global development

development according to A.Sen

development based on people’s freedom, allowing individuals to access freedom = political, economic, social, transparency and protective security.

all freedoms interconnect

development as a “fierce” or “friendly” process

freedom as a mean to access development not an end

sustainable development goals report 2026 - key takeaways

enforced buy the UN, want to be achieved by 2030, top 3

poverty today 1/10 ppl live in extreme poverty

hunger

good health and well being

Of the 139 targets for which we can compute reliable historical trends, only 36 per cent are on track or making moderate progress. Nearly half (49 per cent) are moving too slowly, and 15 per cent have slipped below their 2015 baselines.

ROBEYNS - measuring poverty and well being

focus on capabilities, resources and income, must be all used together

COMIM - measuring poverty and well being

relies at first on Millenniums Dev Goals, wants to also look at indigenous and grassroots experience

GENERAL measuring poverty and wellbeing

NECESSITY for quantitative data for comparison over time and cross country

international poverty line threshold of 3$ per day

10% of global population or 826 million people

new ways like global ethical poverty line, rights based poverty line, development goals, individual deprivation measures …

ideologies of development - modernisation theory

using income metrics, GNI and GDP

ideologies of development - dependency

trade and production relations, income inequality measures

ideologies of development - neoliberalism

trade openness, deregulation, fiscal policy, using income and GNI as well

ideologies of development - capabilities

HDI focusing on trade and education

ideologies of development - critical approaches

gender, class, region, race, ethnicities ..

official approaches and measurements

INPUT = GNI/capita, world bank

HUMAN PHENOMENON - A. Sen with the capabilities approach with health and education

multidimensional poverty index

MPI poor if deprived in 1/3 categories: health, education and standard of living

IN DATA: 1.1B ppl live in acute multidim poverty, ½ are children, ½ are sub saharan africans and 1/3 south asian

huge effect of covid 19

MDGs vs SDGs

2000 to 2015 and 2015 to now → different agendas

SDG more universal, comprehensive and inclusive

even if countries improve in GNI/capita and HDI, trend of poverty seems to be down, three major criticisms remain

1. benefits are spread unevenly - focused on the middle class and extreme situations of hunger and distress can increase

2. extreme negative impacts on environment

3. patterns of inequality have widened

WHAT DOES USING DATA ENTAIL????

DATA IS NOT NEUTRAL IT IS POLITICAL

• ideology is embedded in data

  • for example using GND or GDP is linked to modernisation theory

  • capabilites approach will focus on data relating to human impact, food security, clean drinking water, accesss to education …

• the metrics used will reflect the concerns

Poverty is NOT “an objective fact”

Rostow 5 Stages of Growth

Step by step framework of development:

1. subsistence agrarian

2. pre conditions set up - addition of science and trade creation of new dynamics

3. take off growth = normal state

4. drive to maturity

5. high mass consumption and social services = post capitalist society

= eurocentric and linear

main metric of growth before 1960s

GDP

models of economic growth - import substitution

generating rapid and sustaining growth through foreign direct investment

mix of a lot of policies such as loans tariffs subsidies …

dominant strategy in 1950s

problem: extremely dependent on imports, deepened relations of economic dependence, technologoies came from the global north, inelastic demand for these new services

models of economic growth - export oriented EOI

high state intervention to generate this growth ( readings: Amsden on Taiwan)

foreign trade through exports

policies: high tariffs on imports, undervaluation of currency

example of the asian tigers

pro poor growth

growth can assist poverty alleviation through good use of skilled and unskilled labour, connecting poor individuals to markets, strong social security measures

sustainable growth and development

relationship betw poverty and the environment

rights based development approach

redistribution, concerns status and entitlement, linked to capabilities approach

focuses on individual communities and groups

disadvantages: does not really address the how, the relationships between international institutions and nation states remain problematic

composition of growth

investing in agriculture bc most poverty reducing sector

focus on decent work and social security

SHIVA MALDEVELOPMENT KEY TAKEAWAYS

EXPANSION OF WOMENS RIGHTS

• if women access more economic resources the lifestyle of their family increases

• if commodity production is “the prime of economic activity” it then destroys the potential of women and nature to create life

maldevelopment = women’s underdevelopment, new schemes disguised as progress in the image of the western technological man

ecological factor = women in processes of natures regeneration process = not seen as productive in capitalism

HICKEL DEGROWTH

NOT a recession or a collapse → more of a descale

improving wellbeing by reducing the output of unnecessary things (fast fashion, private jets, SUVs..)

