The Basic Needs Approach is a development theory that attempts to define the minimum resources necessary to meet peoples' basic human needs, such as adequate food, shelter, clothing, water, and access to education and healthcare. It was introduced by the International Labour Organization in 1976 and aims to use development programs and policies to help societies consume enough to rise above the poverty line. However, it has been criticized for not investing in economically productive activities that could help societies become self-sufficient in the long run.

1. Basic Needs Approach
in Development Theory
Reported By : Jelyn Dicen

2. What is Basic Needs Approach?
• The Basic Needs Approach is one of the major
approaches to the measurement of absolute
poverty in developing countries.

3. What is Basic Needs Approach?
It attempts to define the absolute minimum
resources necessary for long-term physical
well-being usually in terms of consumption of
goods. The poverty line is then defined as the
amount of income required to satisfy those
needs.

4. What is Basic Needs Approach?
The basic needs approach has been described as
consumption-oriented, giving the impression
"that poverty elimination is all too easy.“
• Needs-based approach also known as a
traditional approach, which generally understood
as deficit model which focuses on the
community’s needs, deficiencies, and problems.

5. What is Basic Needs Approach?
Development programs following the basic
needs approach do not invest in economically
productive activities that will help a society
carry its own weight in the future, rather it
focuses on allowing the society to consume
just enough to rise above the poverty line and
meet its basic needs.

6. Who introduces the Basic Needs
Approach?
• The 'basic needs' approach was introduced by
the International Labour Organization's
World Employment Conference in 1976.
• It proposed the satisfaction of basic human
needs as the overriding objective of national
and international development policy.

7. The Basic needs approach to development
was endorsed by governments and workers
and employers organizations from all over the
world.
It influenced the programmes and policies of
major multilateral and bilateral development
agencies, and was the precursor to the human
development approach.

8. The ILO report goes on to indicate two crucial
elements in the Basic Needs approach:
“First, they include certain minimum requirements
of a family for private consumption: adequate
food, shelter and clothing, as well as certain
household equipment and furniture.
Second, they include essential services provided by
and for the community at large, such as safe
drinking water, sanitation, public transport and
health, education and cultural facilities.”

9. These Basic Needs included not only the
essentials to physical survival, but also to
access to services, employment and decision-
making to provide a real basis for
participation.

10. Rights Vs. Needs
• The basic needs approach often aims to obtain
additional resources to help a marginalized group
obtain access to services.
• A human rights approach, in contrast, calls for existing
community resources to be shared more equally, so
that everyone has access to the same services.
Assisting people to assert their rights, therefore, often
means involvement in political debate. While a basic
needs approach does not necessarily recognize willful
or historical marginalization, a human rights approach
aims directly at overcoming such marginalization.

11. Rights Vs. Needs
• Basic needs can, in principle, be met through
benevolent or charitable actions.
• Actions based on a human rights approach
are based on legal and moral obligations to
carry out a duty that will permit a subject to
enjoy her or his right.