Underdevelopment is at the heart of structural violence. It is not just the absence of development, but is created by the economic system which sucks resources from villages to towns, from town to cities, from countries of the south to the financial capitals of industrial nations. For large financial institutions, their understanding of development is largely based on economics, measuring effective development primarily in terms of increase in Gross National Product (GNP). Policies and projects with minimal consultation and participation with local people in terms of evolving objectives and processes in partnership have disastrous effects on the lives of people. They only encourage large scale borrowing which causes acute dependency.
According to Mark Roseland “achieving sustainable community economic development means emphasizing sustainable employment and economic demand management. It implies shifting our economic development emphasis from the traditional concern with increasing growth to reducing social dependence on economic growth.” The most basic right is the right to life, which does not only mean mere survival but guarantees access to resources that will enable you to enjoy your right to life to its fullest potential. In modern sense food, clothing, housing, education, transport, healthcare, access to water, communication and decision making make up the basic needs for a person to enjoy the right to life. Communities provide this guarantee whereas privatization and enclosures destroy it.
To be rooted in the community is necessary for the well being of the people. Sustainable democracy therefore must seek to relocate the minds, production systems and consumption patterns away from poverty creating global markets. This shift from the global forces must focus from globalism to indigenization of power from corporations to peoples. Non-democratic economic systems and Militarized States centralizes control over decision-making and resources through force to displace people from productive employment and self-reliance in order to create a culture of insecurity and dependency. When a people’s identity is no longer coming from the positive experience of being a farmer, a craftsperson, a teacher, a doctor or as a struggling people, culture is reduced to a negative shell where one’s identity is in competition with the "other" over scarce resources that define economic and political power.
The suppression of rights of a people’s control over its resources and erosion of democratic institutions undermines a people’s political and cultural identity. Hence The rediscovery of ones roots, identity and common humanity existing in a pluralistic system is an imperative. And to this end sustainable development must lead towards shaping and building a stable and democratic society.
