Appropriate Technology For Development

A Discussion And Case Histories

Donald D. Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367021559
• eBook ISBN: 9780429727795
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This analysis of appropriate technology first explores the concept of development in terms of needs, characteristics, and theories and then examines the pivotal role of technology in the developmental process. The twenty contemporary case histories illustrate specific instances of applied technology, not necessarily as examples of successful applic

Part 1
Appropriate Technology and Its Role in Development

Appropriate Technology and Its Role in Development

Donald D. Evans

The Need for Development

Development, as classically defined, included activity primarily concerned with increasing the Gross National Product (GNP) of nations or regional entities that were significantly less productive than the industrialized nations. In more recent years, especially during the 1970s, a more humanistic view of development has been taken, largely as a consequence of the growing number of formal studies in the field, disappointment with development progress, the evolution of thought and opinion resulting from extensive considerations in world fora such as the United Nations, and movements resulting from environmental and population issues.

In general, the need for development derives from the physical, economic, and social conditions of man, from the fact that great disparities and inequalities exist in this condition, and from the realization that the means for redressing such discrepancies are at hand and can be brought to bear on the problem effectively. Rationales for economic development can be predicated reasonably on either relativistic or humanitarian grounds; that is, the need for optimization of material growth in order to provide adequately and humanely for the human community affords ample justification for the development effort and, in fact, requires it.

One change in the perception of need for development comes from the realization that man will not necessarily benefit adequately and equitably simply as a consequence of the economic enlargement of political states. The economic gains of industrialization, for example, will not automatically “trickle down” to the benefit of all. The devolvement of the advantages of material advancement to all economic strata is not a natural occurrence—at least within an acceptable time frame—and the development process must therefore include functions that extend well beyond the enhancement of industrial productivity per se.

Particularly since the early to mid-1960s in the industrialized nations, there has rapidly developed a pronounced perceptual outlook emphasizing the physical limitations of the environment, the exponentially increasing depletion of natural resources, and the finite nature of most of the earth’s endowments. Although throughout modern and ancient history speculations about these natural (or supernatural, for that matter) limitations to man’s habitat have been made, a large-scale, systematic examination of the subject is a recent phenomenon, brought on in part by greater measurement capability and by availability of data and information on which to base analyses. The changing relative and absolute availabilities of natural physical resources already have had a pronounced effect on world relationships (e.g., impact of oil-production cartelization), and that they will have a more striking effect in the immediate future is irrefutable.

These concerns, of course, center around two considerations: (1) the efficient recovery and utilization of the earth’s resources (including incident solar energy) constitutes a primary challenge; and (2) the impact of man’s activity on his environment is progressively deleterious and must be brought immediately into balance. Most observers believe that environmental concerns and the utilization of the earth’s resources are properly elements of development and should be included under that rubric.

The problems of earth resource utilization are compounded by the increasingly rapid growth of world population. Although there are pockets of population, especially in the industrialized nations, where the conditions for achieving essentially “zero population growth” exist, the fact remains that the overall increase in man’s numbers on the earth poses the principal threat to political stability, to man’s welfare, and to man’s continuation as a species. It is believed that had the population growth of the developing world not been greater than that of the industrialized nations since World War II, then the rate of growth in GNP that the developing nations have already experienced would, today, have resulted in their essential economic self-sufficiency—at least in their ability to feed, clothe, and shelter their populations above minimum standards. The need for development as here discussed would then be largely nonexistent, because the present major material deficiences would not exist. (Perhaps these needs would have been replaced with a complete set of equally portentous requirements, however, but at least the elemental prerequisites would have been met and the situational progress of mankind greatly accelerated.)

That the question of limiting population growth is a highly sensitive and consequential issue with such a large portion of the world’s population naturally has great effect on development strategy and on the results of its implementation. Measures of long-term trend in attitudes towards population issues seem to indicate that greater numbers of persons accept that there is an absolute requirement for limiting the world’s human population.

That the nature of the need for development is the subject of divergent views is well demonstrated throughout the literature. For example, various authorities analyze such differences in terms of the historic, religion-based perceptions of the role of man on earth. These contrast the linear progression and perfectability-of-man concepts which have characterized the West with Eastern cultures’ cyclic concept that holds that the individual’s presence on earth is but one phase of the being’s existence, one to be accepted and endured in anticipation of attaining higher realms of perfection in subsequent states. To the extent that such philosophic/religious beliefs influence the individual’s perception of the need for change in his material circumstances, views will differ as to the desirability and necessity for various types of development effort.

Recognition of these differences of objective, combined with disappointments in the efficacy of previous development strategies, has resulted in revised definitions of need. These definitions are more fully developed and are more “human needs oriented” than the monolithic, somewhat simplistic, criterion of increase in GNP which has served in the past.

