Dharam Ghai

• BA BPhil (Oxford), Phd (Yale)
• Researcher at Institute of Development Studies

This article considers the validity of some of the recent criticisms that have been levelled against the basic needs approach to development. These include the allegations that the approach lacks scientific rigour; is anti‐growth and consumption‐oriented; is a recipe for perpetuating economic backwardness, neglecting industry and favouring antiquat...

This brief article highlights some major contributions made by the United Nations to development thinking and practice from 1945 to 2000. The term ‘development’ is used here broadly to refer not only to increases in economic growth and per capita income and to structural change, but also to progress in promoting human rights, poverty reduction, emp...

he concept of "decent work" was launched in these terms in 1999, in the Report of the Director-General to the International Labour Conference meeting in its 87th Session. The idea both conveys the broad and varied dimensions associated with work today and encapsulates them in an expression that everyone can appreciate. But what does the notion of d...

*Ancien Directeur de l'lnstitut de recherche des Nations Unies pour le développement social; courriel: ghai@bluewin.ch Cet article est la version abrégée et mise à jour d'un document de travail (no 139) publié par l'lnstitut international d‘études sociales, intituléDecent work: Concepts, models and indicators (Genève, 2002)

Actualmente, la finalidad primordial de la OIT es promover oportunidades para que los hombres y las mujeres puedan conseguir un trabajo decente y productivo en condiciones de libertad, equidad, seguridad y dignidad humana (OIT, 1999, pág. 4).

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2005 UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice is at once a history of the ideas and realities of international development, from the classical economists to the recent emphasis on human rights, and a history of the UN’s role in shaping and implementing development paradigms over the last half cen...

This paper discusses the central features of four models of social security -- classical, socialist, transition, and developing country -- looking at the coverage provided and the institutions and financing of social security in different contexts. It explores different ways of providing social security to the entire population in developing countr...

The main purpose of this paper is to consider and evaluate indicators of decent work. The Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO) first proposed decent work as a unifying framework and a central priority for the organization in his Report to the 87 th Session of the International Labour Conference in June 1999 (ILO, 1999a). Since...

From time immemorial societies have attempted in various ways to shelter people against social and economic adversities. These efforts have mostly tried to meet urgent needs for subsistence and to provide against contingencies. The definition of 'needs' and 'contingencies', and the exact nature of arrangements to address them have differed from one...

It is commonly observed that levels of economic development tend to be roughly correlated with levels of social development in countries throughout the world. This observable cross-country correlation, however, does not necessarily indicate a direct causal relationship between economic and social development in any particular case. The existence of...

Dharam Ghai puts forward some practical proposals for accelerating the tempo of human development, poverty eradication and environmental regeneration in the countries of the South. He focuses on an employment strategy designed to enhance remunerative work and livelihood opportunities. He discusses the centrality of work before outlining the five pi...

The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. Its work is guided by the conviction that, for effective development policies to be formulated, an understanding of the social and political con...

Profound changes in basic institutions, values and patterns of behaviour provide grounds for preoccupation with social disintegration at the end of the 20th century. But even in the context of extreme political and economic collapse, of the kind occurring in the aftermath of savage civil war, the disintegration of previous social arrangements proce...

Examines the limitations of available social data, especially in developing countries, and identifies a number of strategies for improving data quality and availability in both the short and medium term. The first part contains a historical and analytical discussion of the various ways in which social welfare and progress have been conceptualized,...

Whole issue. Incl. bibl. & abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a social perspective on the environment problem and to outline an approach to resource conservation informed by this perspective. Firstly, the paper looks at some indices of environmental stress. Starting with the conventional physical measures, it discusses the principal social consequences of environmental...

This paper provides a global and integrated perspective on the adjustment process which is defined simply as increased reliance on market forces and reduced role of the state in economic management. The essence of the argument advanced here is that structural adjustment is a world-wide phenomenon with an interdependent and mutually reinforcing rela...

Managing resources sustainably on the local level is essential for achieving the global goal of sustainable development. The importance of people's participation for sustainable development has recently become increasingly acknowledged, yet there is little understanding of the multiple dimensions that such participation involves. While historically...

The purpose of this paper, prepared as a background document for the UNRISD/University of the West Indies conference on Economic Crisis and Third World Countries, is to provide a framework for consideration of societal changes accompanying economic recession and restructuring in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade. It is th...

In recent years, especially since the early 1970s, there has been increasing interest in participatory approaches to development. This interest is manifested both at the national and international levels and appears to be shared by individuals and institutions of widely divergent ideologies and backgrounds. At the international level, most multilat...

Incl. bibl.

How far has Cuban agriculture advanced since 1959? How have conditions changed for the rural workers and their dependants? What are the prospects for the future? These are the questions we shall examine in the coming chapter, looking first at social developments and amenities in the rural sector, then at trends within the labour force, including wo...

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the questions of employment, income distribution and poverty were at the centre of the discussions and debates on development strategies and policies. In recent years these concerns have been overshadowed by discussions on stagnation, debt, collapse of commodity prices, stabilization and economy reform. This paper thus...

