Human Development in a Multi-ethnic Society

From the mid-1980s onwards it became increasingly clear that, as well as maintaining macroeconomic stability and growth, government needed to address the critical problems of poverty and social exclusion. Traditional forms of social policy delivery had failed to provide the means by which the majority of the population could improve its condition. From 1993 onwards, a new approach was developed, based on the concept of human development. This approach, involving social participation, depended greatly on newly-established municipalities for its implementation. Although the results are still incipient, in many ways they are encouraging. Human development is understood to mean the development of individual capacities through greater equality in access to opportunity, both through education and other forms of social provision. As such, it is intimately linked to the idea of democratic viability. Democratic viability presupposes effective democratic participation in decision-making with a view to increasing the legitimacy of government in the eyes of the people. Participation demands that people have a voice in government or, in other words, they have the ability to become citizens. In the first instance, this means that their basic needs can be satisfied and that they are able to make informed choices about different options and likely consequences.1