Indicators of development: The search for a basic needs yardstick

The measurement of development efforts in developing countries has generally focused on the growth of GNP per head and related concepts. Increasingly, development economists have become aware that growth of output or income by themselves are not adequate indicators of development, and that the reduction of poverty and the satisfaction of basic human needs are goals that should show up in a measure of development. There has been growing interest in designing better measures of development, including modifications of GNP, social indicators and associated systems of social accounts, and composite indices of development. A review of these approaches and concepts points to the conclusion that the use of social and human indicators is the most promising supplement to GNP, particularly if work on social indicators is done in areas central to the basic needs approach.