World Development, Vol. 12, No. 9, pp. 973-978, 1984. 0305-750X/84 $3.00 + 0.

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Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd.

Basic Needs: Some Unsettled Questions

PAUL STREETEN
Boston University, Boston, Mass.
Summary. - Though the large basic needs literature has clarified some issues related to anti-
poverty strategies, it has also raised others. This paper identifies some of these unsettled
questions: (1) who is to determine basic needs? (2) do basic needs refer to the conditions for
a full, long and healthy life or to a specific bundle of goods and services that are deemed to
provide opportunity for these conditions? (3) what is the purpose of participation? what form
should it take? how does a right to participate (if it exists) relate to the political/administrative
structures necessary for efficient implementation of basic needs approach? (4) what is the
relationship between the redistribution approach to development and the basic needs approach?
does the basic needs approach require fundamental systemic change, or is it a palliative?
(5) what is the relation between meeting basic needs as an end in itself and as an instrument
for develouina human resources? (6) in what manner should international suuuort for basic
needs appioaches be mobilized? (7j what is the relation between poverty &adication and
reducing income inequalities?

The large basic needs literature of the last physical efficiency were it not that some
10 years has clarified some issues in anti- portion of it is absorbed by other expenditure,
poverty strategies and has shunted the policy either useful or wastefulsuch as drink, gambling
formulation from more abstract, aggregative and inefficient housekeeping. Secondary
to more concrete measures for specified vulner- poverty prevented many more people from
able groups. It has also drawn attention to the meeting what he called a human needs standard
need to redraw the line between consumption than did primary poverty (that is, inadequate
and investment. But, as so often happens in incomes). At the same time, secondary poverty
the clarification of one set of issues, it has also is partly the result of being poor. Similarly,
raised new problems. Any reassessment has to evidence from Brazil shows that malnutrition
begin by identifying some of the unsettled is widespread in spite of incomes that are
questions in the basic needs approach. adequate to buy the essential food. There is
Perhaps the first question a sceptical reader also evidence, however, that some very poor
of the basic needs literature might ask is: who people often get good value from their expendi-
is to determine the basic needs? Is it the people ture. It might well be that the deviations arise
themselves, who may prefer circuses to bread, as people become better off and, emerging
television to education, or soft drinks, beer from subsistence agriculture, become subject
and cigarettes to clean water and carrots? to the pressures of advertisers, the demonstra-
Would it not be very arrogant to lay down tion effect, and the desire to emulate those
what people should regard as basic? richer than themselves.
There is conflicting evidence on the con- It is difficult to envisage any society in
nection between the choices actually made by which some basic needs such as nutrition,
the poor and basic needs as determined by education, health, shelter, and water and
nutritionists and doctors. From Seebohm sanitation would not be contained in the
Rowntrees study of poverty in York at the definition of basic needs, even if all five sectors
turn of the century to a World Bank report on did not everywhere require improvement.
human resources in Brazil, it is clear that But these five core basic needs may not coincide
many people, in spite of adequate incomes to with the list of basic needs expressed by the
buy the products that would keep them well people. They would probably give high priority
nourished and healthy, do in fact spend their to personal safety, which would lead to a
money on other things and therefore suffer. demand for more police protection, more
Rowntree referred to secondary poverty, secure prisons, and so on. The IL0 considers
a condition in which earnings would be employment a basic need; Sidney Webb included
sufficient for the maintenance of merely leisure. High on the list, as China recognized

