“Capability Approach” to Development and Poverty

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What is Amartya Sen’s
“Capability Approach” to
Development and Poverty
Posted on September 6, 2013
In Amartya Sen’s capability approach development is seen as a process of
expanding the real freedoms of people . The capability to function is what
matters the most and it goes beyond availability of commodities. Poverty is
a situation where people lack the most basic capabilities to lead a good life.
What should be the Focus of Development?
GDP or people’s Well-being
Amartya Sen’s idea of capability theory
can’t be properly understood without
first revisiting the concept of
“development”. Unfortunately, long
ago the agenda of ‘development’ was
hijacked by economists. As a result,
today when people talk of progress or
development they are merely talking of
“economic development” which simply means expansion of the economy in
terms of GDP growth. People play the role of producer of goods and services
and also the end consumers. It is basically a production/consumption
oriented model – produce more and consume more. People are supposed to
be more “developed” if they consume more. Everything is seen in the context
of consumption of goods and resources; it is an input driven ideology.
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While economic expansion is useful
as it adds to the material comfort
people, the human well-being also
depends upon non-material things –
after all people are psychological,
social and political beings.
Therefore, the primary focus of
development should be people as
human beings, not mere expansion
of the economy, measured as GDP
growth. It means shifting from the
narrow resource (input) driven
“economic development” to a
broader well-being (end-result) based “human development”. [Explore:
Development beyond GDP]
Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach offers a much broader perspective of
development where everything revolves around people’s well-being.
Capability Approach: A Comprehensive
Development Paradigm
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In the recent decades Amartya Sen’s Capability theory has emerged as a
serious alternative model of progress and development. Rather than goods
and resources (the inputs), the focus of Sen’s capability approach is people
and their capabilities (the end-results). It also provides an alternative
perspective on issues like poverty, inequality, gender bias, and social
exclusion that are hardly touched by the economic perspective.
Sen’s approach is both comprehensive and flexible. It provides dignity to
human race because the economic model of development has reduced people
to the status of producers and consumers. If the GDP growth model disempowers them, the capabilities approach makes their empowerment a
central issue. Rather than talking of some theoretical equality of people or
seeing them in terms of numbers, the capability approach explicitly
recognizes the differences among individuals. It also accepts that people’s
abilities are affected by external factors coming from interaction with other
people, social arrangements, access to infrastructure and public services,
discriminations, opportunities to participate in social and political activities,
freedom to speak and influence state policies, and so on.
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Historical Roots of Capability Approach
The origin of the idea of functionings and capability can be traced back to
Aristotle in the 4th century BC. In Politics, while discussing the idea of the
“best political arrangement,” Aristotle argued that the aim of political
planning is the distribution of the conditions for a good life to the people in
the city. These conditions are understood by him as producing the
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possibilities of having a “flourishing life. He asserted that a good life is one in
which a person can function not only in the biological sense but also by
exercising choice and reason. Thinkers like Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill
also gave similar ideas of good human life.
Then in the 19th century, Marx and Engels described a commendable human
life as not only one in which the person’s material needs are satisfied, but also
as one in which people are able to use reason. For Marx, the biological needs
of eating, drinking, or procreation, are “genuinely human functions,” but
without freedom of choice and freedom from immediate want, these will be
performed in a merely animal way. Amartya Sen’s reasoning along such lines
crystallized in the concept of the capability approach of development.
The Capability Approach of Development
Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach revolves around people as human being;
it sees development as expansion of people’s capabilities – it is an enabling
(empowering) preposition. It aims to enhance people’s well-being by
expanding their capabilities which is connected to freedom of choices. It
explicitly recognizes presence of diversities and the multidimensional nature
of human well-being. The emphasis is not only on how people actually
function but also on their having the capabilities, which are practical choices,
“to achieve outcomes that they value and have reason to value”. As opposed to
accumulating commodities it construes capabilities in terms of the
substantive freedoms people have. It provides a relatively universal grammar
for understanding the elements of human well-being. The capability approach
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offers a systematic way of thinking and analyzing issues in the light of
people’s capabilities.
