As the end of the 1980s nears, several important international events which influenced the direction of development challenges in the 1990s occurred. First, the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 following the collapse of the Berlin’s Wall in November 1989. Transitional economies of the former Soviet Union joined the group of the traditional LDCs, a kind of new developing countries. This means that quite a lot of aid resources had to be directed to those countries. To deal with this issue, the European

Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was established in 1991.

Second, the Brundtland Report entitled “Our Common Future” was published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, in which a concept of “Sustainable Development (Growth and Environment)” was introduced for the first time. As an extension of this concept, the DAC adopted the first set of guidelines on Aid and Development from No. 1 to No. 4. The concept of sustainability was succeeded to the UNCED (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in 1992 in Rio, and even further to the UN Millennium Development Goals in 2000 (MDGs in 2015). Thus, the sustainable development gained an important position in international development activities.

Third, Prof. Amartya Sen developed a new development approach at a philosophical level called the “Capability Approach” during the latter half of the 1980s. This approach is the conceptual framework for evaluating social states in terms of human well-being (not welfare: Per Capita Income). In 1990, based on the capability approach, UNDP published under the chairmanship of Dr. Mahbub ul Haq its first report entitled “Human Development Report (HDR)” in which the Human Development Index (HDI) as a token of economic and social development was invented and estimated, and ranked for all the countries in the world. This is in fact the very first step to change the conceptual capability approach into a new practical international development-cum-cooperation approach (real actions to help develop LDCS); namely the Human Development Approach. In other words, Dr. ul Haq initiated the “Human Development Approach” which was exercised throughout the 1990s. In short, the capability approach turned into the human development approach as the development-cum-cooperation approach of the 1990s.

Fourth, while the UNDP originated the Human Development Approach, the World Bank did not come up with a brand-new international development-cum-cooperation approach. In the author’s view, the Bank pursued an approach based on the previous decade’s Structural Adjustment Approach by adding some flavor of pro poor growth, which might be called the “Structural Adjustment-cum-Growth with Equity Approach”. The Bank’s approach was, however, overwhelmed by the UNDP’s Human Development Approach.

Fifth, The DAC, on the other hand, introduced various ODA guidelines and strategies to upgrade ODA quality for the sustainable development such as WID Guiding Principles (1989), Participatory Development Strategy (1989), DAC Guidelines on Aid and Environment (1991) and so forth. In 1996, the DAC adopted the DAC New Development Strategy which is spelled out in a booklet “Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation”. In the booklet, the International Development Goals were sorted, which laid a foundation for the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000).

As above, the decade of the 1990s was the period of the Human Development Approach. However, it was proved that we need to take into more careful considerations in pursuing international development challenges on the wide development fronts such as Transition Economies, Sustainable Development and Environmental Guidelines, WID, Pro-Poor Growth, and so forth. In other words, the world learned that ODA must be scrutinized from three dimensions: individual project/program dimension, nation-wide dimension, and global dimension.

Finally, a challenge of development cooperation which took place during the 1990s deserves a special mention. That is, from the beginning of the 1990s, the world donor community began to shift its aid resources from economic sectors to social sectors. By the end of the 1990s, the social sector development assistance overwhelmed the economic sector development assistance. There are several clues to recognize this paradigm change in such events as the BHN Approach (before the 1990s), the social safety net in the Structural Adjustment Approach (before the 1990s), the Human Development Approach itself, UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992), World Summit for Social Development (1995), various DAC guidelines (WID, Participatory Development, Environment) and so forth. Therefore, it may be said that the 1990s was the decade of the Social Development.

Questions: Answer the following questions

(1) What are the main messages of the Brundtland Reports?

(2) Outline the Capability Approach of Prof. Sen. ➛The base of Human Development Approach

(3) Explain what the Human Development Index (HDI) is. ➛To show how to compile the HDI. The way to calculate the HDI. In the first HDR, how they calculate the HDI?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 The Bru nd t land Report also known as Our Common Future was published by the World Commission on Environment and Development WC ED in 1987 The report introduced the concept of s ustainable developm... View the full answer