Taking Culture into Account in Development
The essence of development will find its manifestation, its reality and meaning in the extent to which the changing patterns and indicators that we monitor (for example; per capita income, life expectancy, infant mortality, school enrolments and balance of payments) are translated into a real change in the ability of the people to live fuller lives and to have power over their own destinies. As rightly noted by Serageldin (1998), this empowerment includes the power to express themselves to the full richness of their evolving cultural identities….evolving by their own manifest abilities in response to their own wishes and aspirations. The empowerment idea manifests itself at all levels of societal interaction. It is found in giving voice to the disenfranchised; in allowing the weak and the marginalized to have access to the tools and the materials they need to forge their own destinies. In allowing each and every household the possibility of becoming the producers of their own welfare rather than consumers of others’ charity.
