The Human Development Paradigm: Operationalizing Sen's Ideas on Capabilities

Abstract

Amartya Sen's ideas constitute the core principles of a development approach that has evolved in the Human Development Reports. This approach is a "paradigm" based on the concept of well-being that can help define public policy, but does not embody a set of prescriptions. The current movement from an age of development planning to an age of globalization has meant an increasing attention to agency aspects of development. While earlier Human Development Reports emphasized measures such as the provision of public services, recent ones have focused more on people's political empowerment. This paper reflects on Sen's work in light of this shift in emphasis. Gender analysis has been central to the development of the new agency-driven paradigm, and gender equity is a core concern. A gender perspective has also helped highlight important aspects of this paradigm, such as the role of collective agency in promoting development.Amartya Sen, Human Development, Capabilities, Human Rights, Gender, Democratic Governance,

Neoliberalism as concept

“…In contrast, a second type of critique departs entirely from these technical criteria, and finds that neoliberal policies are excessively technical, economistic, 'cookie--cutter', context--blind, and politically naïve. Rather than engaging in the policy debate over how best to deliver economic growth, this critique questions the relevance of that debate altogether, and problematizes the narrowness of defining development in terms of the 'means' (economic growth) rather than the 'ends' -whether poverty alleviation, health, education, or other measures such as democracy, human rights, and gender equality (Streeten 1994, Sen 1999, Jolly 2003, Fukuda Parr 2003. This latter cluster of ideas represents the re--constitution of a much older tradition of development as social palliative that stretches from Fabian colonialism in the early 20 th century (Cowen and Shenton 1991) to the idea of 'Basic Needs' of the 1970s (Streeten et al, 1981).…”

Determinants of the Levels of Development Based on the Human Development Index: A Comparison of Regression Models for Limited Dependent Variables

“…In this sense, the human development approach is consistently concerned with making sense of the world and addressing challenges now and in the future (UNDP, 2011a). The human development approach involves two central theses about people and development which are concerned with evaluating improvements in human lives as a distinctive development objective and what human beings can do to achieve such improvements particularly policy and political changes (Fukuda-Parr, 2003).…”

Human security benchmarks: Governing human wellbeing at a distance

“…82 While there were initial disagreements between the HDI architects over the reduction of complex human capabilities to only three main indicators, these were set aside to create a comparative measure of human development with GDP-like traction. 83 Although the HDI provides measures intimately related to core components of the human security agenda, the UNDP has begun to distance itself from the concept. Since the early 2000s, the framing of policy priorities in the UNDP's Human Development Reports, which contain the HDI and discuss related policy priorities, has devoted less attention to human security components.…”