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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: DEFINITION, CONCEPT AND LARGER CONTEXT 15
This chapter outlines the concept and defini- tion of human development as pioneered and popularized by the UNDP global Human Development Reports. It explains how human development is now customarily measured through the human development index (HDI), which is based on four variables covering life expectancy, adult literacy, education enrol- ment ratios and gross domestic product per capita. Acknowledging that the concept itself is broader than any of its measures, the chapter next considers how, in a larger context, human development includes not only basic choices but also additional choices encompassing human freedoms, human rights and knowl- edge. Following a discussion of several free- doms instrumental to human well-being, a key suggestion is put forth that an alternative HDI could help to measure these other key variables that vitally influence human development (Box 1.6). The chapter concludes by indicating how subsequent parts of this Report explore, in the Arab context, the larger meaning of human de- velopment characterized here. People are the real wealth of nations. The basic goal of development is to create an envi- ronment that enables people to enjoy a long, healthy, creative life. This fundamental truth is often forgotten in the immediate concern with the accumulation of goods and money. Preoccupation with economic growth and the creation of wealth and material opulence has obscured the fact that development is ulti- mately about people. It has had the unfortu- nate effect of pushing people from the centre to the periphery of development debates and dia- logues. The publication of the first Human Development Report (HDR) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990 was a modest attempt to reverse this trend. With the introduction of the concept of
human development, the construction of a composite measure for it and a discussion of the relevant policy implications, the HDR changed the way of looking at development and dealing with the issues it presents.
DEFINING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Human development can be simply defined as a process of enlarging choices. Every day human beings make a series of choices – some economic, some social, some political, some cultural. If people are the proper focus of de- velopment efforts, then these efforts should be geared to enhancing the range of choices in all areas of human endeavour for every human being. Human development is both a process and an outcome. It is concerned with the process through which choices are enlarged, but it also focuses on the outcomes of en- hanced choices. Human development thus defined repre- sents a simple notion, but one with far-reaching implications. First, human choices are en-
Human development: definition, concept and
larger context
CHAPTER 1
Human development
can be simply defined
as a process of
enlarging choices.
Enlarging human choices is critically linked to two issues: capabilities and functionings on the one hand, and op- portunities on the other. The functionings of a person refer to the valuable things the person can do or be (such as being well-nourished, liv- ing a long time and taking part in the community). The capability of a person stands for the different combinations of functionings the person can achieve; it reflects the freedom to achieve function- ings. Enlarging choices for a person im- plies formation or enhancement of capabilities. Human capabilities can be enhanced through the development of human resources: good health and nu-
trition, education and skill training, etc. However, capabilities cannot be used unless opportunities exist to use them--for leisure, productive purposes or participation in social, political or cultural affairs. Economic opportunities can be created through better access to productive resources, including credit, employment, etc. Political opportunities need polity and other conditions. Human development thus repre- sents an equation, the left-hand side of which reflects human capabilities, and the right-hand side, economic, political and social opportunities to use those ca- pabilities.
BOX 1. The equation of human development
Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 1990.
16 ARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002
larged when people acquire more capabilities and enjoy more opportunities to use those ca- pabilities (box 1.1) Human development seeks not only to increase both capabilities and op- portunities but also to ensure an appropriate balance between them in order to avoid the frustration that a mismatch between the two can create. Second, as already implied, economic growth needs to be seen as a means, albeit an important one, and not the ultimate goal, of de- velopment (box 1.2). Income makes an impor- tant contribution to human well-being, broadly conceived, if its benefits are translated into more fulfilled human lives, but the growth of income is not an end in itself. Third, the human development concept, by concentrating on choices, implies that people must influence the processes that shape their lives. They must participate in various decision- making processes, the implementation of those decisions, and their monitoring and adjustment to improve outcomes where necessary. In the ultimate analysis, human develop- ment is development of the people, develop- ment for the people, and development by the people. Development of the people involves building human capabilities through the devel- opment of human resources. Development for the people implies that the benefits of growth must be translated into the lives of people, and development by the people emphasizes that people must be able to participate actively in influencing the processes that shape their lives.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A
