By the turn of the 21st century there was a new perspective that turned around the course in development thinking and international development practice. It signified the dawn of a new era in development practice which set the pace for a new dimension, in development discourse. By aiming for considerable improvements in income generation, education and health, human wellbeing and dignity, living conditions and standards of living, it placed people at the centre of development thinking reflecting the concept of human development. Thus this can be described as the millennium philosophy of development.
Development has been defined by different scholars. As such there are various definitions as there are various theorists of development. In the general sense the concept of development implies a change, progress or transformation. However, the concept of development as used in today’s global socio-economic enterprise has been defined along social-economic aims.
Development, in its essence, must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social system, tuned to the diverse basic needs and evolving aspirations of individuals and social groups within that system, moves away from a condition of life widely perceived as unsatisfactory towards a situation or condition of life regarded as materially and spiritually better.Todaro (2012:16).
Development can be described as the process of improving the quality of all human lives and capabilities by raising people’s levels of living, self-esteem, and freedom.
The development discourse consists of the various theories, activities, practices and even perceptions of the concept of development, geared towards the attainment of development. As such there are numerous theories of development majority of which are economically based. They include: dependency theory, linear stages of growth theory, human development theory, vicious circle of poverty theory, McClelland’s need for achievement theory, the limiting factors theory, neoclassical theory, and much more.
Underdevelopment as a concept describes what obtains where there is absence of development or development at the lowest level. Dudley Seers conceives underdevelopment as “the worsening experience of the indices of poverty, unemployment, inequality or any two thereof in a given country” Thomas(2010:35). Under-development in a country is characterized by general poverty, unemployment, low standard of living, economic backwardness, technological backwardness, external dependency etc. Developing on the other hand is used to refer to countries with low income, lower middle income or upper middle income. These countries are on the verge of attaining development. Underdeveloped countries can also be called developing. Another concept prominent in development discourse is sustainable development, which is best defined by the Bruntland report of 1987 as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
Human rights are commonly understood as being those rights which are inherent in the human being. The concept of human rights acknowledges that every single human being is entitled to enjoy his or her human rights without distinction as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Although human rights and development have been conceived as separate concepts, the 1986 declaration of the right to development has facilitated the linking of human rights with development, which has brought about a human centred approach to development. The special development goals of the 21st century are one of such documents or convention on development inspired by the human centred perspective of development. The SDGs as they are commonly called prescribe 8 time bound goals to be achieved by the year 2015 and have a focus on poverty alleviation. Poverty is one of the most visible effects of the absence of development.
The lives of people living in poverty are continuously threatened by lack of food, the risk of disease, hazardous work and precarious living conditions. They may experience all types of violence, including discrimination, harassment, humiliation, physical attacks and sometimes even threats of death, often just because they are poor. Every day, thousands of children, women and men die silently from easily preventable illnesses associated with poverty, including starvation, diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, measles and death in childbirth. APF and CESR (2011:6).
Therefore, the conditions preeminent as a result of poverty constitute a threat to human dignity and well being. Thus, poverty has been conceived as a violation of human rights. Poverty denies and deprives the human being of certain fundamental human rights such as: a right to dignity, well being and even right to life. Therefore human rights have come to play very significant roles in development theory and practice.
There are three different levels or modes through which human rights have been integrated into development. They are: the level of dimensions, obligations and principles. At the level of dimensions, development programmes coincidentally relate to the subject matter of human rights. At the level of principles, human rights integration is more deliberate and can act as a guide for development activities. At the level of obligations the most explicit approaches to human rights can be identified and in this level, human rights based approaches to development are clearly discernable.
Of recent, some paradigms have been included in the development discourse to exemplify the shift from a material centred perspective to human centred perspective. They include concepts like capability approach as enunciated by AmartyaSen, the human development approach which was pioneered by MahbubUlHaq and the human rights based approach which has been used to implement human rights principles in development practice.
The union of human rights and development whether on a conceptual level or on a practical level has come to stay such that, even if we are ushered out of this intellectual trend, the fact still remains that in order to get development aright, we need to start with the human beings. A philosophical introspection into aims and process, ends and means of development, takes the centre stage in all development thinking and planning, as the realities of human existence are significant in analysing the processes through which the better life can be attained. By nature, philosophy embarks on a critical inquiry into this human nature and existence, and philosophy of development as a second order activity sets development in its rightful place conceptually, which to a large extent affects development policies and programs. what the conceptual linking of human rights and development has done over the years is that, it has harnessed the principles of human rights as guidelines for interpreting the impact of development on human beings and has streamlined these principles in development approaches and practices, resulting in a human centred approach to development. Moreover, despite all the criticisms of this approach, human rights and development do have much in common, one notable fact being that they are both ultimately concerned about the human condition.
How long will this perspective remain with us? Will it stand the test of time? In answering these questions, I dare say that it will remain as long as the beneficiaries and agents of change and development are the human beings themselves. A successful war on poverty is a war in which the poor themselves must be the major actors, and what this intellectual trend has done is to give the poor a platform on which to wage this war, which is the human rights agenda encompassing the development agenda.
Therefore with these in view, it is safe to conclude that the human rights’ based approach to development is the right way forward for development thinking and practice. Hence a philosophy that merges the two concepts of human rights and development as a means to fulfilling their goals is a step in the right direction. Philosophy possesses the reflective, critical and rational features harnessed by this new development perspective. As such, philosophy provides the groundwork and the starting point for a human centred focus on development, in other words the rethinking of development towards a human centred focus is a philosophical evaluation of the concept of development. The baton has now been passed on to agents in the practice of development to take the much awaited step of implementing these philosophical perspectives of development, to ensure the attainment of not just development but the improvement of human lives, wellbeing and standards of living.
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