Economic development is a critical component that drives economic growth in an economy, creating new job opportunities and facilitating an improved quality of life that includes increased access to opportunities created by economic growth for existing and future residents. The Orlando Economic Partnership’s economic development team works to attract and retain jobs for the Orlando region as well as grow existing industry sectors. The Partnership also works to align the region with a vision for the region’s growth that increases participation in the local economy (a vision the Partnership has termed Broad-Based Prosperity TM). While the work of economic developers often falls under the radar, building and sustaining the regional economy is a critical component to a successful community.
Community development: community development has been described as a conscious technique or process to solve social change problems; a process that enables communities to “collectively confront and act on their common values and problems” (Lotz, 1977, p.16).
Community development includes three main elements: community participation, organization, and work.
Some ideas to be incorporated for the development of Africa
They are three Important Elements:
i. a desire to increase the level of social and economic development;
ii. the increase of local co-operation and self-help;
iii. the use of expertise from other local communities.
The main goal of Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people with the skills they need to effect change within their communities. The main purpose of the community development is to create awareness for the people and build their capacities for the enhancement and improvement their communities.
Community development can be described as:
Ø planning services
Ø servicing self help groups
Ø running support and social action groups
Ø building community networks
Ø participating in inter-agency meetings
Ø undertaking needs assessment
Ø increasing people's skills
Ø resourcing the community to meet needs
Ø improving quality of life
Ø defining priorities
Ø working towards social justice
Ø empowering individuals and communities.
Susan Kenny in Developing Communities for the Future: Community
Development in Australia (1994) does not define community development. She discusses the nature of community development in terms of principles and processes. She sees the principles of community development as:
Ø objectivity and impartiality
Ø social justice
Ø citizenship and human rights
Ø empowerment and self-determination
Ø collective action
Ø tolerance of diversity
Ø working for change and involvement in conflict
Ø liberation and participatory democracy
Ø accessibility of human services.
Kenny notes community development has been "identified as: a job or profession in itself; an important component of all human service work; a method or approach in social or economic development; a philosophical and intellectual approach to the world; and a political activity" (p25).
Community Development Outcomes
Community development processes are open-ended and can lead to many different outcomes:
- individuals developing self-esteem and confidence
- people participating in social activities to overcome social isolation
- increased participation in political and citizenship activities
- practical outcomes such as a changed bus route or a new pedestrian crossing
- government funding for new or additional services.
The connection with social capital
Whatever view one has about the nature of community development, it is clear that it is distinct from social capital.
Social capital is a prerequisite for community development processes. Without social capital, community development processes could not operate. There would be no family, neighbourhood and community networks; people would not trust each other; there would not be reciprocal relationships and so on.
Where there is sufficient social capital to support community development processes the community development process will also generate social capital which can then be used in other community development processes.
Community development is one way of producing social capital. There are many other ways and places including workplaces, sporting events, religious activities, schools and carnivals.
Consequences of Low Social Capital in community development
If there is no or low social capital in the group, neighbourhood or community, it will not be possible for those people to work together for the common good.
Ø an absence of core building blocks such as;. self-esteem, trust, and communication skills
Ø inadequate levels of material well-being warranting to struggling for survival
Ø poor physical infrastructure - such as places to meet, public spaces, telephones, newspapers etc.
Ø Opportunities to develop the networks and interconnections between people will be lacking.
Essence of High Social Capital
Where there are high levels of social capital people will:
Ø feel they are part and parcel of the community
Ø feel useful and be able to make a real contribution to the community
Ø participate in local community networks and organizations
Ø pull together for the common good in floods and bush fires they will welcome strangers
Ø help out with their own idea to move the community.
Challenges of African developments
Ever since the colonization of Africans by the British, they have not yet gained their feet due to political crisis caused by bad governance. We will recall how our forefathers/ nationalist fought for their own selfish interest. Most African countries are faced with one problem or the other; a lot of obnoxious things are allowed to play in Africa due the some factors beyond control and has been allowed to stay as being normal. The issue of rigging election by the incumbent government is no longer a story. Likewise, the issue of imposing a president to the populace is also no longer news. In fact things have fallen apart in Africa according to Chinua Achebe’s novel, a great scholar in Africa. So many challenges have caused the underdevelopment of Africa. Some of the challenges are as follow:
i. Poor leadership and bad governance,
ii. Effects from colonization,
iii. Neo- colonization or globalization,
iv. Greed and selfishness by our leaders
v. Promotion of mediocrity,
vi. lack of manpower & poor technology
vii. Brain drain,
viii. Unemployment,
ix. lnsecurity
x. Poverty and Corruption etc.
Leadership
Leadership is a function of absolute commitment to the rule of law built on the foundation of right-spiritedness, fair play and democratic ideals to effect positive change in the society. Leadership is prudent and judicious management of scarce resources for the development of the nation. Leadership entails the capacity to carry the subordinates and even the followers along in policy decision making and implementation. it requires mentoring others for performance enhancement. Leadership entails irresponsibleness and reasonableness in private and public conduct.
Developmental theories
Political, economical and social developmental theories should be studied from various scholars like; Walt Rostow, Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, Aristotle on political development, Pythagoras on economic development, Leo Vygotsky on social development and Erikson etc.
Dependency theory, an approach to understanding economic underdevelopment that emphasizes the putative constraints imposed by the global political and economic order. First proposed in the late 1950s by the Argentine economist and statesman Raúl Prebisch, dependency theory gained prominence in the 1960s and ’70s. Dependency Theory, theory of economic development that emerged in the 1960s. Dependency theory addresses the problems of poverty and economic underdevelopment throughout the world. Dependency theorists argue that dependence upon foreign capital, technology, and expertise impedes economic development in developing countries.
