7 Goals of Worthwhile Development
In order for development in other countries to be worthwhile, there needs to be seven goals or values that the developers must have. Integrity is something that is very important to worthwhile development, making it valuable, especially because corruption is involved. It damages the well-being of individuals because it preserves, expands, or produces inequalities along with making the whole situation disempowering. These goals help “work out an evolved notion of development and to propose alternative models to governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and communities.” (Encyclopedia, 2022). In order to improve the country that is working on development, there need to be multiple factors that influence the development. By including these seven factors or goals, it is possible to track the progress of developing countries, no matter how difficult it may be, on a scale, or as we have created, a scorecard. These seven factors are well-being, equality, empowerment, human rights, cultural freedom, responsibility, and sustainability.
Well-Being
Well-being, the first of the seven factors of development ethics, is a way of having things go well for a group of individuals in the country or the country itself. The factor helps improve relationships between individuals, indicating how people choose to treat each other based on agreements or disagreements. Well-being is critical to development ethics and the corresponding scale because understanding a citizen’s situation and feelings in a certain country can help determine if development is positive.
Equality
Equality is defined as “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.” (Oxford Dictionary). In multiple developing countries, equality is an issue that is very difficult to fix. There are multiple factors that may influence someone’s decisions as to why certain things are not equal and certain things are. If equality, especially in status and rights, continues to grow in developing countries, then the levels of inequality should decrease as well.
Empowerment
Empowerment gives citizens and people, in general, the ability to be subjected to their own development and not just people who are looked down upon or passed by without a second thought. If real development is taking place in a certain country or state, individuals in that state should feel the comfortability of shaping their own life, rather than live how the government encourages them to.
Human Rights
Human rights are probably one of the most, if not the most important of the seven factors for effective and worthwhile development. There are many arguments that human rights can be suspended for the sake of consistent development, but the UN has declared that development must be supportive of human rights. Depending on how many opportunities and rights each individual has in a developing state, can determine if the country is slowly making progress toward the end goal.
Cultural Freedom
According to Human Development Report 2004, cultural freedom is the freedom to be who we are and who we want to be. This movement of cultural freedom is also influencing the reduction of social exclusions; making sure that everyone is accepted for who they are and what they choose to do with their lives.
Responsibility
There are multiple ways to represent responsibility in a state, depending on the cultural values of that state. For example, there are ethical responsibilities to letting actors and stakeholders become involved in global development, creating a huge debate between wider responsibilities such as ending world hunger and world poverty. There are multiple issues when it comes to deciding who has to take responsibility for certain things. When certain countries find a solution to balancing responsibilities correctly, the score of the country’s improvement can determine if those roles have greatly influenced the development or not.
Sustainability
When it comes to sustainability, there are multiple subcategories that can be involved. For example, one of those subcategories can be environmental sustainability, which is asking if this development is going to affect future generations from living a life in the same area.
“Because of the value it places on human well-being and equity, development ethics is not especially amenable to more biocentric approaches, in which other species, ecosystems, or the land are valued intrinsically. However, living with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature has been identified as central to human well-being by Martha Nussbaum (who, like Sen, is cited by development ethicists, but does not identify herself as one).”
Drydyk, J. (2011). Development Ethics. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_125
Sustainability shows researchers and policymakers alike how well these developments are going to work in the next ten, twenty, and maybe even fifty years.
By quantifying each of these factors, we are able to look at policies and how ethical they would be in any context.
"Development Ethics ." Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics.
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