By Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD (Leading Environmental Law Scholar, Policy Advisor, Natural Resources Lawyer and Dispute Resolution Expert from Kenya), Winner of Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021, ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021*

The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development recognizes that development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom. The Declaration posits that the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.

Notably, the term ‘development’ is not defined in the Declaration and instead it takes a descriptive approach which entails outlining the various aspects of development. Development takes many forms and thus defining the term must take into account the various elements of development. Some scholars have defined ‘development’ to mean a multi-dimensional process that involves major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions, as well as economic growth, reduction of inequality, and eradication of absolute poverty. Some opine that ‘development, then, is about: change for the better; continuing processes; collectivities of people; growth and prosperity; interrelationships.

The components of development are considered to be as follows: Growth, in the economy; Equity in the distribution of society’s resources to meet human needs; Participation in decisions about how these resources will be applied. The international agenda which began to focus on development beginning in the second half of the twentieth century was reinforced by the belief the understanding that economic growth did not necessarily lead to a rise in the level and quality of life for populations all over the world; there was a need to place an emphasis on specific policies that would channel resources and enable social and economic mobility for various layers of the population. Indeed, this view has solidified over the years considering that it forms the foundation upon which the sustainable development agenda is built.

The three essential dimensions of sustainable development agenda are: Economic: an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and avoid extreme sectoral imbalances that damage agricultural and/or industrial production; Environmental: an environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base and avoid over-exploitation of non-renewable resource systems, including maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability and ecosystems services not always looked upon as economic resources; and Social: a socially sustainable system must achieve fairness in distribution and opportunity among all persons with adequate provision of such social services as health, education and gender equity. The social dimension focuses on reconciliation of environment and development, and governance related to provision of social services.

There are four main theories of development namely: modernization; dependency; world-systems; and globalization. The proponents of modernization theory argued that development involved the process of replicating the changes in social, economic and political systems that developed in western Europe and North America from the 17th century to the 19th century and have then spread to other countries and in the 19th and 20th centuries to the South American, Asian and African continents.” This would largely be facilitated through colonisation. It was thus a case of the Global North not only imposing their influence upon the Global South but was also exercising their power and setting the development agenda which they would later fund through donor funding.

Indeed, some have argued that the reason for the emergence of Modernisation Theory was the freedom of Third World countries from colonization and the strategies employed during the Cold War by Western countries in order to prevent these countries from being controlled by communists. While the support from the Global North especially in terms of the funds may be welcome to the Global South as it strives to achieve socio-economic development for its people, the downside to this is that over the years, the leaders in these developing countries have had little if any incentive to invest in their institutions and their people as they always have a fall back plan through asking for foreign and donor funds to cushion their economies against shocks such as the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The focus of the modernisation approach on replicating the development model of the now developed nations makes the policymakers in the developing nations lose focus of the real challenges afflicting their people as they compete to become like the developed world in terms of infrastructural development. It must be appreciated that this theory envisages development as a phased process and different regions of the world must thus realise that they are at different phases of development. The leaders fail to acknowledge that as they seek to modernise the infrastructural systems in the country, the African countries are still struggling with poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, inequalities, corruption and other social ills.

The Dependency Theory seeks to improve the Modernisation Theory by combining elements from a neo-Marxist theory and adopting a “revolution of under developed nations’ model”.19 The theory focuses on the totality of society and social system periphery, which highlights the differences between imperialistic countries in the first world and underdeveloped countries.20 Dependency Theory explains these differences by focusing on regions and structural conditions in different nation states.21 Three main characteristics of dependency theory are summarized as follows: First, the international system is seen as the sum of two sets of states: dominant and dependent; Second, dependency theory holds that external forces are critical in terms of economic activity of dependent states; Third, relationships, based on strongly historical patterns and dynamics (i.e., internationalization of capitalism), between dominant and dependent states are a vibrant process, with exchanges taking place between the states playing a considerable role in the reinforcement of patterns of inequality.

Dependency theory is a mixture of various theories, including world systems theory, historical structure theory, and neo-Marxist theory. Some commentators have pointed out the following limitations of the dependency theory: the theory significantly failed to explain the rise of the newly industrialized countries of East Asia (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore), as well as those of Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand); the theory also presumes that all developing countries share the same traits; and finally, dependency theory is limited in its analytical ability when applied to sectors beyond manufacturing.

The World Systems Theory uses other levels of quantitative analysis, though it admits that there is no set of processes in World Systems Theory that is applicable to all economies. World Systems Theory argues that international trade specialization and transfer of resources from less developed countries to developed countries (known as “core” countries) prevents development in less developed countries by making them rely on core countries and by encouraging peripheralization. In other words, wealth is taken from semiperiphery or periphery zones to economies in the core countries. Globalisation is a theory of development that uses a global mechanism of greater integration with particular emphasis on the sphere of economic transactions. It is a US- and Europe-centric positive model of development whose feature is the spread of capitalism around the globe. Notably, these main theories revolve around the impact of the Global North’s policies and systems on the Global South. The bottom line is that the development agenda of the developing countries in the South seem to be inherently tied to that of the developing nations.

*This article is an extract from the Article: “Redefining Development in Kenya-Reflections and Lessons from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic,” Journal of Conflict Management and Sustainable Development Volume 4(4), p. 12.  by Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards), ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and ADR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya). Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert in Kenya. Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a Senior Lecturer of Environmental Law and Dispute resolution at the University of Nairobi School of Law and The Center for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP). He has published numerous books and articles on Environmental Law, Environmental Justice Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development. Dr. Muigua is also a Chartered Arbitrator, an Accredited Mediator, the Africa Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Managing Partner of Kariuki Muigua & Co. Advocates. Dr. Muigua is recognized among the top 5 leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts in Kenya by the Chambers Global Guide 2022.

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Declaration on the Right to Development: resolution / adopted by the General Assembly, 4 December 1986, A/RES/41/128.

Gabriel Antwi, ‘The Theories of Development Studies’, 2019, p.1. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331262291_THE_THEORIES_OF_DEVE LOPMENT_STUDIES [Accessed on 15/5/2020].

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