Author Description

The book traces the evolution of Mahbub ul Haq's thinking on development, and highlights its impact on global, regional, and national policy debates. It situates the origins and significance of Haq's development philosophy focusing on social justice. The introduction to the volume explains Haq's reasons for moving away from 'growth-only' philosophy to 'growth-with-distribution'. The four parts of the book show Haq's contributions to the larger international development debate from the 1960s to the 1990s, including on issues ranging from global governance, sustainable development, trade and debt, to food security, gender equality, and nuclear disarmament. Each part is introduced to place Haq's work in the context of that period, explain its significance in shaping development theory, policy, and practice, and highlight its ongoing influence and relevance to today's issues and debates. The book analyses Mahbub ul Haq's ultimate goal of making people the centre of all development policies, programmes and actions.