Human Development

Human Development and the Capability Approach

The capability approach is a normative evaluative framework championed by Amartya Sen and other scholars. The approach holds that development is an expansion of human freedoms. The capability approach rejects the notion that development is solely an expansion of income and resources or utility. The deficiency in understanding development through resources and income measures is important because not all human beings use the same amount of resources. For example, a pregnant woman may need different resources than a nonpregnant woman. In addition, human beings value resources differently: some people may feel that having a violin is the center of their existence, whereas others may not.

Furthermore, measuring utility as a mental metric such as happiness, pleasure, or desire is also limited. For example, Sen identifies the limitations of utility that can mask other deprivations. A woman from Mali may be extremely happy with her life but still suffer immense deprivation regarding minimal education, food insecurity, racial oppression, and oppression derived from her gender.

According to Sen, human freedom should be understood on two levels. First, freedom as opportunity freedoms, the actual achievement or functionings a person values or has reason to value. Functionings are beings and doings (e.g., being nourished, riding a bike, being educated, or being healthy) a person can achieve. Second, the capability approach defines freedom as process freedoms, focusing on the ability and freedom for a person to achieve functionings that they value or have reason to value. Therefore, capabilities are the many multidimensional substantive freedoms people enjoy. The difference between capabilities and functionings can be seen in the process where a person achieves a state or thing. For example, a person can be undernourished because they subscribe to an extreme diet to lose weight or because they are experiencing a famine in their village. The process of becoming undernourished is fundamental in assessing the person’s freedom and well-being—there is a big difference between being undernourished because one is experiencing famine and being undernourished because one is on a diet.

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