Distinguish between human and social development
Answers
This Topic Guide aims to answer the question ‘What is the interaction between social development issues and human development outcomes?’ An individual’s right to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living cannot be realised without addressing social development issues. This is because these issues determine individuals’ access to resources – who gets what, where, and how. This in turn affects whether human development is inclusive and equitable or perpetuates inequalities and exclusion.
Two main rationales for considering social development emerge from the literature. Without understanding and addressing social drivers of development, human rights will not be realised and development gains will be undermined. Secondly, by taking social development issues on board, development actors will achieve better results and better value for money.
This guide provides an overview of available evidence on how social development influences human development outcomes. It focuses on five social development issues (human rights, accountability, gender inequality, age and social exclusion) and their influence on four human development sectors: 1) health; 2) sexual and reproductive health (SRH); 3) education; and 4) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).Human rights-based approaches form the basis of much of the literature. Rights underpin the purpose of human development interventions, and provide the guiding structure for measuring outcomes. As such, human rights encompass all aspects of social development. There are, however, four distinct social development issues under the human rights umbrella that deserve particular attention:
Accountability of governments, services, and interventions helps ensure transparency and fulfilment of obligation in realising human development. Rights-based development is based on development actors’ accountability in protecting and delivering those rights.