How does the average African understand the meaning of 'Human Development'?

'Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live.'

Historically, development was mostly perceived in terms of economic performance. We have too long been preoccupied with material production and there has been a search for a good measure of it. Surely, per capita income has been proved to be a good candidate and has dominated the scene ever since. One can ask - why per capita income? First it is an attractive single indicator for assessing economic performance. Second, it is also useful to for dividing the world into groups as in rich and poor, developed and developing, which may be a good criteria for allocating official development assistance at international level. We have seen how good reliable and solid data on national income accounts were available to calculate per capita income at a point of time and over time.

Nowadays, development is not about economic performance alone, but most importantly about people and their well-being. I guess some will ask why should we shift from economic performance to people and what is the rationale? The reality is because people are the ultimate objective of development. Economic growth is not an end by itself, it is a means to enhancing people’s lives. The benefits of growth must be translated into lives of people.

Contrary to the above, in Zimbabwe some seem not to fully grasp the concept of human development, certain section of our society associate it with economic empowerment [making money], academic excellence [having high level academic qualification]..but does having more money or high academic qualifications automatically translate to human development or are they just some of the components that can help human growth and development?

Today we have some sections of our society advocating for monarchs and within that monarch system a totem structured hierarchy that discriminates other tribes/totem names based on some concorted historical relevance. How can a monarch system recognise individual excellence and achievement if it's only limited to a particular family line based on some ancient selection criteria? Wait a minute I thought according to some historical accounts there were wars that disposed some of these monarch systems in the past where they would be replaced by the victor, so then why should any so called royal selection process be limited to a specific totem name and not consider individual qualities? Sadly we still have some sections of our population who seem to be treating politicians like monarchs and demi-gods and also advocating for some kind of a similar dynastical system.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no problems with individuals aspiring for political office with historically links with individuals who were prominent figures in society, however these aspiring candidates/leaders need to first demonstrate they have what it takes to be considered for those leadership roles based on a very authentic, transparent nomination and election process that also highlights their career track record and positive contributions in terms of their work with communities.

Why should we leap backwards when the rest of the word is leaping forwards? Our media is now more about personalities than productive and progressive socio-econmic and political issues capable of developing our societies, those who aspire for leadership seem more interested in positions and power rather than servitude and justice.

I believe that anyone committed to social justice and equal rights must concern themselves with the importance of encouraging equal opportunity as a way of helping to ensure that all individuals in our society have an equal opportunity to succeed. Some of our current crop of leaders have constantly failed to acknowledge that their socio-economic and political empowerment policies have so far been based on a partisan basis in addition to racial prejudice and discrimination of minorities based on spoken language,

For the past thirty four years, using race along with other highlighted factors has marginalised the educational experience on our nation’s Educational Insititutions and lessened equal opportunity for people from minority backgrounds in many aspect affecting human development.
If we are to innovate and develop human ability, knowledge and skill beyond current levels we should not forget the fact that first and foremost we are all 'Human Beings' before placing all other lables on ourselves.