973
914 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

in the six guarantees, is a decent funeral, for socio-political interpretation sometimes verges
which working-class people in England and on the notion that the satisfaction of basic
elsewhere are prepared to pay large insurance needs is a human right: freedom from want
premiums. Other needs that would be given is like the right not to be tortured. Since it can
priority are various forms of patent medicines be shown that human rights and basic needs
and barbiturates, television, ownership of land can be in conflict, this more general formula-
for peasants, a grand wedding, national glory tion comes near the view that all good things
and sexual gratification. go together. In its narrower formulation
Basic needs may be interpreted in several non-material needs are seen as ends, separate
different ways. They may be interpreted from the material means for the satisfaction
objectively in terms of minimum specified of what are sometimes called material needs.
quantities of such things as food, clothing, As soon as the question of who determines
shelter, water and sanitation that are necessary basic needs is raised, another ambiguity in the
to prevent ill-health, undernourishment, etc. literature becomes apparent. Do basic needs
This narrow, physiological interpretation has refer to the conditions for a full, long and
the strongest moral appeal, but it leaves open healthy life, or to a specified bundle of goods
many questions, such as the precise relation and services that are deemed to provide the
between food intake and adequate nutrition, opportunity for these conditions? The fact
and the most effective way of providing the is that very little is known about the causal
resources to satisfy needs. links between the provision of specific items,
Basic needs may be interpreted subjectively the capacity to meet certain needs,3 and the
as the satisfaction of consumers wants as achievement of a full life. Planning ministries,
perceived by the consumers themselves, rather donor agencies and some intellectuals tend to
than by physiologists, doctors and other prefer the technocratic approach, in which the
specialists. This interpretation leads to the bundle is specified, costed and delivered. But
conclusion that people should be given oppor- this approach is not only incompatible with
tunities to earn the incomes necessary to respect for human autonomy, but also in-
purchase the basic goods and services. It is the effective or very costly.
most natural approach for neoclassical eco- The foregoing discussion raises the problem
nomists, who assume that consumers are better of participation, a concept often used as
judges of their basic needs than experts, but a slogan, without careful consideration of
it leaves open the demarcation of the domain precisely what is meant. First, there is the
of the public sector - and of policy inter- question of the purpose of participation: is it
ventions. But whatever the process by which personal satisfaction, work enrichment, greater
individual needs are expressed, whether through efficiency to improve results or lower costs,
the market or the vote, the freedom to define community development, or the promotion of
ones needs is itself a basic need. solidarity? Is it an end or a means, and if
Those who reject the assumption that a means, to what ends? What if there are con-
consumers are rational (that is, that they have flicts between these objectives? Can participa-
full access to information, are able and ready tion deal effectively with strategic decisions,
to act on it, and are not subject to pressures, or even with tactical managerial ones?
enticements, cajolery, irrational fears, and so Second, what form should participation
on) arrive at a more interventionist interpreta- take? At a factory, it might take the form of
tion. According to this view, public authorities co-determination of policy, work councils,
not only decide the design of public services shop-floor participation, financial participation,
such as water supply, sanitation and education, cooperatives, or collective bargaining. It could
but also guide private consumption in the even be argued that certain kinds of non-
light of public considerations (for example, anonymous markets are a form of participation.4
through counterpressures to advertisers or In basic needs projects there are similarly
food subsidies). Those hostile to this interpreta- many forms, and it would have to be spelled
tion call it paternalistic: those sympathetic to it out which is appropriate for which objective.
call it discriminating or selective or educational. Participation would have to be fitted into the
A fourth interpretation emphasizes the apparatus of development administration, with
non-economic, non-material aspects of human decentralized decision-making supported by
autonomy and embraces individual and group decisions at intermediate and central levels.
participation in the formulation and imple- What central support is needed to give effect
mentation of projects, and in some cases to participation? Is there a case for central
political mobilization. This widely ranging action to counteract local self-determination,
 BASIC NEEDS: SOME UNSETTLED QUESTIONS 915

