Abstract
This paper considers the indices of development and underdevelopment. The focus of this paper is on the global indices of underdevelopment and development options available. It highlights the various theories of development and the flaws associated with such theories. This paper uses the theory of modernization, dependency and alternative development theories to operationalize how development is understood along the development trajectory. The paper also highlights the causes of underdevelopment.
Keywords: Indices, Development, underdevelopment.
Introduction:
Today, the lighthouse of development shows cracks and is starting to crumble. The idea of development stands like a ruin in the intellectual landscape. Delusion and disappointment, failures and crimes have been the steady companions of development and they tell a common story: it did not work. Moreover, the historical conditions which catapulted the idea into prominence have vanished as development has become outdated. But above all, the hopes and desires which made the idea fly, are now exhausted as development has grown (Frank, 2011).
The growing gap between developed and developing countries has dominated international relations and diplomacy for a long time. This gap has led to constant capital influx from the developed countries to those in the Third World including Africa; with the goal of helping them overcome their problems and reduce the gap.
The debate concerning the underdevelopment and development of African continent and other equally poor parts of the world is not a new phenomenon in the development discourse but can be traced back to antiquity. There exist a number of reasons deduced to the present condition which might be termed as development crisis. This is because some of the continents have remained largely underdeveloped regardless of the presence of huge natural resources (gold, cocoa, bauxite, oil, diamond, timber) and human resources based in some countries (Pieterse, 2010).
In the case of Africa, several decades after the end of colonialism, most parts of Africa is still fighting with problems such as high poverty rate, corruption, lack of basic infrastructural facilities in all sectors of the economy, unemployment, high mortality rate, political instability and insecurity of lives and property. The development discourse is made up of a web of key concepts.
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