South Asia Briefing Unit 3 - People-centered development

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The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
People-Centered Development
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People-Centered Development

People-centered development represents a profound shift from the service delivery system. It relies on community resources and the strengths of local people—their creativity and their vision of a new future.

The human dimension of development is not just another addition to the development dialogue. It is an entirely new perspective, a revolutionary way to recast our conventional approach to development. With this transition in thinking, human civilization and democracy may reach yet another milestone.

-Mahbub ul Haq, United Nations Development Program

A profound shift

Ignorant and stupid poor people are often the creation of ignorant and stupid outsiders…The evidence speaks for itself. Again and again and again, observers have remarked on the toughness, application and ingenuity of the poor.

-Robert Chambers in Rural Development: Putting the Last First, 1983

The shift from service delivery to people-centered development represents a profound change in thinking about the fundamental nature of human beings.

People-centered development is based in a belief in people's inherent dignity, and their right to self-reliance. It is grounded in the conviction that all people have the potential to be creative, strategic individuals.
Many people have heard the cliché: "the world has a billion mouths to feed." This suggests that poor and hungry people present a problem which the rest of the world must fix.
People-centered development challenges this conception. The world does not have one billion mouths to feed. It has one billion hard-working, courageous human beings whose creativity and productivity can be unleashed.
Hungry people hold the solution to their own hunger.
By mobilizing the energy, responsibility, creativity and resources of South Asia’s poor, hungry people will create a society that is truly free from hunger.

Mobilizing people

People-centered development acknowledges that the true goal of sustainable development is progress for all humanity. The way to achieve it is through the empowerment of people.
In 1992, the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation released a study where it looked at the importance of people-centered development.
The study asserted that it is critical to ensure the direct and full participation of poor men and women, both in local organizations as well as in decentralized government bodies.
It suggests that social mobilization depends on large scale training: the creation of cadres of indigenous animators, catalysts, facilitators, and leaders to stimulate the process of social mobilization.
By mobilizing local people, their creativity is unleashed for the end of hunger.

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The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
People-Centered Development
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