HOLISTIC APPROACH
Looking at development from a human-devel- opment perspective is hardly new. The idea that social arrangements must be judged by the extent to which they promote human goods goes back at least to Aristotle, who said: "Wealth is evidently not the good we are seek- ing, for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else". He argued for seeing the "dif- ference between a good political arrangement and a bad one" in terms of its successes and failures in facilitating people’s ability to lead "flourishing lives". The idea of better human lives as the real end of all human activities was a recurring theme in the writings of most of the early philosophers. The great Arab historian and sociologist , Ibn Khaldoun, devoted a whole chapter in his famous work "Almuqaddimah" (Introduction to History) to "The Facts Concerning (economic), Sustenance and, Earning (of income) and their Explanation and the Fact that Earning is (tied to) the Value of Human Labour". In this chapter, of his magnum opus, Ibn Khaldoun draws distinctions relevant to the different purposes to which income earned through people’s labour and pursuits is allo- cated. To the extent that income earnings are allocated to people’s necessities and needs, they will constitute their “livelihoods”. If earn- ings are greater than people’s needs, they will be surpluses that finance luxuaries and capital accumulation. Ibn Khaldoun also distinguished between expenditure of earnings on purposes that “ben- efits human needs and interests”, and expendi- ture that does not result in such benefit. The first he calls "sustenance" and connects it with the noble saying of the prophet: "the only thing you really possess of your income and wealth is what you ate, and have thus consumed, or what you wore, and have thus worn out, or what you gave away as charity and you have thus spent”. In his regard, Ibn Khaldoun also quotes the Mu’tazilah – a famous School of Islamic ju- risprudence - who stipulated for the use of the term "sustenance" that it must be possessed
Income is a means – an important one, but not the only one – to human develop- ment. Income is not the sum total of human lives. Through various measures, the benefits of income need to be trans- lated into enhancing different aspects of human well-being. Thus economic growth is a neces- sary, but not a sufficient, condition for human development. It is the quality of growth, not its quantity alone, which is crucial for human well-being. As the 1996 Human Development Report put it, growth can be jobless, rather than job- creating; ruthless, rather than poverty-re- ducing; voiceless, rather than participatory; rootless, rather than cultur- ally enshrined; and futureless, rather than
environment-friendly. Economic growth which is jobless, ruthless, voiceless, root- less and futureless is not conducive to human development. If income is not the sum total of human lives, the lack of it cannot also be the sum total of human deprivation ei- ther. Thus impoverishment, from a human development perspective, is also multidimensional. The lack of income or income poverty is only one aspect of human impoverishment; deprivation can also occur in other areas– having a short and unhealthy life, being illiterate or not allowed to participate, feeling personal insecurity, etc. Human poverty is thus larger than income poverty.
BOX 1. Income, economic growth and human development
Source: Jahan, 2000.
Income poverty is only
one aspect of human
impoverishment;
deprivation can also
occur in other areas.
18 ARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002
the resources needed for a decent standard of living. A number of observations can be made about the HDI. First, the HDI is not a com- prehensive measure of human development. Its focus on the three basic dimensions out- lined above inevitably means that it cannot take into account a number of other important dimensions of human development. Second, the index is composed of long-term human- development outcomes. Thus it cannot reflect input efforts in terms of policies nor can it measure short-term human-development achievements. Third, it is an average measure and thus masks a series of disparities and in- equalities within countries. Disaggregation of the HDI in terms of gender, region, race and ethnic group can point up urgent areas for ac- tion that the average inevitably conceals. Fourth, income enters into the HDI not in its own right but as a proxy for resources needed to have a decent standard of living. All the quantitative information about human development and its various indicators constitute what may be termed human-devel- opment accounting. This accounting has a focus dimension and a breadth dimension. The HDI, concentrating only on the basic di- mensions of human development, represents the focus aspect of the accounting. All the data and quantitative information on various human-development indicators represent the breadth dimension of the accounting. The HDI thus has a limited scope. It can- not provide a complete picture of human de- velopment in any situation. It must be supplemented with other useful indicators in order to obtain a comprehensive view. Thus it is human-development accounting, not the HDI, that can portray the complete picture. Yet the HDI has its strength. While it is a sim- plistic measure, as GNP per capita is, it is not as blind as a GNP per capita measure is to broader issues of human well-being.
