Topic > Indicators of Progress and Development - 935

Income, growth and prosperity were accepted as key indicators of progress and development until the first half of the 20th century. This was a concern of classical economists. But in the current century there is a great conflict that links development with equality, growth without equal distribution and prosperity together with growing gender inequalities. None of which are natural but rather influenced by social and cultural factors. There is a need to broaden the concept of development to encompass the general well-being of people rather than simply denoting increases in income. National income calculated from the Gross National Product (GNP) measure is not indicative of the standard of living of the nation's population. The conditions of poverty, illiteracy, disease and mortality in backward agricultural countries generate the concept of Development Studies. The call to replace the previously supreme measure of income with some alternative, based on a concept of overall well-being, was juxtaposed with the basic principles of economic theorizing in the second half of the 20th century. All these circumstances have created the discipline of development studies, which is inspired by more humanitarian considerations. Both the pre-globalized and post-globalized worlds have witnessed enormous inequalities in the way development is distributed (Kuznets 1953, 1966). Historical differences in resource ownership continue today. Ignoring people's general concerns results in misery, ill health, unemployment and poverty for many while some flourish, prosper, progress and develop. We cannot consider this as a real, real development. This is why we need development goals that are broad enough to take into account both the positive and… paper… debt problems of countries through national and international measures to make debt sustainable. in the long term, in cooperation with developing countries, developing decent and productive work for young people, ensuring access to essential medicines at reasonable prices in developing countries in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and making available advantages of new technologies, in particular information and communication technologies, in cooperation with the private sector. Eighteen (18) objectives were set as quantitative parameters for achieving the objectives. The United Nations Development Group (UNDG), in its second guidance note (approved in 2003) on the "Country Report on the Millennium Development Goals", provided a framework of 53 indicators (48 basic + 5 alternative). These are categorized by objectives, to measure progress towards the individual objectives in the table 1.1.