Published by The World Bank Institute, Beyond Economic Growth was designed to help readers broaden their knowledge of global issues and gain insight into their country’s situation in a global context.

Created as a student reader, this new publication will serve as a valuable resource tool for both economic and non-economic teachers alike. Through a study of the challenges of global development, readers are encouraged to explore and discuss a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues.

Featured topics appear in classes across the curriculum and include:

    * Economic Development
    * World Population Growth
    * Income Inequality
    * Poverty
    * Education
    * Health and Longevity
    * Urbanization and Urban Air Pollution
    * Public and Private Enterprise
    * Globalization and International Trade
    * Foreign Aid and Foreign Investment
    * The Risk of Global Climate Change
    * Sustainable Development

A glossary of economic terms is included in the Appendix along with all relevant statistical data providing educators the option to introduce data and research interpretation into classes where appropriate. (Froe ncee.net)

How can we compare the levels of development attained by different countries? And what does it take to make development sustainable?

This book offers no simple answers to these complex questions. Instead, the authors encourage readers to seek their own solutions by analyzing and synthesizing information on a range of critical development issues including population growth, economic growth, equity, poverty, education, health, industrialization, urbanization, privatization, trade, climate change, and more.

The book, which draws on data published by the World Bank, is addressed to teachers, students, and all those interested in exploring issues of global development.

This title is a publication of the World Bank Institute -- promoting knowledge and learning for a better world.

Download Beyond Economic Growth: Meeting the Challenges of Global Development

PDF format, 2.2MB, 162Pages.

By Tatyana P. Soubbotina (Author), Katherine A. Sheram (Author)
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK

Introduction:

This book is designed primarily to help readers broaden their knowledge of global issues, gain insight into their country's situation in a global context, and understand the problems of sustainable development- both national and global. Because development is a comprehensive process involving economic as well as social and environmental changes, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach. It attempts to describe and explain the complex relationships among various aspects of development, including population growth, economic growth, improvements in education and health, urbanization, and globalization. Teachers, students, and learners of all ages are invited to explore these relationships even further using the statistical data and theoretical concepts presented in this book.

Difficult Questions, Different Answers

The book starts with three difficult questions: What is development? How can we compare the levels of development achieved by different countries? And what does it take to make development sustainable? The authors do not claim to have all the answers to these and other questions posed directly or indirectly in the book. Instead, students together with their teachers are encouraged to suggest their own answers by analyzing and synthesizing the information presented here. They should engage in open discussions of problems that have no simple solutions, in order to formulate their own opinions and support them with objective data and rational arguments.

Many of the answers inevitably involve value judgments, which makes absolute objectivity impossible. Even the authors have differing views on some of the issues addressed here, but they have based this book on one fundamental idea: development should be a tool for improving the lives of all people. It is up to readers to define for themselves the meaning of a better life and to prioritize the goals of development.

Data and Development

Perhaps, the main strength of this book is that it is based on abundant statistical data for most countries, presented in data tables at the end of the book as well as in figures, maps, and references in the text. Statistics can be powerful tools for learning. They can help paint a more accurate picture of reality, identify issues and problems, and suggest possible explanations and solutions. But statistics have their limitations too. They are more reliable for some countries than for others. And because it takes a long time to collect and verify some statistics, they may be out of date before they are even published. The statistics presented here were the most recent available when this book was written.

It is also important to remember that many aspects of development cannot be accurately measured by statistics. Examples include people's attitudes, feelings, values, ideas, freedoms, and cultural achievements. Thus statistical data can tell us only part of the story of development- but it is an important part.

Comparing statistical data on your country with those on other countries can be extremely revealing for several reasons. First, seeing one's country in a global context and learning how it is different from or similar to other countries can improve understanding of the country's status and of its development prospects and priorities. Second, because the economies of the world are becoming increasingly interdependent, development processes in all countries are becoming more interrelated. The authors hope that this book will help satisfy popular demand for information about national and global development processes and contribute to a better understanding of sustainability issues, from local to international.

A word of caution is warranted here. The authors hope that a better understanding of the complex interrelations among the economic, social, and environmental aspects of development will help readers avoid oversimplified conclusions based on just one or two statistical indicators. Readers would be wise to explore each issue in more detail by finding additional data, questioning their accuracy, and taking into account social processes that might be hard to measure and quantify.

Visit Beyond Economic Growth World Bank Official Web Site

Beyond Economic Growth is available in two online versions:

• Browser version: HTML     
  Contains links to the most recent World Bank data.
  To browse the entire book or a single chapter, choose the corresponding "HTML" link below.
• Print version: PDF     
  Available in color or black and white.
  To down load the entire book or a single chapter for printing, choose the corresponding "PDF Color" or "PDF b/w" link below.

The book is available in three languages:

    * English
    * French
    * Spanish

About This Book:

This book was prepared as part of an international project under the World Bank Institute’s Development Education Program (DEP). The objective was to create a template text about the global issues of sustainable development—social, economic, and environmental— that could then be customized for various countries by teams of local educators and published in their respective national languages. Work on these national adaptations has already begun.

The first national adaptation of this international template was The World and Russia student book, published in Russian, which was officially approved by the Russian Ministry of General and Professional Education for students in the 10th and 11th grades studying economics, social studies, geography, and environmental studies. The authors of the Russian adaptation represent several leading research and educational institutions in Moscow.

Those of you who might be interested in seeing how the adaptation was performed but cannot read Russian will find its English translation on the Development Education Program’s Web site at www.worldbank.org/ depweb. You will see that the portions of the text adapted for Russia are highlighted. The Russian language text of The World and Russia can be found on the Web site of its Russian publisher, the St. Petersburg Institute, School of Economics, at www.ise.spb.ru.

The Latvian adaptation, The World and Latvia, is currently being prepared by a local team led by two professors at the University of Latvia. The English translation of this second adaptation will also appear on the DEP Web site with the Latvia-specific portions of the text highlighted.

We hope that the Russian and Latvian examples will inspire educators from other countries to use this international template to develop customized student materials that meet the needs of their national curricula. Alternatively, students and other readers interested in development issues could use this international template without adaptation as a source of relatively current statistical data and widely accepted concepts for purposes of research and classroom discussions.

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