The main purpose of this paper is to explore some implications for rural income distribution and labour utilisation of different institutional arrangements for land ownership and organisation of agricultural production. While the problems of poverty, income distribution and employment have been much discussed in recent years, relatively few attempt...

Offers an analytical framework for studying the interaction between economic growth, social differentiation, and the distribution of income in the context of the rural areas of Africa. Concludes that there are dangers of increasing landlessness among rural populations and that the associated problems of share-cropping, exploitative tenancies, peasa...

A collection of studies of the problems of rural poverty in a number of African countries and the policies which have been adopted by the corresponding governments in pursuit of acceptable solutions. Countries covered are Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia and Somalia in East and Southern Africa, and Ghana and the Ivory Coast in West Afric...

Argues that Malawi has grown rapidly and continuously in recent years, permitting the transition to a more commercialized and diversified economy. Agricultural expansion exceeded population growth but economic growth has been accompanied by widening inequality: skilled workers and the large companies by whom they are employed have tended to benefit...

The territory that now forms the Soviet Central Asian economic region was annexed by Tsarist Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The present national boundaries were drawn in the decade following the Soviet Revolution. Although the criteria of delimitation were linguistic and cultural each of the republics is in reality today a mul...

The Soviet Central Asian republics constituted a backward and poor region as recently as four decades ago with a living standard not qualitatively different from that of its immediate neighbours — Afghanistan, for example. Within a relatively short period these republics achieved a remarkable transformation. By 1976 per capita income in Uzbekistan,...

In the preceding chapters a good deal of discussion has been based on the data gathered from the five collective farms that the authors visited. It may be useful to discuss in some detail the basic features of the organisation and working of these collective farms to get some idea of how the system works with respect to the aspects about which we h...

The Soviet Central Asian economic region consists of four republics: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kirghizia. The region is bounded by the Caspian Sea on the west, Iran and Afghanistan on the south, China on the east and the vast steppes of Soviet Kazakhstan on the north. Together the four republics have a territory of 1.28 million squar...

In this chapter we first provide a brief description of the evolution of collective agriculture in the Soviet Central Asian region and of the major landmarks which characterised this process. This is followed by an analysis of some aspects of the working of collective farms, and in particular of the autonomy enjoyed by a collective farm as a produc...

In Chapter 2 the growth in per capita national and sectoral incomes in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were analysed and compared with the corresponding trends for the USSR as a whole. The analysis was conducted in aggregative terms. In this chapter an attempt will be made to discuss some aspects of the distribution of income and social consumption at th...

In this chapter an attempt will be made to evaluate the economic performance of the Kolkhoz system in the Soviet Central Asia. We shall mainly look at the productive efficiency of the collective farms and comment briefly on the internal rate of accumulation.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general overview of agricultural and broader development policies pursued in Soviet Central Asia and their effects in shaping the evolution of collective agriculture in the region. The emphasis will be on the distinctive features of agriculture and rural society in Central Asia, those which make the Centr...

The strategy for rural development pursued in Tanzania since 1967 has evoked widespread interest. The centrepiece of this strategy is the attempt to transform the rural sector through the creation of Ujamaa1 villages. As originally conceived, the Ujamaa villages are to serve as the key institution of an agrarian system designed to achieve simultane...

The idea of rural development as the cornerstone of the growth strategy for the Third World, as distinguished from growth through industrialisation, has become a part of the ‘new-orthodoxy’ in development literature as well as in official plans. It has also become increasingly recognised that rural development cannot be viewed as a narrow technical...

The territory that now forms the Soviet Central Asian economic region was annexed by Tsarist Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The present national boundaries were drawn in the decade following the Soviet Revolution. Although the criteria of delimitation were linguistic and cultural each of the republics is in reality today a mul...

Sugar production was first introduced into Guyana by the Dutch in the late seventeenth century during the high season of European colonial expansion Rivalry among the colonial powers caused the territory to change hands several times until finally in 1814 it became a possession of the British who ruled until independence in 1966. Throughout the ent...

It is a great honour and pleasure for us to have been asked to contribute an article to this book of essays brought out for Hans Singer’s sixty-fifth birthday. Hans Singer has been very closely involved in the ILO World Employment Programme right from its inception and there is no doubt in our minds that, if there are any lessons to be learnt from...

There are few objectives considered more compelling by developing countries than the need to attain their economic freedom. Throughout the Third World, from Bolivia and Botswana to Burma, few themes arouse such mass enthusiasm as the clarion call to economic independence. However, despite its potency in shaping many national goals and policies, ver...

Thesis--Yale University, 1966. Bibliography: leaves 138-140. Microfilm. s

Thesis--Yale University, 1967. Photocopy of typescript.

A study prepared for the International Labour Office within the framework of the World Employment Programme Incluye bibliografía e índice

The tremendous increase in contacts that has taken place in recent years between African universities and universities in Europe and America has thrown up a number of common problems in the fields of joint research schemes and recruitment. It was to discuss these problems that the Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh University, in association with...

The attainment of independence by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania has posed new and perplexing problems for the 360,000 Asians settled in these countries. ¹ They have to adapt themselves to new political régimes, which are determined to carry out far-reaching changes in the traditional roles of the different races in East Africa. In order to understand...