The Challenge Of Development

This book provides a general overview of the challenges of economic development for the five billion people living in developing countries. While they constitute over 80 percent of the world's population, they account for only 40% of the world's output, and are home to 2.6 billion people living on less than $2.00 per day. Thinking on economic development has shifted over time. Early theories that stressed capital formation and a heavy reliance on the public sector proved inadequate. Gradually, economists began to see that development was a complex, multifaceted problem that combined economic issues with problems of poverty and income distribution, insititution building and governance. While there have been many failures, there have also been many successes. Countries such as China, Chile, Ghana, and Korea demonstrate that good policies and strong institutions can result in remarkable progress. However, many poor countries, particularly those in Africa continue to lag behind. Closing this gap remains a major challenge for the world, particularly as the growing population and output of developing countries accelerate tensions in such areas as trade, immigration and financial flows.

In this exploration of the political, economic and social issues that face diverse Third World countries, Howard Handelman examines the nature of underdevelopment and discusses explanatory theories of redevelopment.

In developing countries across the world, qualified teachers are a rarity, with thousands of untrained adults taking over the role and millions of children having no access to schooling at all. Teacher Education and the Challenge of Development is co-written by experts working across a wide range of developing country situations. It provides a unique overview of the crisis surrounding the provision of high-quality teachers in the developing world, and how these teachers are crucial to the alleviation of poverty. The book explores existing policy structures and identifies the global pressures on teaching, which are particularly acute in developing economies.

A wide-ranging survey of the theoretical and practical problems of economic development, The Challenge of Development demonstrates how effective development theory, planning and programming derive from and are tested in firsthand field experience. Covering all aspects of development, Richard J. Ward presents chapters by leading authorities who have combined academic teaching and research with years of effort in underdeveloped countries or in the administration of foreign aid programs. The materials in The Challenge of Development are divided into six sections, providing logical, coherent coverage of each major segment of development programs: methodology, strategy and decision-making criteria in development; manpower needs and projections; the intrinsic value of land, including its agricultural potential; promoting the industrial sector; the development of infrastructure power, transportation and communications; and the social problems created by modern growth trends. In this way, it provides a balanced, practical approach to studying development problems and to working successfully in development programs. Encompassing a broad spectrum of material and illustrating the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the problems of development, The Challenge of Development is essential reading for all students of development at every level, is a useful sourcebook for the practitioner's library and an excellent handbook for business and political officials concerned with development.

Challenges of the Developing World is a lively, up-to-date, and highly readable introduction to the key dynamics and issues of political, economic and social development in the “developing countries” of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

A special session of the UN General Assembly was held in Abuja, the new Nigerian capital in May 1988. This volume reproduces the major papers, lines of discussion and conclusions of the conference.

8. Challenging the state.

In this exploration of the political, economic and social issues that face diverse Third World countries, Howard Handelman examines the nature of underdevelopment and discusses explanatory theories of redevelopment.