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Glossary of terms for Development Management
C
Note: Within each definition, terms for which there are definitions elsewhere are highlighted.
Capacity building
A recent (fashionable) development term arising from experiences with
structural adjustment programmes. It relates to the volume and
ability of individuals, organisations and societal institutions to stimulate
and implement developmental tasks. In each case it has to be specified
whose capacities need to be built for what in which way.
See also
Institutional development
Capital
The stock of goods used in production, which have themselves been produced.
Fixed capital refers to durable goods such as buildings, plant and machinery,
circulating capital refers to raw materials and semi-finished goods, components
which are used up rapidly.
Capital intensity
An indicator of the technological level of the economy (or of a branch
of industry, or of a company), expressed as the stock of means of production
per employee. The capital inputs are seen in relation to the number of
employees. Clearly to be differentiated from the measures of economic
feasibility as in capital productivity and the capital-output
ratio.
Capital-output ratio
The ratio
between capital stock (of a company, industry, or economy) over
a period, and increase in output (or gross domestic product) over
that period, is called the capital-output ratio. It indicates how many
units of capital have to be invested on average in order to obtain one
product unit.
Capital productivity
Capital
productivity is a measure of economic feasibility: it tells us about the
efficiency of the utilisation of the stock of means of production. The
gross domestic product (GDP) is seen in relation to the value of
the entire stock of permanent means of production, the capital stock.
Whereas labour
productivity provides information about the technological level of
an economy, capital productivity concerns more the efficiency of the economic
activity at a given technological level. This is determined by the degree
of utilisation of the means of production (utilisation of capacity), the
skill of manpower in handling the means of production, and by the type
of organisation of the work process. It can be just as high in countries
with a low level of technology, owing to the correspondingly small inputs
of funds there, as it is in high-technology economies.
see also Entrepreneurial
capital
Capital stock
The entire stock of the permanent means of production (in a company, industry,
or economy). In terms of economic feasibility the capital stock is equated
with permanent means of production (i.e. which can be used for more than
one year).
Centre-periphery model
In 1957
the development theoretician G. Myrdal fundamentally questioned the validity
of neo-classic economic theory for underdeveloped regions (on a
global as well as a regional scale) and proposed a centre-periphery-model
as an alternative concept. He argued that the integration of underdeveloped
regions into the economic system of highly developed regions via the market
mechanism will lead to an aggravation of development disparities. During
the prevalence of modernisation and growth theories in the 1960s
this theory remained a popular outsider's position without being formulated
as a specific strategy. With the dissemination of dependency theories
during the 1970s and the basic needs concept proclaimed by the
United Nations in the 1970s, did Myrdal's model lead to a paradigm change
in development thinking.
Central places theory
Term developed
in 1933 by a German geographer, Christaller. His theory, which is seen
in the context of modernisation and growth theories, deals with
decisions on the location of public and private institutions. The theory
of central places aims to explain the choice of location by private services;
and for the purpose of government interventions it focuses on decisions
on the optimum location (concerning supply of services to the population
and minimising costs).
Civil society
Civil society, also
called the "third sector" (the market and the state form the other two
sectors) is the force inside a society which is closely connected with
voluntary coalitions and the power to fight for people's rights, democracy
and liberty (people's initiatives, associations, unionism, corporations,
etc.).
The roles of civil
society organisations are: (1) pressure groups, watchdogs, (2) articulation
of needs, proposals, disagreements, (3) dialogue with representatives
of government system and (4) monitoring government action. The roles of
representatives of local government and of civil society can be different,
although both may express wishes of the people.
Civil society forms
of participation may be (1) movements for specific goals, (2) legally
institutionalised, (3) requiring people's own initiative or (4) anti-government
/ anti-state / anti a problem-situation.
Community-based organisation
see Self
help organisation
Conceptual
guidelines
Guidelines given by
a higher authority (e.g. the national level) to a lower one (e.g. local
government) that do not prescribe, but put out a framework within which
the lower authorities can specify their actions. Often named "policy".
For example, the conceptual guidelines on "local economic development"
allow and stimulate local authorities to develop their own measures promoting
income-generating activities in the area of their jurisdiction.
Constraints
Factors which nurture or cause
deficiencies = problems experienced by people. They may be related
to people's resources, to their actions, to the results of their actions.
For example, low agricultural productivity is not a "problem" in itself,
but it can be a "constraint" which leads to the "problem" of malnutrition.
Core problem
see Problem
tree
Cost -benefit
analysis
Cost-benefit analysis is a
tool which addresses the question as to whether a production process is
worthwhile from the point of view of the society as a whole, by looking
at the resulting benefits (total value obtained) in relation to the cost
of an operation (total value which has flowed into production). The criterion
of usefulness is that more value must come out than was put in, and that
so much more must come out that at least the interest (or the interest
on profit lost) can be paid on the capital advanced. In order to adequately
record the usefulness of investments with a long-term benefit effect we
determine cost-benefit ratios not for a certain year but for the entire
duration of use of an investment, basing this on the discounted present
value of future costs and earnings.
Cost benefit analysis is commonly used in the process of project
design and planning, during alternatives analysis.
Costs
The price paid or required
for acquiring, producing or maintaining something, usually measured in
money, time or energy (= expenditure, outlay).
see also Resources
Criteria
Principles or standards by
which things are judged. Used in alternatives analysis to compare
various solutions identified and decide between them. Criteria
are factors always linked to the issue under consideration e.g. feasibility
would be a criteria for deciding on a type of income-generating project.
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