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Bearing in mind the purposes and the principles of the Charter of the UN relating to the achievement of international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian nature, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.
Recognizing that development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aim at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting there from. Recalling further the relevant agreement, conventions, resolutions, recommendations and other instruments of the UN and its specialized agencies concerning the integral development of the human being, economic and social progress and development of the people. Recalling the right of people to self-determination, by virtue of which they have the right freely to determine their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
Considering that international peace and security are essential elements for the realization of the right to development. The hallmark of economic policy in the Third world since the 1950s has been the rejection of orthodox free market economies. The countries that failed most spectacularly India, nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa, much of Latin America, the Soviet Union and its satellites were the ones that rejected the orthodoxy most fervently. Their government claimed that for one reason or another, free market economics would not work for them.
Indeed, development is the central topic of negotiation, if not a preoccupation, in the contemporary relationships between the South and North. It is however, a nebulous concept subject to radically different interpretations. To the United State Agency for International Development (USAID), development may mean increasing agricultural productivity or opening up Southern markets to American supports. Development to the World Health Organization (WHO) may mean expanding rural health clinics to stop babies from dying from dysentery. To environmentalists, it may mean creating a sustainable economy that generates minimal waste and pollution.
To Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, it may mean producing a nuclear bomb or other weapons of mass destruction. To Economists, development means substantial reduction in poverty, unemployment and inequality. Because the development standard is a constantly moving target, countries that do not sustain economic growth find themselves rapidly falling behind. Many Third World countries, particularly in Africa, have not achieved significant economic development in the post-World War II era, meaning that the gap between the "haves" in the North and the "haves not" in the South, has widened dramatically. For
instance, between 1950 and 1990, the GNP of the USA tripled while its population increased by two-thirds. For Japan and the countries of Western Europe, which were devastated by World War II but today have standards of living roughly equivalent to that of the US.
By contrast, some Third World produce less total economic output in the 19990s than they did in the 1960s because of civil wars or political instability, while the population in these countries had been increasing at rapid rates. During the first period of colonialism, several Western European countries- led by Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France and
Britain- used their colonial territories to provide them with goods for consumption and trade. In the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution brought mechanized production to many nations and ushered in a second period of colonialism.
Industrialized nations could produce much larger quantity of goods and resources than had previously been possible. To achieve this level of production, they relied on the colonies to provide the raw materials for building and powering machines and for supplying their factories. The colonies in Africa, South-East Asia, and what is now Latin America did not share in these gains. In the colonies, the production of food and raw materials for manufacturing diverted indigenous people from doing subsistence works, such as gardening or tending livestock. Native Africans, Asians and Americans had been self-sufficient, now they become dependent, for the first time, on outsiders for their basic needs, and many became poor.
In other cases, colonies were centres of trade in slaves. Many European nations, including Portugal, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Denmark, set up outposts in West
Africa from which they shipped slaves to the colonies of Americas and the Caribbean. These countries also used slaves for free labour in their own lands. Slaves suffered a total loss of home, land, and livelihood.
According to the Orthodoxy school of thought or the modernization theorist, they defined development as the increasing increment of per-capita income. This school believed that the protectionist system must be removed to facilitate free trade, that is, it is believe that trade-protectionist was one of the reasons that led to the Second World War. Due to the massive destruction rendered by the war, it was made expedient for those affected to be revamped; hence, various means were put in place which was among what led to the establishment of UN, IMF, and IBRD (otherwise known as World Bank). As a result of these, the US became the major donor to affected countries through the Marshall Aid Plan (MAP) to revamp their economic.
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Writer Profile
akinbo a. a. cornerstone
A prolific Nigerian writer with a gift for words. Wrote under the pen name of Fad and Quad during the Military Era. Currently uses the "pscornerstone" signature.
An activist with religious inclination and respect for cultural heritage, he grew up streetwise and with great love for his country, Nigeria.
He believes that he who holds the word holds the world.
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