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Rethinking Development |
| The "short century" "century of cruelty" (Hobsbawm)
has drawn to a close. Development is still a problem. Distances are shrinking,
the volume of communications is intensifying, frontiers are being wiped
away and relations between human beings are becoming more direct. Unfortunately,
year after year, the World Human Development Reports are pointing out the
same themes: the persistence of mass poverty, widening gaps between individuals,
groups and countries, the spread of the AIDS pandemic, unemployment and
insecure employment, a fall in average life expectancy in certain countries,
environmental insecurity, armed conflicts, the expansion of a "culture"
enslaved to money threatening the identity and diversity of "cultures",
the laundering of "dirty" money – representing, according to the IMF, 2-5%
of world-wide GDP - corruption, persisting like an endemic disease.
The conclusion is clear. If major prospects of progress are opening up to human beings and if the struggle against multidimensional poverty can be led successfully all over the world, it is not, as the United Nations Development Programme pointed out, with "current programmes of action" and globalization subject to the pitiless markets, which threatens solidarity, "invisible heart of human development." A new paradigm must be defined, new strategies must be proposed. Rules, institutions and procedures must be invented which will strengthen the governance and governability of the economy at global, regional and local levels - a radical renewal of economic thinking on which all efforts to rationalize are based.
The financial crises that routinely disrupt the economies of the developing countries and, to a lesser extent, those of the industrialized countries call into question a neo-liberal system founded on the globalized market principle. This system is incompatible with both sustainable and equitable development, as it is with genuine democracy. Its foremost victims are the most vulnerable groups: the poor and the excluded, in the North as in the South. Violence is fuelled by social dysfunction, which is becoming increasingly acute by the day, especially in urban areas. Urgent action is therefore imperative. The time has come for a dispassionate reassessment of the dominant thinking on economics and the type of governance imposed through the G-7, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization. This economic and financial system exacerbates inequalities poverty and unemployment, imposes a debt burden on poor countries and negates development and democratization efforts. Political leaders are, admittedly, awakening to the need to restructure and regulate globalization in an attempt to humanize it. Nonetheless, the need is still felt for new economic and social policies founded on an accurate analysis of the situation. As a contribution to this task, UNESCO, on 30 November 1998, held an International Day of Reflection on the topic "Rethinking development: do we need a paradigm shift?" at its Headquarters in Paris, which was attended by senior economists and high-ranking international leaders. The challenge they faced was to seek innovative and practical solutions that would provide an escape from the crisis and create conditions conducive to the establishment of a balanced international economic system and sustainable development, reconciling the exigencies of economic growth, social equity, the strengthening of democracy, and environmental protection. The aforementioned was also a fundamental concern of that great thinker and development expert Paul-Marc Henry, who died in 1998 and whose presence was greatly felt throughout the International Day of Reflection. Visionary extraordinaire that he was, in the 1980s he was already perturbed by the phenomena of social marginalization and exclusion. As early as 1986, while chairing a meeting of experts on "Poverty, progress and development" at UNESCO, he emphasized "the risks of a profound rift between the affluent and the marginalized in human society". In view of the quality of the discussions that took place on that 30
November 1998 Day and the ensuing proposals, UNESCO invited Professor Henri
Bartoli - co-author of the work "Poverty, progress and development" - to
review and develop their salient points and add his own opinions.
Table of Contents Foreword
Chapter 1
1. Human rights, the cornerstone of sustainable human development
Chapter 2
1. Limitations of strategies based on self-reliance and import substitution
Chapter 3
1. Conditions of global governance
Chapter 4
1. Making civil society a partner in development
Chapter 5
1. Plurality of causes; adoption of principles of indetermination and
relativity
Conclusion Keeping our word
Henri BARTOLI is Emeritus Professor of Economics at University of Paris I - Pantheon-Sorbonne and international vice-president of the European Society for Culture. Among other publications, he has published a trilogy consisting of Economie et création collective, L’économie multidimensionnelle (both published by Editions Economica) and L'économie service de la Vie (Presses Universitaires de Grenoble).
For more information, please contact:
UNESCO-MOST Programme 1, rue de Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France Tel: +33 1 45 68 45 23 Fax: +33 1 45 68 57 24 E-mail: c.golden@unesco.org |
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