BROADENING THE CONTEXT: FREEDOM, KNOWLEDGE, INSTITUTIONS
Human freedom is a multidimensional con- cept, extending far beyond the basic dimen- sions measured by the HDI. Leading a long
and healthy life and being knowledgeable may be universal goals, but people may make addi- tional choices and have additional aspirations that may be society- and culture-specific. The human-development concept encompasses additional choices and goals, processes and outcomes that are highly valued by people, ranging from political, economic and social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive, and enjoying personal self-re- spect and guaranteed human rights. The no- tion of human development emphasizes enlargement of choices in these areas as well. In the societal and cultural context of the Arab world, such wider choices regarding freedom, human rights, knowledge acquisition and the institutional context are especially critical. No notion of human development can be relevant and effective unless it addresses these crucial issues both analytically and em- pirically.
H (^) UMAN FREEDOM
As noted earlier, human development is inex- tricably linked with human freedom. Human development emphasizes enhancement of human capabilities, which reflects the freedom to achieve different things that people value. In this sense, human development is freedom. However, this freedom, the ability to achieve things that people value, cannot be used if op- portunities to exercise this freedom do not exist. Such opportunities are ensured through the existence of various human rights that key institutions--the community, the society, and the state--must support and secure. Human development and human rights are thus mutually reinforcing and they have a common denominator: human freedom. Human development, by enhancing human capabilities, creates the ability to exercise free- dom, and human rights, by providing the nec- essary framework, create the opportunities to exercise it. Freedom is both the guarantor and the goal of both human development and human rights. Poverty as well as tyranny, limited eco- nomic opportunities as well as systematic so- cial deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or state repression are major sources of human deprivation and thus
Human development
and human rights are
mutually reinforcing
and they have a
common
denominator: human
freedom.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: DEFINITION, CONCEPT AND LARGER CONTEXT 19
diminution of human freedom. Many manifes- tations of these problems are old, but some are new; many of them can be observed, in one form or other, in rich societies as well as in poor ones. Overcoming these problems is cen- tral to the exercise of development (box 1.4). In the context of this broader approach to well-being and for empirical purposes, five distinct types of instrumental freedom have been identified as being of special importance for policy purposes on the grounds that they contribute directly to the general capability of a person to live more freely and that they com- plement one another. The five types are:
- political freedoms, which relate to the op- portunities that people have to determine who should govern and on what principles, and also include the possibility to scrutinize and criticize authorities and to have freedom of political expression and an uncensored press;
- economic facilities, which can be under- stood as the ways in which economies function to generate income opportunities and pro- mote the distribution of wealth;
- social opportunities, which refer to the arrangements that society makes for education and health care, both of which influence the individual’s substantive freedom to live better, as well as to transparency guarantees and pro- tective security;
- transparency guarantees, which safeguard social interactions between individuals and which are undertaken on the basis of some presumption of what they are being offered and what they expect to get;
- protective security, which deals with the provision of the relevant social safety nets for vulnerable groups in society. All these types of instrumental freedom have specific importance in the context of the Arab world not only in their own right but also as important choices that are crucial for human development.
K (^) NOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
Acquisition of knowledge has intrinsic value by itself, but more importantly, it is an impor- tant dimension of human development be- cause as it is a critical means of building human capability. It is now generally accepted that knowl-
edge is a core factor of production and a prin- cipal determinant of productivity and human capital. There is thus an important synergy be- tween knowledge acquisition and the produc- tive power of society. This synergy is especially strong in high value-added productive activi- ties, which are becoming increasingly based on both intensive knowledge and the rapid obso- lescence of know-how and capabilities. These activities are the bulwark of international com- petitiveness and will become more so in the fu- ture. By the same token, a limited knowledge stock, especially if combined with poor or non-existent knowledge acquisition, con- demns a country to meagre productivity and poor development prospects. In today’s world, it is the knowledge gap rather than the income gap that is likely to be the most critical determinant of the fortunes of countries across the world. At the beginning of the third mil- lennium, knowledge constitutes the road to development and liberation, especially in a world of intensive globalization.
I NSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT
It is well recognized that addressing and en- suring human rights and human freedoms de- pend critically on the institutional context. The same is true for dynamic knowledge ac- quisition. Since issues of human freedom and knowledge acquisition are of prime impor-
Expansion of freedom is viewed both as the primary end and as the principal means of development. Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with lit- tle choice and little opportunity for exer- cising their reasoned agency. The removal of substantial unfreedoms, it is argued here, is constitutive of develop- ment. However, for a fuller understanding of the connection between development and freedom, we have to go beyond that basic recognition (crucial as it is). The in- trinsic importance of human freedom, in general, as the pre-eminent objective of development is strongly supplemented by the instrumental effectiveness of free- doms of particular kinds to promote freedoms of other kinds. The linkages between different types of freedoms are empirical, rather than constitutive and
compositional. For example, there is strong evidence that economic and polit- ical freedoms help to reinforce one an- other rather than being hostile to one another (as they are sometimes taken to be). Similarly, social opportunities of ed- ucation and health care, which may re- quire public action, complement individual opportunities for economic and political participation and also help to foster our own initiatives in overcom- ing our respective deprivations. If the point of departure of the ap- proach lies in the identification of free- doms, the main object of development, the reach of the policy analysis lies in es- tablishing the empirical linkages that make the viewpoint of freedom coherent and cogent as the guiding perspective of the process of development. Amartya Sen Source: Sen, 1999, preface.
BOX 1. Development as freedom
At the beginning of
the third millennium,
knowledge
constitutes the road
to development and
liberation, especially
in a world of
intensive
globalization.
Introduction It is widely recognised that the standard measure of human development (HD), the human development index (HDI) does not capture the rich content of the HD concept. In fact the popularity of the HDI has sometimes meant that HD is reduced to nothing more than human resources de- velopment (HRD), an unfortunate misunderstanding. This is indicated in the present chapter and emphasised in chapter 2 in the context of analysing significant human de- velopment deficits in the Arab region. The latter analysis confirms the region suffers from significant human devel- opment deficits that nonetheless do not register on a coun- try’s standing on the HDI. The need to construct an adequate measure of HD is now well established. Indeed, the search for a better mea- sure of HD is thus a pressing task for the human develop- ment movement. This exploratory analysis aims at initiating a process of innovation that could culminate in constructing an ade- quate measure of human development. The territory to ex- plore is rugged and therefore calls for ingenuity as well as perseverance. The approach of this analysis is rather simple. It uses a flexible yet robust method to compose a number of human development indicators into a human development index deemed sufficient to approximate the rich content of HD. The method used is the Borda rule, a rank sum function that calls for the minimum technical requirements of the constituent indicators. The requirement is that the indicator can be used to arrive at an unambiguous ranking of alternatives (units of analysis, countries in our case) on the dimension of human development measured by the in- dicator. Given the ranking of alternatives, the Borda rule assembles the rankings of alternatives on the indicators considered into a single value, the rank sum, which pro- duces a complete ordering of alternatives on the indicators used and hence is a valid social welfare function. (Dasgupta, 1993). We call the resulting rank-sum an alter- native human development index (AHDI). This procedure produces only ranking of countries. As the objective here is to put the need for a better mea- sure of human development on the human development research agenda, it is sufficient to produce country rank- ings. However, it would be a simple matter to compute AHDI values on the basis of the set of indicators proposed here. The indicators proposed here were, in part, moti- vated by the human development deficits in the Arab re- gion given in chapter 2, defined to express human functionings, hence human capabilities, or freedoms and deemed, as such, to have universal validity. In addition, availability of data for a large number of countries was also a criterion for the inclusion of an indicator. The indicators used in this analysis are, in order:
- Life expectancy at birth, LE, as a general measure of longevity and overall health.
- Educational attainment, EA as a means of knowledge acquisition.
- Freedom score, FS, as used in Chapter 1 and 2, de- fined to express enjoyment of civil and political liberties, a universally sought objective as well as to reflect the free- dom deficit in the Arab region.
- GEM, as computed by UNDP, to express women’s access to power in society in general, as well as reflect the women empowerment deficit in the Arab region.
- Internet hosts per-capita, IH, to reflect ICT connec- tivity (access to ICT), to express a universally recognised requirement for benefiting from globalisation in this age, as well as to reflect the knowledge acquisition deficit in the Arab region.
