Development, as regards people and countries is slightly more complicated. Indeed some authors have concluded that a fully satisfactory definition of the term ‘Development’ cannot be provided. Most look at development from an economic perspective as it relates to the Gross Domestic Product of a country. From the late 1990s, the United Nations documents started to emphasize “Human Development” that was measured by “life expectancy, adult literacy, access to all three levels of education as well as people’s average income.”

Other scholars also joined in stating that indeed development cannot and should not be measured as against uni-dimensional aspects of income and GDP of a country. Gunnar Myrdal, a Professor Emeritus of International Economics suggested that the definition of development should mean “the movement upwards of the entire social system”.

He added that the social system would include not only the economic factors, but also all non-economic factors including “…educational and health facilities and levels; the distribution of power in society and more generally economic, social and political stratification.” This multi-dimensional definition of development has generally been accepted as a better definition of development and to this writer it seems the best definition of what development is.

Efforts to create development, under the definition, will necessarily mirror efforts to reduce poverty and, as we shall see later that will mean that poverty also cannot be defined and treated in uni-dimensional terms but rather it must encompass and include a wider array of factors.