Future of economic development: Countries cannot possibly be poor

Competitive Futures is currently partnering with a wonderful organization that deserves your support, Haiti Futur, a group that is working tirelessly on the revitalization of Haiti from a foresight point-of-view. Since the country has essentially been leveled, there is a magnificent opportunity to build a new, future-focused infrastructure using the broadest vision and most modern techniques for sustainability. Its chief mission is revitalizing the intellectual capital of the country through education, a great place to start when you think of building a foundation for a brighter future.

Talking with the group’s director, Josette Bruffaerts-Thomas, some fascinating points about economic development, and its future, arise. For example, Mme Bruffaerts dismantles the phrase “poor country.” To hear her tell it, economic development is not about increasing riches, but reducing suffering. This makes sense as soon as she brings out examples – Nigeria is a hundred times richer than Denmark or the Netherlands in any material sense. There are more natural riches of all kinds, but most everyone would say that between education, illness, and joblessness, Nigerians suffer more on average than the Dutch. But this is not to say that Nigeria is poor – just that its people are suffering, and that policies can be undertaken to improve things. To say that a country is poor is to subconsciously condemn it to one definition of economic wealth.

When you think about it, this is a completely different frame for economic development, which is usually focused on bringing in industries or creating tax base. In this frame, the central focus of all activity is improving social and intellectual capital, which may indeed be aided by the invitation of foreign direct investment, the establishment of new industries, or the building of new infrastructure such as bridges and hospitals. Yet the true measurement remains the well-being of the people.

When you consider how the numerically-based monetary system may soon be collapsing under its too-numerous contradictions, this frame of reference for economic development may be useful to us all.