
institutions to establish equal rights and opportunities, and to foster economic development
which strengthens equal participation. Such an approach aims to redress persistent
disparities in access to resources and the ability to speak out.
Masculinities
It has also been recognized by specialists and activists in this field that the behaviour of men
needs to be addressed in the context of gender work. Unless men challenge themselves as

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to the ways in which their own behaviour, attitudes and upbringing perpetuates gender
inequality, gender injustice and gender violence, nothing will change. For more than two
decades now, a growing number of programmes addressing these issues have been
developed in various parts of the world and the learning shared and adapted to new
contexts. Among the most well known have been the programmes of Puntos de Encuentro
and Cantera in Nicaragua, and its programmes on male behaviour change. Another
example, Stepping Stones, a small group intervention using participatory learning to help
improve sexual health, began in Uganda but was adapted for different countries across sub
Saharan Africa including Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, as
well as for the Philippines. Its community training package “aims to encourage communities
to question and rectify the gender inequalities that contribute to HIV/AIDS, gender based
violence and other issues” and again focussed on behaviour change.
Gender and social movements
Throughout the globe people are organising both to challenge and end gender injustice in all
areas of our social, economic, political, and cultural lives. To be successful, however, these
struggles need to include and prioritise gender equality within their own organisational
structures as well as being part of the analysis and methodology for change. This is a deeply
political issue at a variety of levels. Although social movements are trying to address this,
activists still come up against strong resistance to changing gendered politics and practices
even within the contexts of movements and allied organisations. Nevertheless, when it comes
to making an impact on transforming gender power relations, social movements are crucial.
Integrating gender perspectives into social movements and activism is not just about
'including' women or 'thinking about' men and gender minorities. It means considering what
a gendered politics provides in terms of alternative ways of being, seeing and doing that in
themselves serve to transform patriarchal power relations. Women's rights and gender justice
issues have been approached in a variety of ways by different social movements, but some
common parameters can be outlined which facilitate a supportive environment for gender-
just movement building. For example, affirming the importance of tackling gender inequality
and patriarchal power as an integral component of justice and naming this as an explicit
priority; engaging positively in internal reflection and action on women's rights and gender
justice, providing support for women’s leadership and participation in all aspects of social
movements, tackling gender based violence and harassment. Ensuring equal role/rank
distribution in organizational structures, making sure participation is equal, taking account of
caring for family members, taking account of the fact that women may be targeted in

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 retaliation by those in society who feel threatened by gender justice as a change to traditional
roles.
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Environment is a system which provides natural surroundings for the existence of organisms
(including humans) and which is a prerequisite for their further evolution.
Development can be interpreted as multidimensional concept which should encompass
material, social, environmental, political and cultural components (with all of them having a
direct impact on the quality of human life).
The relationship between development and the environmental condition
This interaction can be characterised as one of interdependence. Just as development is
impossible without a good condition of living environment, so quality environment cannot be
maintained in inhabited or intensively exploited areas without their sustainable development.

The impact of development on environment

This impact is determined specifically by the following two factors
1. Approach to development
If we regard development narrowly only as economic growth, the quality of environment in
general is not quite so important as abundance, quality and accessibility of natural resources
of raw materials and energy central for the economy. If we understand development more
broadly, for example in the sense of sustainable development, the quality of environment and
its sustainable condition will become one of key priorities. In that case, the long term
preservation of environment's inhabitability or eventually the betterment of its condition (in
case of its past devastation) will be at the centre of attention.
The condition or quality of living environment after/during implementation of development
programmes
The implementation of development programmes or projects can have negative or positive
impacts on living environment.
Negative impacts:
• Programmes: construction of transport infrastructure, great water dams, cities; mining of
natural resources of raw materials and energy etc.
• Effects: fragmentation of natural habitats; loss of fertile soil; deforestation and soil
degradation; pollution of environment; local climate change etc.
Positive impacts:

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• Programmes: construction of smaller water dams; application of environment – friendly
technologies etc.
• Effects: increase in biodiversity; enrichment of landscape by cultural features; sustainable
exploitation of environment for present as well as future generations.
2. The impact of living environment on development
Environment is one of the important decisive factors exerting influence on developments
possibilities. It is empirically known that diversified strategies of development must be applied
in urbanised, industrial and rural areas. Different methods of development must be chosen in
coastal and landlocked areas, different ones are valid in mountains and in lowlands. The type
of ecosystem and climate of the area where we want to implement a development programme
also play an important role. Among the most decisive factors rank:
• Climat zone (tropical, subtropical, temperate zone);
• Basic physical-geographic factors (e.g. elevation above sea-level, rainfall, temperatures),
• The living environment quality (e.g. the degree of pollution, population density, expanse of
deforested areas, the level of soil degradation and desertification),
• The quality and fertility of soil,
• The quality and quanta of natural resources of raw materials and energy,
• Accessibility of sustainable drinking water resources,

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