GDP growth cannot go with respecting climate targets

rich nations must reduce their footprints

POST CAPITALIST TRANSITION anticap, ecosocialist moving away from provit driven growth

ANDRE GUNDER FRANK

dev and underdev are two sides of the same coin

• fundamental and structural cause of underdevelopment is CAPITALISM

underdevelopment theory

• expropriation of surplus of the many and appropriation by the few

• polarisation of core and periphery

• continuity of the fundamental structure of the capitalist system at a broader scale

post development critique

• cultural westernisation and homogenisation

• doesnt work (KOTHARI, easy to quote”

• imposition of sciences as power - if it is possible and we can do it we should do it but leads to destruction (ie. GMOS)

• delivers envionmental destruction and scarcity (SHIVA)

post development practice case study of seed keepers in India

• rejects green revolution model non GMO non hybrid = local low input and self reliant

• values traditional model, validates indigenous epistemology and methods

• resisting seed monopolies like Monsanto

• building climate resilience

• reclaims women as custodians of life, challenging patriarchal agricultural frameworks

case study Bhutan and GNH

• experimental gross national happiness

INCLUSIVE GROWTH CHINA AND INDIA

• fast growing

• becoming increasingly unequal due to that growth

China = workshop of the world, driven by low skilled workers on eastern seaboard, indistrialisation accompanied by urban/rural divide

India = back office of the world, high skilled labour and educated workers, however pay attention to castes and penetrability of the workforce

tbd if doing a card on strengths and weaknesses of each bc might be a question in the exam

CHINA

positive factors of land and labour

challenges of the hukou system and breaking of the iron rice bowl (stable occupation with fixed salary and benefits)

income disparity

INDIA

• inequality is on the rise

  • rural vs urban

  • north vs south

  • gender inequality

high rates of growth but lacking the social improvements

service led growth can only go so far = not sustainable bc not enough employment

challenges: demography employment, human capital formation, inequality, governance and human rights

GHOSH

poverty reduction depends on the structure of growth rather than GDP growth itself

economic growth did not benefit all evenly

criticizes conventional poverty measures

The broader message is that poverty reduction depends on:

• land redistribution,

• public investment,

• state capacity,

• employment creation,

• social protection,

• and reducing inequality,

NGAI and dormitory system

reflects on remittances

the place of women in the system sites of control on the workers bodies also outside of work

fuels global production

MKANDAWIRE

need to take a look at the financial institutions and how they are to blame for some of africas situation

• intentional weakening of state capacity

• delegitimisation of local political power

• inefficient one size fits all approach

• state removed from its own development policies

• lack of investment in infrastructure

we can blame Africa’s poor performance on colonial legacy etc but the issue is that the aid they were promised did more harm than good because we never cared to study their modes of functioning

Africa? so broad

• sub-saharan africa is the epicentre of poverty/fragility = add the scope of conflict

  • ie. DRC and Nigeria

• poor are the least able to protect themselves

• varies across countries

children and poverty

400 million children in extreme poverty

extreme child poverty rate no progress 52% in 2014, same in 2024

¾ of all children in the world who live in poverty are in sub-saharan africa

extreme poverty is a specific problem to this region

colonialism in Africa and a=consequences to development

• colonisation slowed down the development process

• 1884 Berlin Conference and partition of Africa = used to limit european conflict without seeking to understand what it would entail on the field

• raw materials were needed for industrial revolution

• value of africa rocketed and became an opportunity

• 10 000 political entities were destroyed and re-divided completely arbitrarily

colonial legacy

• resources, minerals, land…

• matural endowments (what remained of them) raised hopes for African economies to rise up

• left over industrial foundations like railroads and ports

• income per capita didn’t match population growth

conflict, diseases and development in Africa

• death disability, mental health crises

• malnutrition

• sexual violence - example of Johannesburg “r*pe capital of the world”

• HIV and aids crisis = orphans = lost generation

challenges to African prosperity

• rapid growth but slow transformation

• extremely young population (below 25s = 60%)

• fertility rates are high but declining

• issue with education and employment

greenbelt movement

Wangari Maathai 2004 Nobel Peace Prize - mobilisation of rural Kenyan women to plant over 30 million trees to combat deforestation while generating a steady income for their families

Cheetah Generation AYITTEY

young Africans entrepreneurs, dynamic and eduacted = autonomous and use technology at their advantage

BREMAN GREAT TRANSFORMATION IN ASIA

• Using The Great Transformation by Polanyi

• exodus of the country side to the cities

  • CASE OF INDIA: people who migrated did not find stable employment (informal work)

  • niche = self employment = overcrowding

• nomadic workforce

• labour reserves

• migration supposed to be a win win but discriminises against outsiders

• pattern segmentation

• instrumentalisation of the situation of outsiders - less bargaining power and more desperate for work → can and will be used against them by employers

• sill prominence of caste societies ppl are better paid and have better jobs due to that

• 70% of ppl go by with 5o cents a day = backbone of informal economy

dimension of economy AND GOVERNANCE = PUBLIC POWER TUNED PRIVATE GAIN AND ILLEGAL CUTS

→ cracks in facade maybe revolution?

