Human Development Report

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce Volume 8, Number 1 (March 2007) of the Journal of Human Development: A Multi-Disciplinary Journal for People-Centered Development.

JHD Lead Editor: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

JHD Editors: Khadija Haq, Richard Jolly, Mozaffar Qizilbash and Kevin Watkins

We would like to offer a free copy to the first 125 members of both HDR Networks (HDR-Net and HDRStats-Net) that email their request including their mailing address to Mamaye Gebretsadik (mamaye.gebretsadik@undp.org).

How have the concepts of human development and governance evolved? How can the capability approach be operationalized to measure the abstract unobservable multidimensional concept that the term capability stands for? Has the European sustainable town model, based on the capability approach, contributed to development and what are the implications for citizens’ traditional freedoms? Does targeting the poor in India through food distribution programmes in fact penalize the non-poor but food insecure? Taking river water disputes in India as an example, how can the capability approach provide a framework for analysis? How can the capability approach be applied to the problem of improving urban quality of life in Brazil, and how does this contrast with the World Bank’s approach? What do the strategies of market-gardeners in a high-risk African urban context reveal about their capabilities? These are among the provocative issues raised by the authors contributing to this non-special issue of the Journal of Human Development.

Desmond McNeill’s essay traces the ‘power of the idea’ of human development. He points out that the concept formed an important part of the counter-discourse against the dominant perspective associated with the Bretton Woods institutions, and how ‘a successful idea’ came to strongly influence the development agenda. The author discusses the active roles played in particular by Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen, as well as other development thinkers and practitioners, in developing the concept of human development, and how the UNDP has to some extent managed to maintain its hold on the concept by continuing to produce the Human Development Report annually since 1990.

Alpha Diedhiou points out that notwithstanding the continuous search for better governance in developing countries there is to-date no consensus about the meaning of governance in both policy and academic circles. The author sets out to redefine governance in ways that are slightly different from most conventional definitions. Exploring the relationship between the concept of governance and reality, he discusses how different perspectives on economic, political and human development respectively relate to modes of governance.

Jaya Krishnakumar argues that it is necessary to go beyond the scope of the latent variable approach models in order to, firstly, account for the interdependence among the dimensions of capability and other observed endogenous factors; and, secondly, include causal exogenous variables affecting the latent dimensions and their indicators. The author presents a structural equation econometric model which accounts for interdependence among the latent dimensions and other observed endogenous factors, and which includes causal exogenous variables affecting the latent dimensions and indicators. The author concludes from the calculations that a better social and political environment not only helps the realization of capabilities, but also augments the level of capabilities themselves as shown by the significant coefficients in the empirical results.

Jacques Poirot discusses how, conscious of the deterioration of the urban environment, concerned European actors - such as municipalities, non-governmental organizations and companies - have developed a new sustainable town model that respects ecosystems and urban heritage. Managed by socially responsible municipalities, the sustainable town model would contribute to the extensions of freedoms that are instrumental to development, and which reduce inequalities between town dwellers. But constraints imposed by the sustainable town model may also limit traditional freedoms, which should, however, be accepted by urban actors within the framework of participatory democracy.

M. H. Suryanarayan and Dimitri Silva’s article aims to verify the hypothesis that the set of the food insecure is larger than that of the poor in India. Taking into account current measures and criteria, and estimating the incidence of poverty and food insecurity at national and state levels, as well as examining how far their magnitudes tally across states, the authors conclude that the aggregate estimates of poverty and food insecurity tally at the national level as well as for several states in India. However, the targeted public distribution system covers the food insecure who are poor, but in fact excludes those sections/regions whose consumption patterns have changed as a result of choice.

P. B. Anand develops a framework to consider collective action, sustainability and the capability approach with regard to resolution of water disputes, taking the Cauvery river dispute in India as a case study. His analysis reveals that there are issues of justice and fairness at the heart of river water disputes which depend on how citizens perceive their claims over water, the extent to which citizens are able to collectivize their claims, the extent to which state policy and action reflect the voice and collective interests of different groups, and lastly how various riparian states recognize and deal with each other’s claims. The author concludes that the capability approach provides a much wider framework for collective action.

Alexandre Apsan Frediani’s article points out that while there is some suggestion of a re-orientation in the World Bank’s income-centered conceptualization of poverty to one based on Amartya Sen’s concept of `development as freedom’, it is hard to uncover definitive evidence of such a re-orientation from a study of the Bank’s urban programmes in Brazil. The author attempts an application of Sen’s capability approach to the problem of improving the urban quality of life, and contrasts it with the World Bank’s approach. His analysis is with specific reference to a typical squatter upgrading project in Novos Alagados in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

A central question addressed by Benoit Lallau in his article concerns the high risk context in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Specifically, what are the Kinshasa market-gardeners’ strategies, and what do these strategies reveal about their capabilities? The author presents a conceptual framework which links the topic of risk management with the capabilities approach, and which considers individual strategy as a proxy of capabilities.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Watkins
Director
Human Development Report Office
United Nations Development Programme

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Journal of HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
A Multi-Disciplinary Journal for People-Centered Development
Volume 8 Number 1 March 2007

Contents

Editors’ Introduction

• ‘Human Development’: The Power of the Idea
  Desmond McNeill
  
• Governance for Development: Understanding the Concept/Reality Linkages
  Alpha Diedhiou
  
• Going Beyond Functionings to Capabilities: An Econometric Model to Explain and Estimate Capabilities
  Jaya Krishnakumar
  
• La Contribution du Modèle Européenne de Ville Durable au Development: Une Approche par les Capacités
  The Contribution of the European Sustainable Town Model to Development: A Capability Approach
  Jacques Poirot
  
• Is Targeting the Poor a Penalty for the Food Insecure? Poverty and Food Insecurity in India
  M. H. Suryanarayana and Dimitri Silva
  
• Capability, Sustainability and Collective Action: An Examination of a River Water Dispute in India
  P. B. Anand
  
• Amartya Sen, the World Bank and the Redress of Urban Poverty: A Brazilian Case Study
  Alexandre Apsan Frediani
  
• Capacités et Gestion de l’Incertitude: Essai sur les Stratégies des Maraîchers de Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo
  Capabilities and Management of Uncertainty: Essay on the Strategies of Market Gardeners in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
  Benoît Lallau