Drawing upon various Marxist ideas, dependency theorists observed that economic development and underdevelopment were not simply different stages in the same linear march toward progress (see Karl Marx). They argued that colonial domination had produced relationships between the developed and the developing world that were inherently unequal. Dependency theorists believed that without a major restructuring of the international economy, the former colonial countries would find it virtually impossible to escape from their subordinate position and experience true growth and development.
According to dependency theory, underdevelopment is mainly caused by the peripheral position of affected countries in the world economy. Typically, underdeveloped countries offer cheap labour and raw materials on the world market. These resources are sold to advanced economies, which have the means to transform them into finished goods. Underdeveloped countries end up purchasing the finished products at high prices, depleting the capital they might otherwise devote to upgrading their own productive capacity. The result is a vicious cycle that perpetuates the division of the world economy between a rich core and a poor periphery. While moderate dependency theorists, such as the Brazilian sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso (who served as the president of Brazil in 1995–2003), considered some level of development to be possible within this system, more-radical scholars, such as the German American economic historian Andre Gunder Frank, argued that the only way out of dependency was the creation of a noncapitalist (socialist) national economy. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dependency-theory
In the 1970s, sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso (now president of Brazil) addressed weaknesses in dependency theory. Cardoso asserted that developing countries could achieve substantial development despite their dependence on foreign businesses, banks, and governments for capital, technology, and trade. He believed that developing nations could defend national interests and oversee a process of steady economic growth by bargaining with foreign governments, multinational corporations, and international lending agencies.
Walt Rostow’s Five Stages of Economic Development
The historical approach suggested by Walt Rostow who states that developing countries must pass through 5 stages to reach their current degree of economic development. Furthermore, that the developed countries passed 5 stages to reach their in the stage that they are at present.
The five stages are: traditional society, pre-condition for take – off, take off, drive to maturity and age of mass consumption.
- Traditional Society: This is an agricultural economy of mainly subsistence farming, little of which is traded. The size of the capital stock is limited and of low quality resulting in very low labour productivity and little surplus output left to sell in domestic and overseas markets
- Pre-conditions for take-off: agriculture becomes more mechanized and more output is traded. at this stage savings and investment grow although they are still a small percentage of national income (GDP). some external findings is required such as the form of overseas giving aid or peharps remittance incomes from migrant workers living overseas.
3. Take-off: Manufacturing industry assumes greater importance, although the number of
industries remains small. Political and social institutions start to develop - external finance may still be required. Savings and investment grow, perhaps to 15% of GDP. Agriculture assumes lesser importance in relative terms although the majority of people may remain employed in the farming sector. There is often a dual economy apparent with rising productivity and wealth in manufacturing and other industries contrasted with stubbornly low productivity and real incomes in rural agriculture.
4. Drive to maturity: Industry becomes more diverse. growth should spread to different parts of the country as the stage of technology improves – the economy moves from being dependent on factor inputs for growth towards making better use of innovation to bring about increase in real per capita incomes.
5. Age of Mass Consumption: output levels grow, enabling increased consumer expenditure. There is a shift towards tertiary sector activity and the growth is sustained by the expansion of a middle class of consumers.
Politics and crises of development in Africa: politics in Africa from countries that are facing a lot of challenges. Like Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan
Tanzania, Uganda etc. and the way forward
Neoclassical Theory
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoclassical-growth-theory.asp#:~:text=Robert%20Solow%20and%20Trevor%20Swan%20first%20introduced%20the%20neoclassical%20growth,technology%20to%20growth%20is%20boundless.
Neoclassical growth
theory is an economic theory that outlines how a steady economic growth rate results from a combination
of three driving forces—labor, capital, and technology. The National Bureau of
Economic Research names Robert Solow and Trevor Swan as having the credit of
developing and introducing the model of long-run economic growth
in 1956. The model first considered exogenous population increases to set the
growth rate but, in 1957, Solow incorporated technology change into the model.
The theory states that
short-term equilibrium results from varying amounts of labor and capital in the
production function. The theory also argues that technological change has a
major influence on an economy, and economic growth cannot continue without
technological advances.
Neoclassical growth theory outlines the three factors necessary for a growing economy. These are labor, capital, and technology. However, neoclassical growth theory clarifies that temporary equilibrium is different from long-term equilibrium, which does not require any of these three factors.
Special Consideration
This growth theory posits that the accumulation of capital within an economy, and how people use that capital, is important for economic growth. Further, the relationship between the capital and labor of an economy determines its output. Finally, technology is thought to augment labour productivity and increase the output capabilities of labor.
Therefore, the production function of neoclassical growth theory is used to measure the growth and equilibrium of an economy. That function is Y = AF (K, L).
- Y denotes an economy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- K represents its share of capital
- L describes the amount of unskilled labor in an economy
- A represents a determinant level of technology
Four common theories of development economics include mercantilism, nationalism, the linear stages of growth model, and structural-change theory.
However, because of the relationship between labor and technology, an economy's production function is often re-written as Y = F (K, AL).
Increasing any one of the inputs shows the effect on GDP and, therefore, the equilibrium of an economy. However, if the three factors of neoclassical growth theory are not all equal, the returns of both unskilled labor and capital on an economy diminish. These diminished returns imply that increases in these two inputs have exponentially decreasing returns while technology is boundless in its contribution to growth and the resulting output it can produce.
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