Skip to main content

What distinguishes a good life from a sustainable and bright future

We have entered now the era of Sustainable Development, where the focus is not only on ensuring that people from the most marginalized parts of the world have a good life, but that they also have aa sustainable and bright future.



To help understand how a sustainable and bright future future is different from a merely good life, I thought I should remind our "valucentric" readers about the relationship between economic growth and sustainable economic development.

Defining economic development

The term development means a change over time, typically involving growth or expansion. According to (Norton, et al., 2006), development is a process with many economic and social dimensions. It is a dynamic process including not only changes in the structure and level of economic activity, but also increased opportunities for individual choice and for improved self-esteem. In the first Human Development Report, UNDP defined development as expanding people’s choices. 

Economic development therefore refers to a process of economic transformation; involving more efficient resource utilization as well as expansion of productive capacity accompanied by a sustainable and equitable distribution of the gains from such growth. 

Several theories of development such as the Mercantilists, the Classicalists, Stage of Growth proponents and Capital Accumulation theorists converge to the belief that: economic development is a transition from traditional society to a modern commercial society with improvements in people’s standards of living. 

Economic development is thus a multi-faceted phenomenon involving both growth and productivity gains as well as social and distributional efficiencies. 

Contrasting economic development with economic growth


PHOTO CREDIT: Mabel Munyuki Hungwe (PhD)
The term economic development is often used interchangeably with the term economic growth. The two terms, however related, have different connotations. Economic development requires economic growth. Economic growth is often measured by metrics such as per capita GDP growth rates. However, measuring economic development is a combinations of both measures of growth and measures of the actual distribution of wealth. Indices like the Gini inequality coefficient, or the gender disparity index, are often combined in composite measures of economic development. 

“Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic development.”

The difference between economic growth and development can be illustrated by the recent findings that the early 2000s have been Africa’s decade of unprecedented economic growth. For instance, six of the ten fastest growing economies globally in the early 2000s were in Africa; including Angola, Niger, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique, and Rwanda who registered growth of over 7%. However, this unprecedented growth has not delivered the jobs and poverty reduction that Africa has been seeking. 

Africa is off target on achieving MDG 1 of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. This may be seen to resemble “economic growth” without “economic development”. 

Economic development focuses on concepts which include, though not limited to:

  1. productive capacity of resources and productivity of both self-employment and wage-employment 
  2. equity of income and asset distribution 
  3. social protection

To a sustainable and climate smart future post-2015!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Story about the BAREFOOT EDUCATION FOR AFRIKA TRUST... FOUNDATIONS AND FUTURE

In my own Words, Barefoot means,  "simplifying  every complex and  exclusive  system to  solicit  and  harness  the contributable  value  from a rich and  broad  range of stakeholders (for Afrika particularly the  vast rural )… It is breaking the walls of class, language, race and even geographical location and creating new platforms of freedom, rebuilding confidence even in societies’ ‘least’ sophisticated groups. It is reengaging, collaborating, rebuilding capacity of rural Afrika to challenge contemporary knowledge based on the rich Afrikan experience and wisdom.”   The basis of the Barefoot Principle is: "Knowledge Exists only at the Point of Action and Decision Making" Now, about BEAT In 2009, a long conceived idea of pursuing a “Holistic Afrikan Education Model” took its first step to life by the establishment of the Barefoot Education for Afrika Trust (BEAT). This was the beginning of a journey; a journey starting from a confluence of peo

You want to know more about the role of agricultural innovation in creating food security in Africa?

"Agricultural innovation lies at the heart of striking the opportunity lying between agriculture’s demand-side incentives and supply-side constraints. Innovation is a subject of great importance because it stimulates sustainable growth in a highly competitive market" A snapshot of the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA) website Hi guys! The Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa, FARA just launched an essay writing competition for young agriculture academics. I have submitted my essay and our essays are in the public evaluation stage where we need to mobilize many votes through Facebook. If you are on Facebook, please help me win. My essay  gives a clear picture why "innovation" should Africa's priority in a dynamically changing world, marred by its challenges but full of its unique opportunities.  Regardless of being food insecure and suffering from supply-side constraints, Africa has demand-side incentives for agriculture. It howeve

The Africa I dream of everyday

Photo Credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann I have just been thinking about Africa lately. Our continent is currently at a crossroads, we can either make it or break it. It is becoming apparent to the world that the future of food production and agribusiness is strongly linked to Africa. The continent still has potential to expand area under production and to intensify production through new technologies. The developed countries are well aware of this and seem to be ready to do business with Africa. But where is the deadlock? Why is the puzzle not fitting together? In addition to the resources advantages of good land, climate and minerals, Africa has another advantage - a burgeoning and most youthful population. While the developed world has to deal with an ageing population, Africa is carrying a 'ticking time bomb' or a demographic dividend for the continent - the youth. If these young men and women do not get jobs or fail to become true value-creating entrepreneurs, the whole c