Development conundrum: Ramesh Shrestha

Can development be infinite?

We use the word development every day in the context of economy, science and technology, personal development and so on. In the global agenda of the UN there are two main domains where the concept of development takes center stage – human development and sustainable development. Human development as measured by Human Development Index (HDI) consisting of a set of indicators is used to measure human welfare in relative terms over time and also for intercountry comparison. Sustainable development promoted by the UN in brief is an idea of meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of the future generations - so it says. But we seem to be deceiving ourselves by believing that development is infinite while attaching the word sustainable in the same phrase fully knowing that resources required for development are finite. Everything in the world is finite, except time.

Human welfare is the ultimate outcome of development which is interconnected with economy, technology, societal changes, politics, and natural resources, among others. The discovery of medicines, vaccines and numerous technologies contributed to improving the living standard of people worldwide; these are all outcomes of development activities in different fields. Based upon life expectancy at birth as an indicator of human welfare as suggested by HDI, our work in development has done a pretty good job. But in recent decades we are obsessed especially with economic and technology development and in the process, we seem to have forgotten the human beings for whom development works are done.

Can development be at any cost?

In our quest for development, we have botched in recognising the complexity of development and its relationship with nature. The idea of development itself seems to have become an arrogant activity as the development experts began to ignore basic human values. The confidence of economists and insensitive experts tend to undermine specific needs of people by prioritizing profit over people, superseding all other moral principles. We continue to ignore the basics of the environment that sustains human's very existence. All raw materials required for development are rooted deep on non-renewable natural resources, which are extracted to the maximum. The aim of the economists and the corporations to maximise profits has put the idea of sustainability on a collision course with nature. Development has become a rat race to achieve more and achieve fast and above all get rich fast. The race for development seems to have been seized by greed not by logic and even science (like ignoring climate science). As our development dream is contaminated with greed, we have trapped ourselves without a means to reprieve in sight.

With GDP growth taking center stage in the development agenda the issue of human welfare is now shifted to the backburner. The development agenda has not prioritised actions to deal with the byproducts of development such as environmental pollution and the loss of biodiversity despite numerous seminars, workshops, global conventions and resolutions. All actions have just been lip service. We embrace the motto 'children are our future' but we are destroying the possibility of regenerating the natural environment and exploiting the share of natural resources of future generations. Humans, supposedly the most intelligent species, are not acting intelligently in preserving nature for our own progeny. Are we really an intelligent species?

Read more articles by Ramesh here.
Or contact Ramesh at ramesh.chauni@gmail.com
Labels: Ramesh