- CDE, Carbon dioxide emissions per-capita (metric tons), defined as a penalty, to reflect damage to the envi- ronment. As such the proposed indicators are universally val- ued functionings. In that sense, these are also developmen- tal outcomes. Hence, the indicators proposed here have global relevance that extends beyond the Arab countries. As a result, the set of six variables seems to provide a good starting point for constructing indices of human develop- ment. The proposition is surely worth pursuing, and refin- ing. It can be anticipated that the utilisation of this set of indicators will, compared to the HDI, penalise Arab coun- tries, an anticipation that would be borne out by the con- struction of such an AHDI. But we think that this is not a serious shortcoming. Penalised also will be any country in the world that does not perform well on the six indicators proposed, including some of the highest ranking countries on both income and HDI, which are to be, rightly, pe- nalised for their extensive contribution to global warming through CDE thus spoiling the world’s atmosphere for all. More important in our judgement than any country’s position on the AHDI is the conviction, articulated above, that the proposed indicators are genuinely valid yardsticks for measuring human development in this age of globalisa- tion. In other words, countries, Arab or otherwise, that want to perform on human development, need to perform on freedom for all incorporating women’s empowerment, knowledge acquisition, including ICT connectivity, im- proving health and safeguarding the environment. As expected, the five variables: LE, EA, FS, IH and GEM are positively correlated with HDI and themselves. CDE, defined negatively to reflect damage to the environ- ment, however, comes out negatively correlated with all other indicators Structurally, the AHDI consists of the two funda- mental human capabilities: living a long and healthy life and knowledge acquisition through education. This it can be claimed is the irreducible core of human development. The exclusion of income from the AHDI was meant to de-emphasise the importance of average income as a measure of human development in general as well as to re- flect the deficit of human capabilities relative to income in Arab countries. Properly understood, human development philosophy proposes human capabilities, especially free- dom, rather than command over goods and services though income, as the ultimate means of human empower- ment. It is freedom, not income that empowers human be- ings to achieve valued functionings. Thus, beyond the two fundamental human capabilities of health and knowledge acquisition, a human being needs to be empowered by freedom for all. It is time that average income be de- throned as the primary means of empowerment in human societies. This is indeed a major departure from the HDI and, from the vantagepoint of the concept of human develop- ment, a definite improvement. Freedom for all does not admit the disempowerment of any group, be it women, the poor or a religious or ethnic minority. In other words, free- dom for all incorporates women’s empowerment, indeed
empowerment for all. Nevertheless, disempowerment of women remains a major impediment to human development in many parts of the world, especially in the Arab region as noted in chapter2. As a result, we believe there is a strong case for explicitly incorporating a measure of women empower- ment in the AHDI to stress this aspect of freedom for all. This indirectly adds to the weight of the freedom score in the AHDI by placing an emphasis on gender equity as well as to reflect the women empowerment deficit in the Arab region. The inclusion of two indicators of knowledge acqui- sition, EA and IH , is meant to reflect the emphasis on knowledge acquisition stressed throughout the report and to express the critical importance of ICT in this age of global connectivity. The two variables together give knowl- edge acquisition a higher weight than LE for example, re- flecting the deficit of knowledge (education) relative to health (LE) in the Arab region. The human capability of being able to enjoy a safe environment translates, on the societal level, into a mea- sure of environmental responsibility towards the global en- vironment. AHDI Values To gain an appreciation of the implication of the pro- posed approach to the measurement of HD we examine in some detail the results of applying AHDI. AHDI turns out to be strongly and positively corre- lated with the HDI (rank correlation coefficient = +0.904). This strong correlation between the two indices perhaps indicates that they belong to the same family of measures. However, the position of individual countries on the range of the AHDI is reshuffled thoroughly. It is impor- tant to note that the rank of an individual country on HDI reported here, does not have to tally with the rank re- ported in the HDR. The ranks given here are based on the Borda ranking rule and not on the values of HDI, in addi- tion to the fact that the rankings given here are limited to the 111 countries covered by the present analysis (com- pared to 174 in the HDR). This reshuffling of positions is reflected, at the level of world regions, utilising the average rank of countries of the region, in Figure 1. A higher rank represents a worse human development position. The same mapping is presented, on the level of the 111 countries, in Figure 2. Sweden comes on top of the AHDI, while Canada is demoted to No. 3 (out of 111, it was No. 1 of 174 on HDI, 1998). The USA, UK, France and Germany do not make the top ten on the AHDI. Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, make a strong showing in the top ten on the AHDI. Of the 14 Arab countries included in the analysis, four place in the ten lowest AHDI values: Syria, Sudan, Mauritania, and Iraq. Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and UAE, in order, top the list of Arab countries on AHDI, followed by Morocco and the Comoros, Egypt and Tunisia. This order perhaps re- flects differences in human welfare better than the HDI ranking. As expected, the position of all Arab countries dete- riorates, to varying extent, on moving from HDI to AHDI but, especially Kuwait and the UAE, lose place consider- ably. Only Jordan and Comoros essentially retain their rel- ative placing on both indices.
