The basic-needs strategy is a response to the shortcomings of one-sidedly growth-oriented development concepts. Instead of focusing on growth or employment, as hitherto, the new development strategy now focuses on elimination of mass poverty in the Third World countries. The basic-needs concept...

The recommendations of international organizations such as the World Bank, ILO, OECD and FAO and comparable demands by critical social scientists evince a growing awareness that basic human needs should be made the point of departure and orientation for analyses, planning and evaluation. They...

Development research (not so much practical development policy-making) has been recently marked by an increased orientation towards the satisfaction of basic needs. This raises the question as to whether indicators exist which could adequately provide for a sufficiently exact operationalisation...