Response to Jahan and Rosling
To improve the richness and quality of life for people all around the world, it is imperative we understand what human development is. In the podcast, What is Human Development, Jahan defines what human development is as well as how to maximize human potential. He defines human development as the process of enlarging human choices in every aspect of life including economic, cultural, and political choices. He states that an increase in human capabilities must be matched by an increase in opportunities to use such capabilities or else there will be a loss of human potential. The idea of what human development has shifted in recent years to focus less on solely economic growth, and more on human-centric metrics. Jahan elaborates on some of the targeted issues that should be the center of human development including youth employment, gender work, agriculture and rural development, informal sector work, and crisis work.
Jehan touches on the HDI and what it means, as well as its perception. He refers to the HDI as the “crown jewel,” but this ideology has led to a preoccupation with focus metrics, as opposed to broader views of human development. The HDI focuses on three main measures: long life, knowledge, and standard of living. While the HDI provides a useful measurement, it is only a focus measure, not a breadth measure. If the HDI is accepted as the breadth measure, true human development cannot be fully monitored, and it will stall. Jahan uses a metaphor to describe the relationship between breadth and focus measures. He states that the breadth measure is the house, and the door is the focus measure. We cannot mistake the door to be the house, and when we reach the door, we must be sure to enter the house.
Rosling starts his talk with data from a questionnaire he gave to his students. This questionnaire revealed that the issue with his students’ knowledge was not about ignorance, but about their preconceived notions about third world countries and the idea of “us versus them.” Rosling presented models of countries’ development over time starting in the 1960s. These models presented two major conclusions: first, a strong healthcare system is a precursor to a booming economy, and second, conclusions should not be generalized to address whole regions, as there is variation from country to country. In one of his models, Rosling presented the growth of China which showed that after the government improvered the country’s healthcare system, the economic growth quickly followed, and has continued even until today. The second major conclusion stated that human development strategies must be customized within the context of individual sub-divisions of countries, because whole regions are vastly different. Often times we consider Africa to be the epitome of a third world region, and we treat the continent as one uniform region, but there is a wide range of socioeconomic diversity within the continent, and therefore development goals must be addressed in an appropriate fashion.
Jahan and Rosling both challenge the ways we view human development, and present solutions for how we can improve our response to third world development, as well as our usage of big data to address these issues. Jahan focuses on seeing the bigger picture in terms of how we measure human development, as well as the issues that human development strategies should target. Rosling urges us to look more deeply at the issues within countries and discard the outdated ideas of “us versus them.” He, similarly to Jahan, addresses the relationship between economic growth and human quality of life. Rosling uses the example of China to show that healthcare and adequate quality of life must proceed economic growth. Jahan and Rosling present new ways to address age-old issues in the era of big data development.