if it works against the interests of the poor ruling elites? English reforms, admittedly very
because powerful members of the local com- slow, happened not through participation but
munity have taken over? If we are concerned because Tory landlords promoted factory
with meeting the basic needs of the blacks in reform (the urban industrialist saying it would
Mississippi would we delegate more power to ruin British industry), while the urban indus-
the state government or keep firm central trialists moved for a repeal of the Corn Laws
control? The barefoot doctors in China were to make food, and therefore wages, cheap
selected from among the villagers but would (the rural landlords saying it would ruin British
have been no good had they not been centrally agriculture). The reform laws and the growth
trained. of trade unions were helped by these measures,
Third, what is the relation between partici- but they came later.
pation and democratic institutions? The cor- In the light of these questions, it is prefer-
porate state under various forms of fascism able to spell out the administrative structure
encouraged the participation of organized necessary for an efficient implementation of
groups of employers, workers and farmers, a basic needs approach: who should take what
and it is said that Tito and other socialist decisions, at what level, in what sequence?
dictators got the idea of self-managed enter- The call for participation is too vague.
prises from Mussolini. China has practised Another area of doubt concerns the pos-
mass participation on a grand scale. Participa- sibility that at least one of the objections
tion can be used to bypass elected members raised to the growth approach may also apply
of parliament and can be highly undemocratic. to the basic needs approach. It may be agreed
Devolution of important decisions to local that the effects of growth do not trickle down,
bodies may, as we have seen, mean handing or do so only slowly or unreliably, and that it
power to members of the local power elite is not necessary to keep the consumption of
who grind the faces of the poor. Central the poor down for a long time to accumulate
decision-making often provides safeguards for enough capital to meet the needs of the poor.
the interests of the poor. But if governments show resistance to redistri-
Fourth, the representatives of organized buting the fruits of growth widely, are they
groups are normally more ambitious, more not likely to resist meeting basic needs? Of
vocal, more capable, better educated, and course, removing absolute poverty is different
often better-off than the people they represent. from reducing inequality, and meeting the basic
Such highly unrepresentative leaders may lack needs of the poor - feeding the hungry, cloth-
the ability to identify local needs and aspira- ing the naked, and succouring the sick - has
tions, and it is not at all clear that they should a much stronger appeal than do egalitarian
be the ones to formulate the priority and policies. Basic needs policies need not hurt
content of basic needs. Nor is it clear how to the interests of the rich in the way that redistri-
avoid the twin dangers of elitist dictation or bution does and may even aid them, such as
consciousness-raising from above and the non- health measures that eradicate infectious
articulation of basic needs from below. diseases. And it is easier to implement such
Fifth, when do people have a right to policies at an early stage of development than
participate in decisions that importantly affect later, when concentrated growth has created
their lives? If four men propose marriage to powerful interests. But it might be objected
a woman, her decision about whom, if any that, in spite of these considerations, a radical
of them, to marry importantly affects each of implementation of a basic needs approach is
the lives of these four persons, her own life, liable to run in some areas into the same
and the lives of any other persons wishing to obstacles and inhibitions as policies of redistri-
marry one of these four men, and so on.5 bution do.
Yet, no one would propose that all these This raises the question whether a basic
people should vote to decide whom she should needs approach calls for a radical or even
marry. Certain rights set limits to participation, a revolutionary strategy, or whether it is
however important the decision may be for merely a palliative. Those who believe the
those excluded. latter say that it attacks symptoms rather than
If the objective of participation is (partly) causes. It can be argued that palliatives may
to mobilize support for certain policies, are be the best that can be achieved and that the
there prospects of reformist alliances and alternative is not more radical reform but doing
progressive coalitions among the powerful nothing at all for the poor. Some might even
groups, so that the poor can benefit from some say that many palliatives, if gained through
common interests with some section of the participation, prepare the ground for more
976 WORLDDEVELOPMENT

radical reforms, rather like termites in the Another unsettled issue is the relation
woodwork eventually undermine it and make between meeting basic needs as an end in
necessary a completely new structure. itself and as an instrument for developing
There are two objections to this line of human resources. The argument of this paper
argument. First, unless the palliative can be is that human development is, above all, good
sustained, it may undermine the possibility of in itself, and providing the opportunities for
continuing the relief and may prepare the it needs no further justification. If the con-
ground for worse problems later. Second, the sumption of radios, bicycles, television and
policies to implement palliatives may preclude beer is accepted as desirable, there is no reason
other changes that would have eradicated not to accept better health and education as
poverty more efficiently and more lastingly. at least equally desirable. Not only is the
Improvements that are unambiguous by the development of human resources desirable in
criteria of welfare economics may bar more itself, but it also raises productivitys and
radical improvements in income distribution and lowers reproductivity. A vigorous, healthy
factor allocation, which would have been better and skilled labour force is a more productive
still. It is not at all clear whether the basic needs labour force; and educated and healthy
approach mobilizes the power of the poor to families tend to have fewer children. The
improve radically their situation or whether it consumption aspects and the investment
reinforces the existing oppressive order. aspects of human resource development thus
Karl Marx said, Philosophers have inter- reinforce each other. It was this agreeable
preted the world, in various ways; the point, convergence of what is good in itself and
however, is to change it.6 Albert Hirschman what contributes to greater production that
has discussed the relation between the advance appealed to many early academic advocates
in our understanding of a problem and in our and policy-makers in the basic needs area.
motivation to tackle it. In tackling basic needs No longer was it necessary to sacrifice con-
the question is whether our desire to change sumption for the sake of capital accumulation
the world has not run ahead of our correct and growth: consumption itself can be pro-
interpretation and understanding. The lag ductive, and many disagreeable conflicts
of understanding behind motivation is likely seemed to disappear.
to make for a high incidence of mistakes and Human development, say in the form of
failures in problem-solving activities and hence education, is partly current consumption,
for a far more frustrating path to develop- because many enjoy the process. It also uses
ment than the one in which understanding up resources (and is therefore a nondurable
races ahead of motivation.7 producer good) in the process of producing
Critics of the basic needs approach might a durable investment good and a durable
think that basic needs as an objective is non- consumption good. The subsequent state of
controversial, and that the approaches, policies being educated has the characteristics of
or strategies implied by the term are not a durable investment good and a durable
different from those of growth with equity, consumption good. In the former capacity it
or growth with poverty alleviation, or redistri- raises the productivity and the earnings of the
bution with growth. Indeed, many of the person in employment and self-employment.
architects of the success stories would be As a durable consumption good, it does not
surprised if they were told that they had necessarily raise earnings; it may make people
pursued a basic needs approach. Other critics content with lower earnings, through con-
of basic needs strategies might say that even templation, reading, conviviality, listening to
in the most affluent countries the basic needs music, looking at paintings, etc. As an invest-
of many are not met, and that we do not know ment good, it also raises the returns from
how to attack and eradicate poverty. non-market activities, such as those of educated
It might also be said that the obstacle is not housewives, mothers, work by men and women
a lack of understanding but a lack of motiva- for themselves and their families, and do-it-
tion on the part of those in power. Is it stupidity yourself activities.
or cupidity, ignorance or lack of political Why, then, are the human resource de-
will (or, better, lack of a political base) that velopers who emphasize productivity, and the
prevents the eradication of poverty? Count humanitarians who emphasize the intrinsic
Oxenstiema wrote to his son quantilla prudentia value of human development, not in alliance
regitur mundus: with how little wisdom instead of at loggerheads, as they so often
the world is governed. Others do not ascribe are? If education, for example, is shown to be
our troubles to foolishness but to knavery. productive, as well as good in its own right,
 BASIC NEEDS: SOME UNSETTLED QUESTIONS 977

