John McHale

Meeting Basic Human Needs

A new direction for more integrative development has emerged in which human needs are the centerpiece, and in which meeting the basic needs of the worlds poorest is seen as the most urgent challenge. This is viewed not only as a strategy for helping the poor in the poorer nations to meet their own needs, but as part of a larger pattern of interdependent global development through which all nations may seek more diversified and sustainable directions for growth. The constituency of concern within which these directions are being formulated extends beyond conventional governmental groups to include new sets of participants in the larger development dialogue.

Science, Technology, and Change

Science and technology are major change agen cies now operating on a global scale. The narrowing interval between scientific discovery, technological implementation, and social use has increased the general rate of change. Our moni toring and accounting procedures for the differential rates of such changes in various sectors of society, and for their short- and long-term consequences, are presently inadequate. The available indicators in these areas tend to be quantitative rather than qualitative. To provide more positive measures of social progress, and earlier warning of the social and en vironmental effects of new scientific-technical developments, we need to redesign our present indicator procedures. Such extended and qualitative indicators will further require inte gration, and interpretation, within a comprehensive system of social accounting.