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civil rights tend to enhance economic freedoms by giving voice to the interests
of the deprived and vulnerable. As Sen puts it, “It is because of these
interconnections that free and empowered human agency emerges as a powerful
engine of development” (Sen, 2002).
In response to criticism of erosion of ownership and motivation, recently
more attention has been given to local agency. The new vocabulary of aid
includes terms like empowerment, accountability, ownership, partnership,
participation, transparency and primary stakeholders. Yet the principles denoted
by the use of this terminology are not always realized in practice. As
Morgan points out, notions of commitment and ownership remain abstractions
that either are too subjective or too political to analyze with any rigor
(Morgan, 2001). The obstacles in the way of change are rooted in personal
and institutional inertia as well as issues of control, risk-aversion, extra workload,
staff constrains, vested interests and power. Entrenched practices favor
top-down short-term development targets, while the incentive system
disempowers and frustrates front-line field workers (Chambers, 2001). Thus,
the conceptual challenge remains intact: What is meant by initiatives becoming
national and promoting indigenous approaches?
The narrow focus of past, and even recent, development approaches is
astonishing. They failed to recognize that: (i) successful development efforts
in many other countries, including the developed world, had involved
an active role for government; (ii) many societies in the decades before
active government involvement – or interference, as these doctrines would
put it – failed to develop (indeed, development was the exception around
the world, not the rule); and (iii) worse still, marked economies before the
era of greater government involvement were characterized not only by high
levels of economic instability, but also with widespread social/economic
problems (large groups of society were often left out of any progress).
The lack of appreciation for the role of government is only one part of
the problem. Our grasp of the role of markets has been equally narrow.
Going back to Sen’s idea of the interconnection of freedoms, we should
note that markets, too, are interrelated to other institutions and freedoms.
The ability to participate in the market is conditioned upon economic opportunities
to enter the market mechanism, as well as general conditions
such as education and basic health. Although the market can be a powerful
tool of development, freeing the markets alone is not enough to facilitate
development. Instead, it should be done simultaneously with the freeing of
all other aspects of present unfreedoms.
Hence, in the context of this new development agenda, whose core objective
is the transformation of society with respect to widening of choices
and freedoms, it is essential that countries adopt broader, holistic development
strategies, guided by longer-term development vision. The new approach
should recognize the importance of growth (increase in GDP per
capita), but only as part of the story, for, as Sen points out, poverty cannot