In the capabilities paradigm, poverty is understood as deprivation of basic
capabilities. People may get deprived of such capabilities in several ways; for
example, ignorance, oppressive state policies, lack of financial resources, ill
health, lack of proper education, sudden accidents and so on. The scope of
this approach is quite vast; all factors that can potentially affect people’s
capabilities are relevant for consideration. Included in the domain of
capability theory are all possible factors – social and political processes,
gender, inequality, discrimination of all types, social exclusion, disability,
environmental conditions, personal and psychological factors – that can
possibly influence human capabilities, which is the prime measure of human
well-being. In this sense, it is a complete human development model. The
capability approach focuses on two things, freedoms to achieve and the
capabilities to function.
Although Amartya Sen is commonly associated with welfare economics, but
in recent years his theory has been increasingly used for analysis of social
policies in economically advanced nations, for example France.
Functionings and Capabilities
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Sen searched for measure to
adequately represent people’s wellbeing and deprivation and found that
neither income and command over
commodities, nor happiness and
fulfillment of desires constituted good
enough indicator of human well-being
or lack of it. Sen argues that people’s
well-being depends upon what they are
actually capable of doing and being.
Thus, he focused on something more
direct such as human functionings and capabilities in terms of which the
quality of life is analyzed. In other words, a person’s capabilities offer a
perspective in terms of which his advantages and disadvantages can be
reasonably assessed – that makes it highly appropriate for analyzing poverty.
Functionings: Functionings are what people really “do and are”. They are
achievements of people: they are ‘doings’ or ‘beings’. Taken together, these
doings and beings – achieved functionings – give value to life. The
functioings may include being well-nourished, having shelter, able to work,
rest; or being literate or healthy; being part of a community or group; being
respected, and so on.
Achieving a functioning (for example, being adequately nourished) with a
given bundle of commodities (say, bread or rice) depends on a range of
personal and social factors (e.g. age, gender, activity levels, health, access to
medical services, nutritional knowledge and education, climatic conditions,
and so on). A functioning therefore refers to the use a person makes of
whatever is at his/her command.
Capabilities: Capabilities are different combinations of functionings that a
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person can achieve; it also reflects his freedom to choose. So, capabilities
refer to the set of valuable functionings that a person has effective access to.
They are best thought to be the equivalent of a person’s opportunity set. In
nutshell, capabilities are made up of two things: functionings and the
freedom to choose from them.
Difference between Functionings and
Capabilities
The distinction between functionings and capabilities is that between the
realized and the effectively possible, in other words, between achievements,
on the one hand, and freedoms or opportunities, on the other. Capabilities
are a person’s real freedoms or opportunities to achieve functionings. For
example, while travelling is a functioning, the real opportunity to travel is the
corresponding capability.
Functionings refer to what people really ‘do and are’; capabilities denote what
people potentially ‘can do and can be’. The achieved functionings are the
realized achievements and the capabilities are potentially possible.
Functionings are, in a sense, more directly related to living conditions, since
they are different aspects of living conditions. Capabilities are notions of
freedom, in the positive sense: what real opportunities a person has regarding
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the life he can potentially lead. Take away the freedom to choose, the two
things become same.
The difference between functioning and capability can be best clarified with
an example. Consider two persons who are not eating. One is a victim of a
famine in Ethiopia and the other decided to sit on a ‘fast’ in front of the US
embassy in London to protest against its troops in Afghanistan. What
distinguishes the two is the freedom, or availability of option. The first person
is badly constrained in freedom and lacks the capability to achieve the
functioning to be well-fed; the second person has this capability though he
decided not to use it.
Likewise, you are capable of driving a car – ie, you have the ability to drive a
car. It becomes a capability if you have the freedom (having the driving
license, road connectivity, availability of fuel, as well as the motivation) to use
it to do things you value. So, merely having a car or being able to drive it, by
itself, does not add value to your life. You also lose this capability if, say, you
are a female and the State law doesn’t allow females to drive. Now take the
functioning of being educated. In Afghanistan / Pakistan, the Talibans
regularly issue decrees (or threats) to prevent girls from going to schools.
