Humanizing development

Description

Humanizing world economic growth by ensuring that equity, employment, human rights and the environment are weighed alongside trade balances and profits on the balance sheet of economic globalization.

Context

While the role of the state in promoting social policies has been seriously undercut by an unfettered emphasis on the free market, there is a realization that the public sector has an indispensable role to play in providing the infrastructure for the private sector, in defending a broader set of social values, and in serving as a counterbalance to the instability of the unregulated market.

Claim

Development must be carried out by and for people, not machines or systems, and should empower people to lead a dignified life, secure in the protection of their basic rights. Economic growth is essential but is only a means to an end of a better quality of life for the individual. Humans have rational, emotional and spiritual faculties, needs and aspirations as well as physical ones, all of which must be addressed. People must be enabled to make their own choices and participate in the creation of their future through the realization of their potential and in accordance with their own culture, beliefs and approaches. The fact that there may be alternatives does not mean that only one is right.

The human factor is at the heart of development. One aspect of this is the often considerable determination, will and motivation of people suffering from deprivation. Their skill, self-reliance, ingenuity and effort, upon which their daily struggle for survival depends, can make them competent agents for a change in their circumstances, or reliable partners in implementing development programmes. Self-help projects must respond to the actual needs, material and other, of the local community and should seek to involve community members in design as well as execution. Equitable distribution of the fruits of economic growth will then further empower people rather than increasing their marginalization.