An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach Launched in September 2004, the Human Development and Capability Assoc- iation (HDCA) promotes research from many disciplines on key problems related to poverty, justice and well-being. Frances Stewart is the current president of HDCA. Amartya Sen was the Founding President of HDCA 2004–2006; Martha Nussbaum was President of HDCA 2006–2008. Mission HDCA promotes high quality research in the interconnected areas of human development and capability. It is concerned with research in these areas across a broad range of topics where the human development and capability approaches have made and can make significant contributions, including the quality of life, poverty, justice, gender, development and environment inter alia. It further works in all disciplines – such as economics, philosophy, political theory, sociology and development studies – where such research is, or may be, pursued. While primarily an academic body, the Association brings together those involved in academic work with practitioners who are involved in, or interested in, the application of research from the fields of human development and capability to the problems they face. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities The Journal of Human Development and Capabilities is the peer reviewed journal of the Association. It publishes original works in economics, philo- sophy, social sciences and other disciplines that expand concepts, measurement tools and policy alternatives from the perspective of the human development and capability approach. It provides a forum for an open exchange of ideas among a broad spectrum of policy makers, economists and academics. Human development is becoming a school of thought and the Journal acts as a conduit for members and critics of this school. Activities The Association holds an annual conference, supports training activities, facilitates thematic groups on specific topics, and provides a forum in which collaborative research can emerge. It maintains a website which provides, among others: a comprehensive collection of bibliographic resources on the capability approach; tri-annual bulletins on core concepts and applications of the approach; information on thematic groups and their activities; video and teaching materials on subjects related to the capability approach, unpublished manuscripts, etc. www.hd-ca.org An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach Freedom and Agency Edited by Séverine Deneulin with Lila Shahani London • Sterling, VA International Development Research Centre Ottawa • Cairo • Dakar • Montevideo • Nairobi • New Delhi • Singapore First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2009 Copyright © Human Development and Capability Association, 2009 All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Human Development and Capability Association. All rights reserved ISBN: HB 978-1-84407-805-9 PB 978-1-84407-806-6 IDRC publishes an e-book version of An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach (ISBN 978-1-55250-470-3) For further information, please contact: International Development Research Centre PO Box 8500 Ottawa, ON K1G 3H9 Canada Email: [email protected] Web: www.idrc.ca Typeset by FiSH Books Cover design by Susanne Harris Cover images: Girls in Cajamarca, Peru © Maritza Paredes. Wase Friday market, central Nigeria © Adam Higazi. Harvest season in Mekhong Delta, Vietnam © Zarni Maung. Students listening to a lecture by Amartya Sen at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, UK. © Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI). 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Contents List of Figures, Tables and Boxes ix List of Contributors xi List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xv Introduction xvii Part I Concepts 1 1 A Normative Framework for Development 3 Sabina Alkire and Séverine Deneulin Normative, positive and predictive 4 Case studies 6 Normative frameworks matter 12 People first 13 2 The Human Development and Capability Approach 22 Sabina Alkire and Séverine Deneulin Human development 24 Going deeper: The capability approach 30 3 Ideas Related to Human Development 49 Séverine Deneulin Human development and market liberalism: Freedom compared 51 How the idea of freedom is spread 54 The basic needs approach 56 Human rights 59 Human security 62 Other related ideas 66 Part II Topics 71 4 Economic Growth 73 Randy Spence Growth in the history of economic thought 74 Contemporary approaches to economic growth 83 Economic growth as a means to human flourishing 90 vi AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND CAPABILITY APPROACH 5 Equality and Justice 101 Ingrid Robeyns A brief description of the literature on theories of justice 102 Rawls’ theory of justice in a nutshell 106 Rawlsian justice versus the capability approach 109 What do we need for a capability theory of justice? 112 Gender justice and justice for marginalized groups 115 From theories of justice to just practices and policies 116 6 Poverty and Inequality Measurement 121 Sabina Alkire and Maria Emma Santos The importance and limitations of measurement 122 Income-based measures of inequality 125 Income poverty measurement: Two steps 133 Measuring development and well-being: The Human Development Index (HDI) 139 Multidimensional poverty measurement 143 7 Institutions, Markets and Economic Development 162 Susan Johnson Institutions in economic development 164 Markets 171 Institutions and markets in the human development approach 178 8 Democracy and Political Participation 185 Séverine Deneulin A mechanism for exercising agency in public sphere 186 The value of democracy 191 From democratic theory to practice 196 Public reasoning 201 Political participation at the global level 202 9 Education 207 Elaine Unterhalter Human capital 208 Human capital and the capability approaches compared 212 Applying the capability approach to education 217 10 Health 228 Proochista Ariana and Arif Naveed What is health? 229 Conventional approaches to health 230 Health within the human development and capability approach 234 Health at the heart of inter-locking deprivations 238 CONTENTS vii 11 Culture and Religion 246 Sarah White and Séverine Deneulin Part I Culture 247 Development perspectives 248 Anthropological perspectives 250 Human development perspectives 253 Part II Religion 261 The Protestant ethic approach 261 Religion as moral base 262 Religion as human right 264 Religion as dimension of well-being 265 Faith-based organizations 266 The possibility of reasoning 267 Part III Policy 273 12 Human Development Policy Analysis 275 Randy Spence and Séverine Deneulin Main areas of public policy 276 Policy in the private, non-profit and international sectors 286 Politics and power 289 Tools for policy analysis 291 A human development perspective 294 13 Policy Case Studies 300 edited by Séverine Deneulin and Lila Shahani A personal narrative of a woman’s life in Ghana 302 Gender policy in Turkey 304 Fiscal policy in Syria 312 Security policy in Haiti 318 Technical assistance policy in Afghanistan 324 Post-conflict policy in Liberia 329 Appendix 1 Teaching the human development and capability approach: Some pedagogical implications 334 Melanie Walker Appendix 2 Didactic Pictures 339 Index 345 This page intentionally left blank List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Figures 4.1 Gini coefficients in the world 91 4.2 Causal chain between human development and economic growth 92 4.3 Human development and economic growth performance: Cross-country evidence 95 7.1 Categorization of institutions in the economy by level 169 Tables 1.1 Some human development indicators 15 1.2 Poverty in different spaces: surprisingly different 16 3.1 Human development and neoliberalism compared 53 3.2 Correspondence between key capabilities and the MDGs 67 12.1 Areas of public policy 277 13.1 Gender equality-related statistics compared to other middle-income countries, 2005 305 13.2 The GDI compared to the HDI – with data for 2006 305 13.3 Syria’s basic macro-fiscal picture, 1992–2002 312 13.4 Non-oil surplus/deficit as a percentage of GDP, 1992–2002 313 13.5 Shares in total tax revenue of major types of taxes, 1994–2002 314 13.6 Indirect taxes as a percentage of GDP in southern Mediterranean Arab countries and other middle-income countries, 1999–2000 315 13.7 Haiti – chronology of key events 319 13.8 Coordination of technical