Development is a dynamic concept. It has different meanings for different people. In fact, there is no agreement on the meaning of development among planners and thinkers either.
Some people say it means increase in income; others lay emphasis on employment, income, quality of life, happiness and so on.
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Still others give stress on meeting the basic needs of the light of people. It is indeed so many things to so many people.
The only thing on which everyone agrees is that development is necessary; and everyone wants it, although in his own image and perhaps in his own way.
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Development has been defined as “a process of growth, expansion or realization of potential; bringing regional resources into full productive use”.
Development planning has also been defined as “any action by the state whose purpose is to raise the rate of economic growth above that which would take place without any conscious effort”.
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Development planning is being done by the state; it has the dual purpose of economic growth and social structural change; it is comprehensive, covering every sector, region and aspect of life.
The achievement of a state of development would enable individuals to make their own histories and geographies under conditions of their own choosing.
The process of development is the means by which such conditions of human existence might be achieved.
They, in turn, would necessarily involve people in a productive, crisis-free and non-exploitative set of relations with nature and in the struggle to remove oppression and exploitation from the relations between themselves.
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Thus, development is an increasing attainment of one’s own cultural values. This conceptualization emphasizes the following notions. First, that development is a process, not a Tate. Second, that process ultimately refers to values. And third, that the values referred to are those of the people involved, not the values of the western world or any other world.
Among the elements of a good rich life, the following have been stressed by various scholars, in one form or the other:
(a) More and better life-sustaining goods for all,
(b) Respect for others and self-esteem,
(c) Freedom from tyranny of any kind, and
(d) Community life which gives a sense of belonging. These four elements are inseparable from each other.
For example, if the first is achieved at the cost the remaining three, the process could not be called development. Development planning is being done at the national, regional and local levels inscribable to particular societies.
In common usage, ‘development’ has the implications of economic growth, modernization, and improvement in levels of material production and consumption, and changes in social, cultural and political structures to resemble more nearly those displayed in countries of economics deemed ‘developed’.
Many of the attributes of development under this definition can be quantified by reference to statistical details of national production, per capita income, energy consumption, nutritional levels, labour force characteristics, and the like.
Taken together, such variables might calibrate a scale of achievement against which the level of development of a single country may be compared.