The Rise and Fall of the Basic Needs Approach

Abstract

Basic needs is both an analytical concept and a strategy of aid and development. It appeared in the early 1970s, reached its apogee with its acceptance in 1976 by the World Employment Conference and in 1977 by the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, and entered the rhetoric of most aid and development agencies. Yet its adoption by administrators was tentative, and its implementation was slow and uneven. In the late 1970s attention shifted away from basic needs to building the New International Economic Order. By 1980 basic needs as a slogan was absorbed, as a concept it was dismembered and interpreted selectively, and as a strategy it was disarmed. This essay reviews and tries to account for this rise and fall, then speculates about fashion cycles in aid and development concepts.