Abstract

The international development community has evolved and increasingly become sophisticated in its methodology and agendas. However, frequent changes in the international development approach reflect more of failures than successes of its endeavours. The vast majority of developing countries still have not achieved the kind of transformative development that they aspired to at the time of their independence. For instance, the income gap between Africa and the rest of the world is projected to widen even further into the future. The economic challenges facing the developing world is largely due to the issue of management and implementation of everyday tasks rather than the lack of resources or policies. The mainstream international community has placed heavy emphasis on institutions and policies as if these are the panacea for development but they need to be worked on by humans to function properly. Something critical seems to have been missing in the development endeavour and this calls for sobering reflection. The most important missing puzzle is deemed to be the holistic human development comprising the four key areas: (i) formal and specialized education, science and technology training; (ii) work ethics and mindset-change education; (iii) management and leadership training; (iv) community and civic-mindedness education. The Korean development model embodies the fundamental principles of development, and the ‘holistic human development’ was a crucial factor behind Korea’s success in achieving compressed economic and social development. Based on such experience and know-how, Korea should actively engage in partnerships.

Key Words: Holistic human development, Human capital, Social capital, Participatory development, Economic discrimination, Development mindedness, Empowerment of people, Having culture and doing culture