RAMISCH farmers in Kenya

• changing of landscapes due to climate change mostly

• refusal to continue struggling in a rural world when everything is lined up against them

• labour reserves also mentioned here (like India, labour reserves is a Marxian idea)

• how to increase food availability in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable in an INCLUSIVE way, WHILE rural and farming families are contrained to leave the field for more rewarding activities

panafricanism?

growth vs employment paradox

high growth rates but low employment exception of China

• youth employment is a key concern

• 20% youth unemployment globally, (NiNis in Latin America, most female)

the four interrelated aspects of unemployment

1. agriculture and rural development/under development

2. urbanisation

3. informal employment

4. urban development

current issues (in Latin America but can be broadened)

• exclusion of poor farmers

• small land plots

• lack of employment alternatives

• changing and challenging weather patterns

• mono cropping

• compromised importance of such employment

• peasant movement - La Via Campensina - “the peasant way” = family based farm based sustainable agriculture

Lewisian assumption flop

increased agricultural productivity, urbanisation and employment growth in higher productivity modern/industrialised jobs has not eventuated everywhere

dynamics of urban rural migration

push and pull factors

slum life:

• 1.2 billion ppl total living in slums

• 25% of pop in developing countries

• very vulnerable communities

issues in urban development

• housing (ref. slums): dense, insecure, no privacy AND EXPENSIVE??

• public infrastructure water, sanitation, schools, electricity…

• jobs informal economy, critical services, but remains contribution to domestic GDP

  • 75.9% of Indian workers are informally employed

• 
  

informal work defintion

Informal jobs are those in which the employment relationship is:

‘in law or in practice, not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits’

• lack of legal protection, high rates of exploitation, unsafe work conditions, layoffs without notice or compensation, absence of social benefits

informal work

mostly done by women, migrants and other vulnerable groups = heterogenous

• strong correlation between informal work and poverty

• BUT remains essential to economic and social life - vibrant communities?

how do they organise resistance:

• protests by slum dwellers, ghana and india

• recyclers union in Bogota

• global movements in the last 3 decades

policy responses to informal work in India

• slum demolition for beautification 68/450 residents were relocated

• raze and relocate - secure but far from work and schools ie. airport slum in mumbai

• slum upgrades

w8 add a reading

why do we see the rise of social protection?

• tool for policy intervention

• failure of market led policies so need for an alternative = concept of safety net

• informal economy least regulated

social protection definition - rights based and growth based approaches

set of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability

rights based: human right to have access to this safety

growth approach: more convincing for investors, inclusive growth to escape poverty traps NOT a right, but makes sense not to fuel inclusive growth

same policies but not same rationale

formal VS informal social protection

formal

• contributory or non contributory

• social assistance, care, insurance, labour market policies

• pushed by international labour organisations

informal

• community led ie. tontines in Madagascar

• important in the global south

• like a social safety net

social assistance

Provide support for those in poverty and is financed out of govt revenue

social insurance

• Protection against one specific case/criteria

• Maternity benefits, work related, medical, pension...

• Financed from contributions by workers to their employers

labour market programs

• To cater to informal work?

• Create work opportunities

• Upgrading and adapting skills, job creation, matching jobseekers with vacancies, incentive creation

graduation/cash-plus/economic inclusion approaches

• investment in social capital

• increses productivity

• increases impact

• facilitates entry into work force

attempt to a cohesive and coherent implementation of programs and policies

conditional

• transfer under contract ( in Brazil Program Bolsa Familia = going to school, following up on vaccines and medicals, here transfer often done to the mother)

• creates dependency

• added pressure

• ethical concerns of ppl not being able to do what they want

BUT cash transfer is a proven method and could encourage and compel voluntary action in the future

unconditional

• entitlement to a cash transfer udner all circumstance

• no cost monitoring = efficient

• concern of cost efficiency waste bc no monitoring

• 2 poor households don’t necessarily need the same things

• more freedom and agency

universal

• equity concern

• if combined with unconditional transfers could be reduced to accomodate to everyone

targeted

• efficient

• money saving because precise

BUT can create social tensions and discord between neighbours who have access and those who don’t