Development is Enhancing People’s Freedom
Sen proposes that people lose
capabilities when they lack freedom.
Having freedom provides the space to
develop capabilities. Therefore, all
development, according to Sen, is
development of human capabilities in
the enabling environment of freedom.
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Sen proposes that expansion of individual freedom is the goal of
development; freedom is also the principal means of development. Therefore,
development also means removing the major sources of constraint (lack of
freedom) such as all forms of discriminations – racial, religious, gender or
community based; unreliable public facilities and poor infrastructure; lack of
economic opportunities; social exclusion and political marginalization; and
policies limiting human rights; and so on. In many societies where there is
ethnic tension, we can also include the fear of violence or terror attacks, as
freedom restricting factors.
Freedom provides the necessary space to make choices to make one’s life
better the way one wanted. It is particularly relevant for the poor for its
enabling and empowering impact.
Capability Approach and Poverty
In the capability perspective, poverty is seen in
terms of a shortfall of ‘basic capabilities’ – a
kind of ‘basic capability failure’. Such failure
involves the inability to achieve certain
minimally adequate levels of crucially important
functionings, such as being nourished and being
sheltered.
In his book, Development as Freedom, Sen has
talked about various types of freedoms
necessary to increase people’s capabilities (or
reducing poverty) and defined development as increasing these freedoms.
The freedom of a person is understood as the ability (or opportunity) to
choose what one values.
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Let’s compare Amartya Sen’s capability approach with resources based
approaches. Sen argues that the resource-centric approaches don’t
distinguish between means and ends. How the available resources are
converted to end use depends upon personal factors as well as on the
conditions in which people live – social and political. For example, a disabled
person needs more resources to do a task, say moving, than a normal person.
Another example is presence of racial bias in the society or extreme
bureaucracy in the system; these things affect different people to different
extents. Impact of such non material factor hardly ever show up in the GDP
model of national development.
Poverty Perspectives: Basic Needs Approach vs Capability Approach
Income Poverty Vs Capability Poverty
The traditional income poverty and
Sen’s capabilities poverty are not
entirely distinct from each other. In
general, increasing income improves
the capabilities of people and vice
versa. Basic essentials like education
and health directly improve the quality
of life and capabilities; they also
improve the ability to earn more.
The issue of unemployment offers an insightful comparison between income
and capability poverty approaches. If unemployment only meant loss of
income, it could be compensated by some form of income support (say,
unemployment allowance), but in reality lack or loss of job has much deeper
impact on a people’s life than mere economic loss. It might include
psychological damage, loss of motivation and self confidence, stress,
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depression, increase in ailments and morbidity, etc. The income poverty
approach is blind towards such “human sufferings” which are clearly picked
up by the capability approach through their adverse impact on the
capabilities.
Conversion of income into capabilities is an important issue, particularly for
the poor. For example, alcoholism is widespread in some poor communities
and if the income earner habitually spends it on drinking he is doing nothing
to improve his or family’s capabilities. Such a person is degrading his own
capabilities and well as of people dependent upon him. A better use would be
to raise the nutrition level of family members (but that needs awareness or
counseling, which the poor rarely have).
Similarly there are other situations where good income does not
automatically ensure better capabilities. For example, in the discriminated
sections of society, say for instance, the lowest caste community in India of
blacks in the US; even good enough income does not automatically ensures
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social or political equality. In such cases, belonging to a discriminated
community becomes a disability (and a cause for reduced freedom and
capabilities).
Gender inequality is another hurdle when the income distribution within
families is considered. In patriarchal societies male members always have the
first right, leaving the females members rather deprived in everything. This
deprivation ultimately shows up in the data for mortality rates, morbidity,
literacy, undernourishment, medical-neglect, etc. In Islamic societies where
men have the exclusive right to divorce wives anytime, women are always at
risk of losing capabilities.
