Haiti and the human development perspective

Jan 21, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Haiti, Haiti, Haiti! For the past week I have been trying to wrap my mind around what is happening in Haiti. Desperately trying to understand the magnitude of the crisis for the country and for the people of the country and I feel like a child with a ‘six-sided coloured puzzle’, trying to arrange all the colours on the right side but after one week, I have given up, all the colours are still very mixed up.
We may never be able to understand the gravity of the situation in Haiti. Nevertheless, it is with much appreciation, that I watch the world rally around the country, in this their day of disaster. The support is remarkable and as a human being, I find it extremely encouraging. I feel proud to be a part of this present day human race. So as a human being, I say thank you to the world!
Having been unable to rationalize the situation in Haiti, I started thinking of the way forward and how the country can rebound from this horrific experience, hence I started looking at it through the lens of a development glasses, specifically with a human development focus.
Recently, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in a television comment, sort of on the re-profiling of USAID, noted that the US assistance to the developing world has to be through development. However, even as I examine the situation in Haiti before and after the disaster, I cannot note how right Mrs. Clinton was in making that comment. Nevertheless, the United States and other developed countries have to become more ‘narrow and deep’ in their development assistance programmes at all levels – from policy development to implementation.
It is imperative that development for developing countries zero-in on the human development perspective. Even as a re-construction programme for Haiti is deliberated, human development has to be the primary focus.
Development for developing countries has to change its face to look more like the people who the development processes are being implemented for. By this I mean that, development aid and the technical cooperation programme must seriously pay due consideration to both the indigenous knowledge from within and about the developing countries and the modern knowledge from the developed world, there is a vital need for that right ‘development balance’ to be achieved.
While I totally understand that developed countries have specific country-objectives in their development programmes, I am still of the view that in order for there to be more impact in development and for the pace of development in developing countries to increase, paradigms have to shift.
Security has to go hand-in-hand with development and human dignity and development hand-in-hand with security and human dignity. The world will not be secured without being developed. I remember walking in a developed country with a colleague from Africa, and as we passed a market where there were many apples, she said something that hit me like a ton of bricks; she said “if we had apples like this at home, then people would not have to kill each other for an apple”. I knew that she was being literal and figurative in a sense, although more figurative than literal. Nonetheless, the point is, wrapped up in that simple statement; was development hand-in-hand with security and human dignity (respect for human rights).
What do I mean by a human development focus? The Human Development Perspective is about enlarging people’s choices. Generally, development is a process centred on people, the fullest possible exercise of their freedoms and the development of their capabilities.
Human development on the other hand incorporates both the process of widening people’s choices and the level of their achieved well-being. It is a fact that these choices include an infinitely wide range of issues which are of concern to people, and that this range changes historically, nevertheless, there are dimensions that remain essential to all levels of development: living a long and healthy life; acquiring knowledge; and having access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. The human development perspective takes away the commodity-centered view of development and makes it more people-centered. It is the expansion of these essentials that will determine the quality of life that people in developing countries will live and their opportunities to develop other capabilities.
With a more deliberate focus on human development in development aid and technical cooperation programme, and a clearer understanding that human development is an objective and a criterion of social progress which is a process aimed at people, results in developing countries will move upwards.
Even as development intends to improve people’s well-being, it should be seen more as an expansion of capabilities and freedoms of the beneficiaries in developing countries and not necessarily based on their per capita income only.
In order for the people of developing countries to be a part of their own development solutions, their choices and freedoms have to be increased. Human development can also be considered as a way to increase labour productivity and income; however, this increase will become valuable when it impacts on the growth of people’s well-being.
While it is important to focus on policies and strategies to increase income, income should not be seen as the end goal in development, but rather as a means to enlarge people’s choices in terms of health care, education, and economic and social activities. The more choices available to people means that the more freedom they will have.
A shift in the objective of development along with an emphasis on human capital as a means of development will have enormous impact on development results.
This puts people in a position where they are the object of policy and a major instrument of their own development.
If I have one criticism of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it is its seeming inability to promote the concept of human development more broadly among governments in developed and developing countries, policy makers and professionals in the field of development. I think, this disaster in Haiti has presented an excellent opportunity for UNDP to galvanize support and create a better understanding of the human development concept and its importance and relevance to increased development results.
Therefore it is imperative that a re-construction programme for Haiti have as a primary focus, human development – the expansion of the capabilities and freedoms of the people of Haiti so that they could effectively be a part of finding their own solutions.
Audreyanna Thomas

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