should the educators not embrace the econo- of education desired by humanitarian educators
mists and regard their arguments as strengthen- is precisely the same as that desired by the
ing the case for spending more on education? proponents of economic growth.
The same goes for health, nutrition and other Third, there may be differences in the time
forms of social expenditure. horizon. The proportion of resources devoted
Unfortunately, a harmony of interests to primary, secondary and tertiary education,
between human resource developers and and the choice of educating children, youths
humanitarians cannot be established so easily. or adults, are partly dictated by technical
Choices have to be made, and these choices relations. There is a need to train teachers and
are liable to depend on whether humanitarian- administrators even if the principal emphasis
ism or productivity is the overriding concern. is on primary education, and there is a need to
Conflicts may arise with respect to the bene- educate parents if high drop-out rates from
ficiaries, the content and the constituencies primary schools are to be avoided. But the
of the two approaches. choice is also partly determined by a different
First, some human beings are not and never time horizon: whether the primary goal is to
will be members of the labour force: the old, improve the existing labour force or, through
the disabled, the permanently sick. Are these investment in children, the labour force of
unemployables to be beneficiaries of a basic the future.
needs approach? It has been argued that Fourth, the treatment of human investment
resources devoted to this group also have in a particular group will differ according to
a positive effect on production, and a negative whether the emphasis is on the development
effect on reproduction. If an important motive of autonomous human beings or on their
for having children is to provide for old age contribution to increased production. In the
or infirmity, a social commitment to look education of women, conflicts will tend to
after the old and infirm will remove this motive arise between those who stress womens freedom
and reduce the desired size of family. Aside of choice - their need for more earning oppor-
from such possible overlaps, however, there tunities and equality with men in pay and
is here a clear conflict between those who access to jobs - and those who emphasize
emphasize exclusively productivity and those better services in the home and family, such
who emphasize humanity. as improved nutrition and hygiene for children.
Conflicts between the appropriate target The implications for breastfeeding, for example,
groups may also arise among the productive are quite different in the two approaches.
from the fact that it is much easier to make The pleas of the womens liberation movement
the relatively better off small farmers more are in conflict with the pleas of those who call
productive than the poorer landless labourers. for an improvement in the specifically feminine
The productivity approach will tend to con- roles of wife and mother.
centrate on channelling resources to raise the Fifth, though the meeting of consumption
productivity of small farmers, while the human- needs may increase output, the nexus may be
itarian approach will aim at improving the lot vague and qualitative, and not subject to the
of landless labourers. measuring rod wielded by the human capital
Second, choices must be made about the school. Those who believe that only what can
content of the investment in human capital. be counted counts, will dismiss the humanitar-
Should education be general, so as to give ian approach for this reason.
access to the store of human civilization, or Sixth, the political constituencies are likely
should it be technical, so as to improve working to be different for the human capital approach
skills? Should it be liberal or scientific, pure from those for the humanitarian approach.
or applied? Should it be formal or informal, World Bankers, economic cost-benefit analysts,
in institutions or on the job? These various and similar groups, will be impressed by the
forms are likely to be different in their intrinsic productivity implications, and, were they
desirability and their consequences for produc- shown to be small or negative or unmeasure-
tion. Even the most narrowly productivity- able, would turn away from supporting such
oriented human developer will have to admit projects. The churches, some voluntary agencies
that education should not be identified solely and a good part of public opinion will be
with schooling, and health not solely with impressed by the human argument for meeting
medical services (expenditure on health services needs and may be alienated by the banausic
more often measures the health of the health arguments of the productivity school.
services than the health of the people). It It must therefore be concluded that a
would be a strange fluke, however, if the type pure basic needs approach may conflict with
978 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

