Human development?is a concept within the field of?international development. It involves studies of the?human condition?with its core being the?capability approach. The?inequality adjusted Human Development Index?is used as a way of measuring actual progress in human development by the?United Nations. It is an alternative approach to a single focus on economic growth, and focused more on?social justice, as a way of understanding progress.
The term?human development?may be defined as an expansion of human capabilities, a widening of choices, ?an enhancement of freedom, and a fulfilment of human rights.This also simply means developing mentally, socially through growing and experiencing things in your life and learning new things.
The?United Nations Development Programme?has defined Human Development as "the process of enlarging people's choices", said choices allowing them to "lead a long and healthy life, to be educated, to enjoy a decent standard of living", as well as "political freedom, other guaranteed human rights and various ingredients of self-respect".
Development concerns expanding the choices people have, to lead lives that they value, and improving the human condition so that people have the chance to lead full lives.Thus, human development is about much more than economic growth, which is only a means of enlarging people?s choices.Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building?human capabilities?the range of things that people can do or be in life. Capabilities are "the substantive freedoms [a person] enjoys to lead the kind of life [they have] reason to value".Human development disperses the concentration of the distribution of goods and services that underprivileged people need and center its ideas on human decisions.By investing in people, we enable growth and empower people to pursue many different life paths, thus developing human capabilities.?The most basic capabilities for human development are: to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable (i.e., educated), to have access to resources and social services needed for a decent standard of living, and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible.
An abstract illustration of human capability is a bicycle. A bicycle itself is a resource?a mode of transportation. If the person who owns the bicycle is unable to ride it (due to a lack of balance or knowledge), the bicycle is useless to that person as transportation and loses its functioning. If, however, a person both owns a bicycle and has the ability to ride a bicycle, they now have the capability of riding to a friend's house, a local store, or a great number of other places. This capability would (presumably) increase their value of life and expand their choices. A person, therefore, needs both resources and the ability to use them to pursue their capabilities. This is one example of how different resources or skills can contribute to human capability. This way of looking at development, often forgotten in the immediate concern with accumulating commodities and financial wealth, is not new. Philosophers, economists and political leaders have long emphasized human well being as the purpose, or the end, of development. As Aristotle said in ancient Greece, "Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking, for it is merely useful for the sake of something else."
