Chapter 1 Introducing Economic Development
Chapter 1 Introducing Economic Development
Introducing
Economic
Development:
A Global
Perspective
When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior. She has
no food, so there is famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress
in her family.
—A poor woman from Uganda
Life in the area is so precarious that the youth and every able person
have to migrate to the towns or join the army at the war front in
order to escape the hazards of hunger escalating over here.
—Participant in a discussion group in rural Ethiopia
When food was in abundance, relatives used to share it. These days of hunger,
however not even relatives would help you by giving you some food.
—Young man in Nichimishi, Zambia
We have to line up for hours before it is our turn to draw water.
—Mbwadzulu Village (Mangochi), Malawi
[Poverty is] . . . low salaries and lack of jobs. And it’s also not having
medicine, food, and clothes. --Discussion group, Brazil
Don’t ask me what poverty is because you have met it outside my house. Look
at the house and count the number of holes. Look at the utensils and the
clothes I am wearing. Look at everything and write what you see. What you
see is poverty. —Poor man in Kenya
A universal theme reflected in these seven quotes is that
poverty is more than lack of income – it is inherently
multidimensional, as is economic development.
• Self-esteem
• Social system
• Subsistence economy
• Sustenance
• Traditional economics
• Values