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Revisiting the MDG’s: Exploring a Multidimensional Framework for Human
Development
sufficient internal consistency to shape and dictate the
direction of its targets for accomplishing the set objectives.
To Robeyns (2005), “capability approach is a broad
normative framework for the evaluation and assessment of
individual well-being and social arrangements, the design of
policies, and proposals about social change in society” (p.
94). It visualizes well being in terms of broadening the space
of ‘functioning’ and ‘capabilities’, to achieve greater
‘freedoms’. Functionings are the various states of being or
doing relevant to the assessment of a person’s wellbeing (Sen
1985). Capabilities are the various combinations of these
functionings which a person achieves/commands. The
various commodity bundles that a person commands are
termed entitlements which help people acquire capabilities
(Nafziger 2006). Wiebke Kuklys (2005) summarises the
conceptual framework of the CA as under,
In its most basic form the capability approach
conceptualises welfare as standard of living, and
measures it as functionings. Functionings are
defined as the achieved states of being and
activities of an individual, e.g. being healthy, being
well-sheltered, moving about freely, or being wellnourished.
Welfare measurement in the functioning
space takes into account the presence of nonmarket
goods and services in an economy, home
production, and adjusts for non-monetary
constraints in decision making, because
functionings are outcome-based (as opposed to
resource based) welfare measures. [p. 5 (emphasis
and parenthesis in original)]
An additional feature of the CA is its responsiveness to the
social milieu in which human capabilities operate. Its
conceptualization of the agency aspect of well-being allows
for paying proper heed to the role a social context plays in
shaping the welfare matrix of an individual.
….it can be said that the well-being aspect of a
person is important in assessing a person's
advantage, whereas the agency aspect is important
in assessing what a person can do in line with his
or her conception of the good. The ability to do
more good need not be to the person's advantage.
[Sen 1985 p. 206 (Emphasis in original)]
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