BOX 1. IN SEARCH OF AN ADEQUATE MEASURE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, AN ALTERNATIVE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX, AHDI
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: DEFINITION, CONCEPT AND LARGER CONTEXT 21
Nader Fergany
22 ARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002
As we have indicated repeatedly, the freedom score used here is admittedly grossly imperfect as a universally valid proxy for freedom. There is indeed room for improvement in the measurement of freedom as the ultimate yardstick for development. This is a task that begs international agencies, notably UNDP, to devote energy and resources to it. It is hoped that future issues of the AHDR devote at- tention to better measurement of freedom, at least in Arab countries. The AHDI may also be criticised on the grounds that it assigns equal weights to variables that do not com- mand equal importance in different perspectives. An HRD enthusiast could ask: ‘Is not LE more important than CDE?’ A global environment devotee could well counter: ‘Not necessarily!’ The HRD enthusiast could add: ‘LE should have a higher weight than knowledge or freedom, since avoiding death is a most primordial human instinct.’ A primordial human instinct it may be, but on the scale of human values, avoidance of death might not rank very high. Is prolongation of life under suffering and op- pression a blessing or punishment? Freedom fighters throughout history, have voted with their lives. In a different point of view, since a recognised achievement in prolongation of life has been attained in Arab, as well as other developing, countries, it is natural
that attention shifts from length to quality of life. Without doubt, the ideal goal is for a long life characterised by lib- erty and human dignity. As a reflection of this superior human goal, the AHDI includes both indicators of life ex- pectancy at birth and level of enjoyment of freedom. As should be well known, assigning equal weights reflects the ‘equal ignorance assumption’ in statistical analysis. It is, by the way, the same principle that is used in the construction of the HDI. However, to investigate the validity of the equal ig- norance assumption, with respect to the AHDI, a principal components factor analysis on the values of the six indica- tors utilised, was carried out. This is one statistical tech- nique that is normally utilised to assign an ‘objective’ weight to each of a set of variables in order to arrive at a composite index as a proxy for a certain multi-faceted phe- nomenon. The results of the factor analysis reveal that the weights proposed by this analysis are rather close in value , a result that does not place the equal weights assumption in jeopardy. The way forward, an agenda for innovation in the measurement of human development. This analysis has explored the contours of a new ap-
proach that could lead to a better measurement of HD. Nevertheless, a long agenda remains. Refinements are surely possible, even recommended, in the areas of defini- tion of indicators, measurement of indicators and con- struction of composite indices. A vigorous process of innovation in the measurement of human development is called for. In particular, national and international efforts to im- prove data availability on human development in general, freedom and gender issues in particular, should be stepped up. The weakness of the indicators of freedom, and of good governance indicators in general, is arguably the biggest stumbling block in the way of adequate measure- ment of HD. It is a block that calls for mobilising an inter- national program for better measurement of enjoyment of freedom on a world scale. In the same way that the purchasing power parity comparison program, an international endeavour that was led by the UN, has given income per capita a new lease on life as a measure of development or welfare, the measure- ment of freedom needs to be likewise improved. The UN system should play an instrumental role in this endeavour, as it did with respect to the PPP approach.
Does the AHDI Suffer Methodological Shortcomings? The AHDI can perhaps be assaulted on ‘technical’ grounds: that it mixes different types of indicators: input and output, stock and flow, single and composite. All, by the way, characteristics of the HDI. In particular, the AHDI could be assailed on the basis that it ‘mixes or- anges and apples,’ i.e., it combines quantitative variables and a variable ex- pressing perceptions. Strictly speaking, no technical requirement is infringed as a result. More importantly, it has to be borne in mind that this is indeed the nature of the phenomenon for which we are aiming to provide a measurable proxy. Human development is a complex syndrome that is definitely not lim- ited to the quantifiable. Freedom is a value, enjoyment of freedom is a feeling. At the present state of social science development, feelings are approxi- mated by perceptions. Until social science can provide us with better tools for assessing feelings, we have to do with what is available to us. In this sense, the claimed inadequacy is in fact a confirmation of the fidelity of AHDI to the concept of human development. By comparison, the restriction of HDI to quantifiable variables of the Human Resource Development (HRD) genre opts for simplistic technical validity at the expense of conceptual fidelity.
