Sustainable human development (SHD) has become a cliche which had been repeatedly dished out during the past decade as the only recipe for eradication of all ills that plague our societies.
And to evaluate the extent of success of a state in achieving goals of sustainable human development various 'indicators' have been developed by international organizations.
It was feared that yawning inequalities and inequities that the theory of economic growth had brought about in the states posed threat of war. Following this perception, the theory of the SHD appeared on the global scene in late 1980's and was orchestrated with full force by the international actors until 1994. Thereafter, a social summit was organized in March, 1995 in Copenhagen under the aegis of the United Nations.
The summit adopted a declaration which recognized significance of social development and human well-being for all, made ten commitments and laid down a programme of action outlining policies, actions and measures to implement the principles and fulfil the commitments towards (a) creation of an enabling environment for social development, (b) eradication of poverty, (c) expansion of productive employment and reduction of unemployment and (d) social integration. The member-states were, thus, bound to reshape their structures and systems and policies for achievement of the goal of sustainable human development.
Following adoption of the declaration and programme of action and ratification by member-states, the UN apparatus has continued to organize international meetings for adoption of world declarations and plans of action on specific issues for implementation of the commitments made. These specific issues include human rights, reproductive health care, education, children, shelter, gender, environment, etc.
At the same time, international financial institutions reinforce the programme of action by doling out loans for structural reforms with the conditionalities aimed at spurring the states to take measures for macro-economic stabilization, promotion of market economy and opening up of their markets by removing all internal and external controls on trade, investment and payments.
The eight goals and targets, adopted at the UN millennium summit in September, 2000 are reinforcing measures, aimed at quickening the process for achievement of the goal of sustainable development, no matter whatever damage is caused in the process to the socio-economic and political structures in the states and negative effects that follow in the form of poverty, unemployment, food riots, ethnic strifes, religious hatred, armed conflicts, crimes including terrorism, etc.
This situation is well articulated by the famous Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto in his book titled "Mystery of Capital." He observes that "these whispers of alarm, disturbing though they are, have thus far only prompted American and European leaders to repeat to the rest of the world the same wearisome lectures: stabilize your currency, hang tough, ignore the food riots and wait patiently for the foreign investors to return".
Notwithstanding an unrest in the third world countries wrought out by a fast pace of transformation, the international actors continue to mount pressure on member-states for quickening the process of implementation of the plan of action.
This is reflected in a number of indices and indicators including 'human development index', gender-related development, gender empowerment measures and human poverty index to monitor progress of implementation of the plan in the respective states and also to rank them accordingly.
However, the negative effects of this transformation are not captured in these indices. An attempt has been made in the Table to highlight these negative effects in some of the developing countries.
An analysis of the data shows that following implementation of the plan since 1995, the annual compound growth rate in most of the 13 selected developing countries has decelerated during the seven years period between 1995 and 2002 as compared to the proceeding seven years period between 1988 and 1995.
Except for India, Bangladesh and Venezuela, the other ten countries showed a reduction in their growth rates with three countries namely Pakistan, Thailand and Peru depicting a negative growth rate. As a result, the percentage of population living below the national income poverty line also increased in these countries.
In other words, an effort to restructure the economics under the plan in these countries has exacerbated poverty. It is also interesting to note that income inequality between richest 20 and poorest 20 per cent also widened under the impact of restructuring of policies for transformation of the states into a fully market economics and opening them up for free foreign trade and investment. The outcome is that unemployment rates have gone up in all thirteen developing countries.
The negative effects of implementation of the Action Plan have to be reckoned with. Instead of insisting on quickening the pace of implementation, the international actors should pause for a moment and ponder over the question whether the affected states in Asia, Africa and South America should be allowed space and time for addressing and mitigating the negative effects of poverty, unemployment, civil strifes and law and order or continue to press forward implementation of goal of sustainable human development.
In case these states are not given the former choice, the situation is likely to further worsen and may spin out of control and start threatening world peace - a fear that itself gave birth to the theory of sustainable human development.