Basic needs strategy
The basic needs strategy is a development strategy within the framework of development aid .
background
It was formulated in the 1970s and is now practiced by many industrialized countries as a form of development aid. The observation that when economic growth is high, disparities increase and large parts of the population remain excluded from development, has led to a rethink in development policy. The connection between the poor food and health care of the population and the resulting low work motivation is taken up in this strategy.
aims
The aim of the basic needs strategy is therefore to cover people's basic needs. To do this, you must first determine what the basic needs are. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defined the basic needs: According to this, minimum requirements such as “adequate food, housing and clothing” and “certain household appliances and furniture” must be available. In addition, essential services such as health and educational facilities as well as the provision of sanitary facilities and clean drinking water are among the basic needs. In addition, people need to be involved in political decisions, which in turn is facilitated by an efficient education and health system. If all of this is not the case, absolute poverty is spoken of, and around a billion people are affected by it today.
methodology
It is important that the basic needs strategy is not viewed as handouts or welfare. Rather, it includes help for self-help . The satisfaction of basic needs should not be financed with foreign money, but the people themselves should achieve it. Foreign capital aid is merely a pillar. Examples of this are investments in traditional agricultural areas as well as in certain urban areas (e.g. slum rehabilitation ) and the removal of barriers to development in these areas, aid to increase their own food production which is necessary for the local markets are intended, as well as promoting education for girls and women. Analogous to this, the production of cheap bulk goods is being promoted in the cities and jobs are being created by labor-intensive companies. Simultaneous investments in urban and rural areas do not increase the disparities as much as with other development strategies. In order to counteract the rural exodus, this strategy particularly includes promoting rural areas .
Positive feedback arises from the measures of the basic needs strategy . First, people's labor power increases through better nutritional status , health and schooling or training . This increases their motivation to work . Second, better education for women enables family planning , lower child mortality rates and the build-up of social insurances so that children are no longer the only provision for old age. This leads to a deliberate decline in the birth rate . The strong population growth in the third world is often a trigger for negative events such as overuse of the soil or countless civil wars. Therefore, a changed generative behavior is of central importance to achieve a humane standard of living (see also demographic transition ). Third, the underemployed population and means of production must be mobilized. If you put the “poor” at the center of the process, calculations show that higher productivity and a higher per capita income can be achieved than with the classic growth strategy. The basic needs strategy thus offers the basis for “self-sustaining growth” as a result, not as a goal of the basic needs theory.
literature
- Florian Steinberg: Basic Needs Strategy. Living in the “Third World” . Kiel 1985.
- U. Kümmerle and N. von der Ruhrer: Fundamente course topics. Development spaces in the tropics . Saulgau / Aachen 2001.
- Werner Storkebaum: The Third World. Developing countries in crisis . Braunschweig 1992.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arno Kreus (Ed.): Fundamente - Geographie Oberstufe. Klett Verlag 2008. ISBN 978-3-12-104530-3