THE CONTROVERSY AROUND DEVELOPMENT AND ITS DEFINITION

Introduction

With over fifty years of independence, with five regimes taking control of our nation, how can we define development? This article focuses on the discussions around development, its meaning, the confusion in attempts by various scholars to define development and some of the ways in which development can be achieved, the basis of which we can define it as well as the issues hindering development.

Definition of development by various scholars:

1.Karl Marx

He posits that development is the changes in the material conditions of life, primarily the mode of production. Marx’s definition of development is basically production- centric.

2.Pearson

Development refers to a multifaceted process that aims to transform socioeconomic and environmental conditions from their existing state to a desired one.

3.Amartya Sen

The 1998 Nobel Prize winner argued that freedom is both the primary objective of development and the principle means of development. He insinuates development as freedom and that human being is an engine of change.

4.Prof. Ben Sihanya

He takes the view that, there’s no clear definition of development hence development can be defined through the various projects in our areas.

The confusion in definition

A plethora of attempts by various scholars to define development have ended up in defining growth. This confusion has led to the misunderstanding between development and growth.

Therefore, inclusion of growth in definition of development is likely to bring out undesired meaning.

Defining Development through the various projects in our areas

There is need for the leadership of a state to make it easier for their electorates to define development. It beats logic when one has to travel over hundred kilometers to define development while there exists a budgetary plan for development each financial year. It might be very difficult to lay out the various projects but with the various sectors, this work is made the easier.

Agriculture

For countries like Kenya and many countries across the globe, agricultural investment is a priority for almost every regime. To ensure food security in a country, there must be development in this sector.

First, the government should subsidize the cost of fertilizer for farmers. To ensure proper yield, affordable prices for the fertilizer is eminent. Second, infrastructural development in the agricultural prone areas should be upgraded. It takes a lot of effort for farmers to make it to the market and it should not be a bargain to have good roads from their farms to the market. The modernization of the globe means that there should be research centers where solutions to diseases attacking crops and livestock are sought among other things. Is this not development?

Health care

Construction of hospitals across the country and equipping them is better way to define development. But it does not end there, human resource is needed for the operation of these healthcare facilities. This beckons the government to ensure qualified practitioners are employed. Disease Research centers are today of necessity if not urgency, with the recent COVID 19 pandemic, an alarming message was sent to the developing nations. Ensuring a comprehensive medical cover that goes a long way to save the people the burden they have in settling off their bills. This speaks one language, development.

Water

The heavens mourn when there still exist some areas where people have to cover over five kilometers to look for water, yet there is a government in place. Allocations are made to construct dams to curb such problems with no avail. How many times do such cases make headlines in our TV stations and/or newspapers? It is high time the people start enjoying the fruits of devolution and exercising their constitutional mandate. It does not break a bone to have the dams and water reservoirs done, sufficient water supply, boreholes among others. Imagine the joy that comes with such projects to people who have never seen them since time immemorial, and this way they define development

Education

This is the only tool for a nation. A well-run education system in a nation ensures lasting generational skills. It gives room for a breed of innovators who are determined to propel the nation to the next level. The best gift that government can give to the citizenry, is education. A well laid structure of a new education system, employment of teachers and timely payment, provision of text books to various learning institutions, infrastructural development et cetera in one way defines development in this sector.

Economy

Many hold to the belief that development can only be arrived at when there is money flow in a country. When a common man has money in his pocket, then this is a feel of development. Post COVID-19, how do we define development? The finance bill that saw many families pushed to their limits and were left with only one option, coming to the streets and expressing their aggression towards the government. To attain this, there is need to have the taxes checked. We are privy to the fact that one of the governments’ sources of income is revenue collection, however, imposing too much taxation on the people is burdensome. There is need for the government to have plans that waiver taxes to the people. It beats logic when a country has higher taxation rate and the GDP represents 0.1% of the world economy. I believe we can do without higher taxation.

Industry

A country’s development is defined by the number of industries within her jurisdiction, how much it can produce. With the blessings of many raw materials that form the basis for industry set up, there is demand to have as many industries as possible. This, for the benefit of the people, will ensure unemployment menace is settled and many others. Industrial development is the best definition, a country relying on this basis for definition scores high. The dead industries that at one point were the pride of our country should be resurrected, it is interesting to hear the role they played to some living testimonies; many went to school, homes became better places, areas saw light for the first time in their lives, opportunities opened as a result. A child that was borne in such areas defined development at a very tender age.

Transport

The easily recognized sector that defines development. The transport system of an area is one of the determinants of a developed nation. How one traverses one part to the other using the various means of transport, gives one a blue print of a definition of development. Take for instance Los Angeles, the Madrid City, Cape town et cetera, their transport system speaks the term development. It’s a tort for one, in country with over fifty years of independence, to travel through muddy roads many kilometers away just to have a glimpse of what people say of development. Poorly done roads that only endure the dry season, we still call them all weather roads, yet when it rains, we are left with what are equitable to a series of basketball coats in secondary school games competition. This is a short- lived definition of development and it is difficult today, even for those who have felt the pain of giving to their nation through paying of taxes to accept the level of callous depletion that is inflicted on a nation's resources.

Military Effectiveness

A country’s military capability is one realm used to define her development. The success in the military is dependent on the, inter alia, the economic status of a country. A country’s degree of development, not just the size of its economy, defense budget, or military, is an important ingredient for military success. How does one determine the superiority of a state over the rest? The government should wake up and do something in this sector. There’s need for more budgetary allocation, more personnel, machinery, high level of training. Stephen Biddle and Stephen Long posit that better educated soldiers may be more receptive to training, more adept at operating and maintaining sophisticated machinery and more capable of executing tactical maneuvers on the battlefield. They support this hypothesis by giving a comparison between developed states with high levels of primary and secondary education outperform less educated enemies on the battlefield.

Conclusion

Now it is upon the constituents of various areas to look at the proximity of defining development. Revenue allocation is equitably distributed across the country.

To achieve the vision 2030, a vision that aims to transform our country into an industrialized, middle-income country with a ready job market and clean and safe environment to all, we must burry the vice of corruption, deal with cartels in all the sectors, get rid of the twaddle system that has, for a long time, denied us the fruits of our taxes, bring to book the unworthy contractors who are hellbent on shoddy work, portray the spirit of patriotism in electing our leaders and the constitution act as our guide in all that we come together to do for our nation.