a productivity and growth approach, although national self-interest are adopted from what
the two approaches overlap in some areas. their shape would be if basic needs were written
Also open to criticism are the methods on the banner. It is sometimes argued that the
employed to show that investment in human world-wide promotion of food and agriculture,
capital has favourable effects on economic like that of energy, is in the interest of the
growth. Econometric exercises establishing North. But the measures needed to feed the
correlations between social and human indi- hungry, and to eradicate malnutrition, are
cators, such as life expectancy, literacy and not in the self-interest of the Northern coun-
infant mortality on the one hand, and growth tries. There is something in the nature of a
rates on the other, give no clue to the causal public good in meeting the basic needs of the
relations. Good nutritional levels are related deprived. But the basis is moral, not national
to higher incomes and higher incomes to self-interest.
higher growth rates of GNP, but it would be Finally, an unsettled question is the relation
misleading to conclude that better nutrition between poverty eradication and reducing
therefore makes for faster economic growth. income inequalities. Logically, as long as we
Microstudies of the impact of investment in do not define poverty entirely in relative
humans on their productivity are inconclusive terms, the two are quite distinct. It is possible
because success for one group may be at the to eradicate poverty rapidly while the rich get
expense of other groups outside the map of richer even faster; and it is possible to reduce
the study. Thus, raising the money incomes inequality, while the poor are getting worse
of some members of the poorest 30% may off. (Perhaps this had not been considered
push up the price of food and further im- until the current depression because growth
poverish the remainder. Yet, the combination was assumed as normal.) Yet, in actual fact,
of econometric studies and microstudies can countries that have rapidly reduced inequality
make a persuasive case for human development have also performed well in reducing poverty,
as an influence on productivity and growth. and countries that have grown rapidly while
The microstudies might throw light on the inequality has increased have left poverty
causal relationship, and the macrostudies on the largely untouched. South Korea, Taiwan,
wider repercussions of the microstudies. Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, the Peoples
Another unsettled question is the manner in Republic of China, Israel, fall into the former
which international support for basic needs group; Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia into the
approaches should be mobilized. It is now latter. A possible exception is Kuwait, where
fashionable to stress common or mutual poverty (of Kuwait citizens, not of the large
interests as the basis for policies for inter- group of immigrant workers) has been reduced,
national cooperation. Yet a set of policies while inequalities have increased. But the large
based on national self-interest of Northern oil wealth suggests that this is the exception.
countries is likely to meet basic needs only by The association between poverty reduction and
a fluke of coincidence. The type of political reduction of inequality in the context of
support mobilized, the policies adopted, growth is thus an empirical one that calls for
the countries and sections of the population an explanation, which is not as obvious as it
benefiting, are all different if policies of may seem.

NOTES
1. 8. Seebohm Rowntree, Poverty: A Study of Town market society, Journal of Economic Literature,
Life (London: Macmillan, 1901); and Peter T. Knight Vol. XX, No. 4 (December 1982).
et al., Brazil: Human Resources Special R.eport
(Washington D.C.: World Bank, 1979). 5. Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (New
York: Basic Books, 1974), p. 269.
2. See Robert Packenham, Liberal America and the
Third World (Princeton: 1973), pp. 123-129; and 6. Theses on Feuerbach, in Karl Marx and Fredrick
Paul Streeten and Associates, First Things First Engels, Selected Works (Moscow: Foreign Languages
(Oxford University Press, 1981), Appendix. Publishing House, 1958), p. 405.

3. About the relation between capabilities and basic 7. Albert 0. Hirschman, Journeys Toward Progress
needs, see A. K. Sen, Goods and People, Plenary (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1963), pp.
Session paper to the 7th World Congress of the Inter- 231-238.
national Economics Association (Madrid: 1983).
8. It also prolongs productive lives, though this can be
4. See the discussion of the doux commerce thesis of doubtful productive value if the opportunities for
in Albert 0. Hirschman, Rival interpretations of productive employment are limited.