‘Human Development’: The Power of the Idea1

The idea of human development, and the related index, has been developed and promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) largely through its annual Human Development Reports. In recent years it has become more closely associated with the work of Amartya Sen. Initially, the concept formed an important part of the counter-discourse against the dominant perspective associated with the Bretton Woods Institutions. Since then, the policies and perspectives of both the UNDP and the World Bank have to some extent changed, and much has been built on the foundations of this concept — both by bureaucrats and academics. The aim of this paper is to critically assess this process. The paper draws a comparison with findings from the author's earlier research on a number of other influential ideas in development policy, such as 'social capital', and suggests that 'human development' has generally fared rather better.