Development, defined, and explained by Development expert consultant of e-Biome Services. Development is a complex and dynamic term and there are different factors that must be taken into consideration when exploring the reality of Development.

1. e-Biome Services | www.e-biome.com | Author: Mr. Keenan Falconer, Development Economist.
WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?
Development may be defined as an improvement in the qualitative nature of
people’s lives. It is a broad sphere of human endeavour and efforts throughout
history have only been confined to improving people’s material wealth through
greater economic growth. However, recently, development literature suggests
that previous metrics used to assess the state of development of persons are too
limited to their incomes only (or lack thereof) and development practitioners have
sought to utilize more all-encompassing measures to better determine people’s
welfare. These include the Human Development Index (HDI) which, aside from
incorporating people’s incomes, includes their life expectancy and level of
education.
The ideal definition of development must make some reference to its broad-
based nature and level of inclusivity. It includes a wide range of aspects such as
access to healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, access to financing/credit, education,
degree of technology penetration among other variables which allow us to expand
the range of human freedom. Nobel Laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen notes
as much in his book, Development as Freedom. In it, he suggests that
development must allow us to increase our available options to effectively
function from an economic, environmental, social and political standpoint.
Any good evaluation of the concept of development should inevitably include
its complementarity with growth from a country perspective. Economic growth
allows us to facilitate the accumulation of wealth, however, this wealth should
filter down into programmes and projects which allow us to alleviate the plight
of society’s most vulnerable. If this does not occur, development can’t have been
said to have taken place because the overall state of a subset of persons has not
been ameliorated. Societies such as China and India, which were said to be
developing countries, have succeeded in improving social outcomes due to their
economic growth. However, a conundrum exists where little concrete evidence
exists that countries are able to record economic development without a
concomitant increase in economic growth.

2. e-Biome Services | www.e-biome.com | Author: Mr. Keenan Falconer, Development Economist.
Presently, there is a thrust to inculcate the importance of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which cover 17 specific areas for action
that followed on from the completion of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) in 2015. This points to the fact that development inherently ought to be
sustainable and imbue in us a sense of responsible behaviour in order to bequeath
the earth and its resources to future generations, thus ensuring continuity. This
level of continuity is what will ensure an improvement in people’s lives and the
building of both human and social capital.
Several development theories have been proposed especially since
Development Economics (which is only one branch of Development) was first
introduced as a serious field of endeavour in the 1950s and 1960s, as more
countries of the Third World in Africa and the Caribbean began to make
movements towards political independence from their respective metropoles.
Among early proponents included Sir Arthur Lewis, a 1979 Economics Nobel
Laureate from St. Lucia who first broached the idea of industrialisation by
invitation. He pointed to the idea of a dual economy and noted that agriculture
alone was not enough and that manufacturing needed to complement it to add
value especially for export. This could only have been achieved through generous
incentives to encourage foreign companies to invest their capital in the region.
While his theory has had its fair share of criticisms, in a Caribbean context, it is
still useful to understand the current structure of many small island states which
are seemingly trapped in a development problem stemming from an overreliance
on traditional sectors, instead of diversifying its offerings in newer, more modern
industries.
Understanding the history of development as a rigorous academic discipline
requires a recounting of history and a need to figure out why some countries are
“rich” while others remain “poor”. In his seminal work, How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa, Professor Walter Rodney proposed the idea that several
European nations during the heights of the slave trade, siphoned off much needed
wealth for the development of Africa leaving the continent in a state of squalor,
decadence and dependence. His theory has a lot of currency today and is one such
reason why the Reparations Movement is gaining much traction among regional
thinkers. A useful counterpoint suggests, however, that monetary wealth would
not be sufficient to erase the social, physical, psychological and sociological scars

3. e-Biome Services | www.e-biome.com | Author: Mr. Keenan Falconer, Development Economist.
left by the horrendous slave trade and that effective development initiatives must
invariably take these into account if we desire to advance as nations.
Despite the hand that former colonies have been dealt due to this occurrence,
development outcomes have improved steadily over time especially through the
establishment of regional institutions such as the University of the West Indies
(UWI) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In a broad context, not only
does this show the resilience of our people, but a commitment to advancing our
collective welfare as these entities have served our people well and continue to
do so. Regional governments have also made strides in improving access to
critical social services such as healthcare, and education and these are tangible
achievements measured by more micro-data such as the lowering of infant
mortality, and an increase in school enrolment for children, for example.
In the final analysis, development is a wide-ranging sphere of endeavour
which spans history, sociology, politics, economics, environmental studies and
international relations. Understanding each of these components is critical to
development practitioners, public policy analysts, public administration officials
and other relevant stakeholders to design and implement the most effective
strategies to tackle long-standing development challenges. The end goal of
development should always be to improve people’s well-being and give them an
opportunity to create sustainable outcomes for themselves. If this does not occur,
then development has not been achieved and efforts must ideally be focused on
particularly vulnerable segments of the population to fill much-needed gaps
where they exist in order that the development taking place is not only inclusive
but equitable in nature. Development is an interesting field of study and has great
potential to change the world.