The immense variety of circumstances that exists in the developing world must necessarily have considerable impact on perceptions of just what comprises development need. Not only are the economic circumstances of widely varying nature, but there are the readily observed differences in climate, topography, culture and social custom, religious traditions, political systems, and economic and colonial history. All of these enter into the determination of development need and character. Consequently, a rather pronounced danger exists in the tendency to generalize on the subject of development, to be too sweeping in pronouncements on the character of it, and a failing to take into account those variations that make “special cases” out of virtually every nation’s circumstances. It is this differentiation that causes much of the difficulty in agreeing as to what constitutes “appropriate technology.” It also helps to explain why the demonstration of the need for development and the definition of development itself prove difficult.

Certainly the most immediate and persuasive argument for development is the evidence of hunger and malnourishment in the developing countries (and in portions of the developed world as well). Not only are the statistics immediately disheartening, but the projections based on future population requirements vis-à-vis rates of increase in agricultural production paint a picture of greater deprivation for the future in the absence of immediate and effective action. It is estimated¹ that in the thirty-five LICs (low income countries—those with GNP per capita values below $250 per annum), 80 percent of the population is below the Food and Agriculture Organization’s minimum food and nutrition standards, and that 25 percent has a serious food deficiency of over 250 calories per day. This situation is somewhat better in the fifty-seven middle income countries (MICs: $250 to about $3,500 GNP per capita), where 66 percent are above the minimum food and nutrition requirement level, and 8 percent are below the minimum daily caloric intake level.

In few areas of human endeavor have developmental results been as dramatic as in the fields of medicine and health care. Nevertheless, the benefits of these advances are today largely limited to those few affluent and fortuitously located persons who have ready access to medical practitioners on an affordable basis. Statistics² show that in the LICs in 1974 there were over 21,000 persons to every physician, whereas in the industrialized countries there was one physician for every 630 persons; the MICs had 2,430 persons per physician. Lack of medical attention, combined with low food and nutritional standards, no doubt contributes to world mortality figures. Although these ratios have improved dramatically in recent years, the life expectancy at birth in the LICs was only forty-four years in 1975, compared to seventy-two and fifty-eight, respectively, in the industrialized and the middle-income countries. These data argue effectively for increases in the numbers of medical personnel and services, and this becomes an important element of the development need of these areas of the world.

Education figures display equivalent discrepancies, with adult literacy rates in the LICs at 23 percent in 1974, versus 99 percent in the industrialized countries and 63 percent in the MICs. Clearly, then, education is another area of critical importance in the assessment of development needs.

One of the effects made possible by technologically enhanced communications is a widespread knowledge of other societies. This knowledge, of course, has many benefits, but perhaps one of its more consequential effects is that it has made people in remote areas of the globe aware of the material progress that is experienced by other societies. Thus, an era of “rising expectations” of unprecedented dimensions has occurred in which the desire for increased material well-being has come to dominate the actions and concepts of large segments of the developing country populations. This may be beneficial to the extent that there is a reasonable prospect for the realization of desirable elements of such aspirations. On the other hand, many social observers have condemned this effect because of the frustrations it has caused, with consequent political impacts.

Perhaps at no previous time has there been as much concern with materialism and the loss and subjugation of spiritual values and traditional social structure, brought on by the advance and availability of modern technology (e.g., Iran’s recent upheaval). This seems true in all the world’s societies and political systems. It was more or less violently demonstrated in the United States during the 1960s and has had a pronounced impact on U.S. laws and regulations relating to the implementation of foreign assistance programs. Therefore, consideration of the need for equitable distribution of the beneficial application of technology, and a specific focus on the improvement of the circumstances of the poorer economic strata of the world’s societies, are now manifest in the development assistance programs of the United States.

Consequently, determination of the need for concerted efforts at development in the world (by whatever definition “development” may be assigned) is based on:

• (1) The gross deficiencies in the material circumstances of mankind.
• (2) Threats of ever greater inequities and deficiencies as a result of burgeoning populations.
• (3) Realization of the finite limits of the earth’s resources and the requirement for rational allocation of these.
• (4) Threats to the habitability of the earth as a consequence of man-initiated activities that degrade the environment.
• (5) Inequitable opportunity for the social and intellectual development of the majority of the world’s population through education, resulting in great waste of human potential and a denial of the fundamental right of each individual to realize his or her ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• LIST OF TABLES
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CONTRIBUTORS
• ABSTRACTS OF CASE HISTORIES
• PART 1 - APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT
• PART 2 - CASE HISTORIES OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
• PART 3 - BIBLIOGRAPHY