A human development perspective

A human development perspective

A human development perspective on policy analysis begins with the observation that policies are deeply political. Therefore, policy analysis cannot ignore the political forces that shape policy. As Sen noted in Hunger and Public Action (1981), policy-making ‘depends on a number of influences, going beyond the prevalent notion of what should be done, . . . there are political issues in policy-making’ (1981, p19). A human development perspective requires a political analysis of the forces that shape public policy itself. It especially demands a detailed analysis of the power relations at stake.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT POLICY ANALYSIS

In addition to careful attention to power relations and politics, a human development perspective on policy analysis holds that: (1) the success of policies should be assessed according to whether they promote people’s freedoms, and (2) policies should respect people’s agency and be specifically based on their ability to participate (giving particular voice to marginalized groups). These reflect the ‘evaluation’ and ‘agency’ aspects of human development discussed in Chapter 1. Practically speaking, this means that the ‘evaluation stage’ of policy analysis has to include considerations about people’s freedom, both in its opportunity and process aspect. The use of statistics and other forms of well-being measurement is crucial here. What is the impact of liberalization policies on the freedom of people to be nourished, educated and healthy? To what extent have poor people been able to have a voice in the formulation of trade policies? To formulate, evaluate and reformulate good public policies, better data will have to be collected about the state of people’s health, education, nourishment and political participation.

From a human development perspective, the major purpose of policy analysis is to bring policy change so that people’s freedoms are expanded, and not reduced. A policy does not change because there is sufficient evidence to make the case for change but because there are powerful groups that have a special interest in not changing the policy. This is why advocacy is an important stage of policy analysis. Once the analysis is conducted, one needs to bring its major message into the public domain in order to mobilize public opinion and confront the special interests underpinning it. The use of ‘killer statistics’ – using statistics in a comparative mode to make people aware of a problem – can be particularly helpful. Here are some examples of ‘killer facts’ taken from the Human Development Report 2006: ‘Most of the 1.1 billion people categorized as lacking access to clean water use about 5 litres a day – one tenth of the average daily amount used in rich countries to flush toilets.’ (p5); ‘Some 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diarrhoea – 4900 deaths each day or an under-five population equivalent in size to that for London and New York combined.’ (p6); ‘The $10 billion price tag for the Millennium Development Goal seems a large sum – but it has to be put in context. It represents less than five days’ worth of global military spending and less than half what rich countries spend each year on mineral water’ (p8).

POLICY