Poverty Reduction involves more than
Economic Growth
The fact that the per capita GDP has no direct correlation with people’s wellbeing is clearly observed in the development status of different states of
India. Kerala is a unique state in India; it has only a moderately developed
economy but has achieved significant poverty reduction. It did so through the
expansion of basic education, healthcare facilities and equitable land
distribution. In comparison, Punjab with much higher per capita GDP also
has higher poverty. Therefore, people’s well-being is not directly related with
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economic growth.
Likewise, though the economic reforms in India have opened up the economy
throwing new opportunities but majority of the population failed to reap the
benefits because the enabling condition of high literacy level, quality basic
education, good healthcare facilities, etc proved simply far too inadequate.
Why There is Poverty in the Rich Countries
A country can be very rich in conventional economic terms (say, per capita
GDP) and yet has large percentage of people with poor quality of human life.
How to account for low well-being of people (poor people) in rich countries?
Human well-being depends upon several things other than wealth or income.
A country obsessed with GDP growth alone may not provide basic
infrastructure of education, healthcare, housing, transport, clean drinking
water, sanitation and so on. Today, it is a proven fact that economic (GDP)
growth inherently favors the rich and hence wealth preferentially
concentrates in few hands, leading to rising inequalities. The poor get
excluded from benefits of economic growth.
A rich country can only eliminate poverty if it frames policies that focus on
increasing poor people’s capabilities, in place of the fetish for GDP growth.
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How Democracy Protects People’s Well-Being
For Sen, democracy is not mere voting and elections. Rather, he sees
democracy as ‘government by discussion’, namely people’s participation and
public reasoning. Analyzing past famines, Sen underlined the importance of
democracy and freedom of the speech, and argues that “no major famine has
ever occurred in a functioning democracy with regular elections, opposition
parties, basic freedom of speech and a relatively free media (even when the
country is very poor)”. The prevalence of famines, which had been a
persistent feature of the long history of the colonial India, ended abruptly
with the establishment of a democracy after independence in 1947. Another
historical example he cites is the massive famine in China during 1958-61
during the failed ‘Great Leap Forward’, which claimed close to 30 million of
lives. There was no mechanism to help the victims.
Applications of the Capability Approach
Many attempts have been made to apply the CA.
For instance, it has been used to investigate
poverty, inequality, well-being, social justice,
gender, social exclusion, health, disability, child
poverty and identity, as well as for designing
policies. It has been related to human needs,
human rights and human security as well as
development in general. It has also been seen as
a theory of social justice – seeking to reduce
social exclusion and inequalities.
There have been numerous attempts to apply the CA to the measurement of
poverty and well-being. The CA is perhaps best known for having inspired the
creation of the Human Development Index (HDI) in 1990 by the United
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Nations Development Program (UNDP) in order to gauge countries’ level of
human development or people’s well-being. The HDI offered an alternate
measure of human progress in terms other than GDP growth and has played a
key role in advancing alternative ideas about development and welfare. The
HDI covers dimensions of material well-being, health, and education.
The multidimensional poverty index (MPI) is another comprehensive tool for
evaluating poverty.
Conclusion
The message is clear.
The well-being of people depends upon many things other than increased
income or resources. All such things get sidelined when the GDP alone is used
as proxy for development. The basic objective of development should be to
create an enabling environment for people to live long, healthy, and creative
lives. This goal is lost when the immediate concern becomes accumulation of
commodities and financial wealth. In reality, they are only means to expand
people’s capabilities and freedom of choices, not ends in themselves.
The capability approach is more fundamental and comprehensive in nature
as it shifts the focus from the means (resources) to the ends (human wellbeing), by putting the people in the center. Anti-poverty programs must not
focus on reduction of income poverty alone. Enhancement of human
capabilities must also go hand in hand with the economic growth for it to be
sustainable.
You may also like to explore for another perspective on the capability theory
here: Amartya Sen’s Capability Perspective of Development and Well-being