ENHANCING ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT A GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Abstract

Economic growth is an explicit economic, social and certainly political goal in almost every nation. However, comprehensive and independent research and scientific findings provide compelling evidence that the growth of the global economy is not sustainable because it consumes many of the environmental services that underpin the production of goods and services (Tietenberg,1998)). There is a growing realization that economic growth does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with growth in the well-being of people. Standard measures of economic output such as Gross National Product (GNP), in most cases, do not reflect the growing disparity between rich and poor in most nations (UNDP, 1996) or the environmental degradation which diminishes the health of the people, communities, ecosystems and the economy (Daly, 1998).