BNA - Basic Needs Approach
p.1 From the very beginning let it be stated unambiguously: a basic
needs approach (BNA) is not the approach to social science in general or development studies
in particular, but one approach. There are others.
p.4 Development, then would be seen as a process progressively
satisfying basic human needs
p.19 If need theory is to have any purpose or positive
political function in contemporary society it should be to serve as a basis for revealing such social malconstructions
or cases of maldevelopment and to indicate other possibilities.
p.20 Individuals and groups will have their priorities and indeed their own conceptions of needs. The purpose
of need theory would be to inspire them into awareness, not steer and direct them into well-structured need sets.
p.32 Thus, the need for food is seen as a process, with no beginning and no end, of satisfaction
and dissatisfaction, undulating through time with sometimes slow, sometimes quick rhythms, with no resting point
p.34 First, it should be mentioned that people in general... do not see their own situation in terms of
need-lists and need-satisfiers. If a verbal expression is asked for, the expression "state of well-being,"... is probably
as good as any. There is a sense of well-being and a sense of its absence
p.36 life is seen as an effort to extinguish lamps in the console signalling "need unsatisfied/unattended."
There is not enough active, conscious work by the person... to transcend his or her own need structure, being the master,
not only the operator of that console.
p.43 people with some element of power... should help explore what in the power structure, including themselves,
might stand in the way of people meeting the needs they themselves stipulate.
p.48 First, there is the idea that when basic needs are not satisfied this will be harmful to that
individual, there will be some type of pathology whether it shows up at the intra-personal or inter-personal levels.
Second, there is the idea of a hierarchy of needs according to how harmful the non-satisfaction is, from
needs whose non-satisfaction is lethal to needs whole non-satisfaction seems compatible with maintenance of the personal and
social systems.
p.48 A good theory of needs, however, should serve as a corrective here by constantly reminding us that
even if a person is deficient relative to one need-dimension, need-satisfaction cannot possibly consist in a trade-off
sacrificing other need-dimensions in order to make up for the deficit.
p.59-60 The major strength is that BNA serve to set priorities. It is an effort
to cut through rhetoric, focusing on what is essential and basic
p.60 The major weakness is that BNA say nothing about how misery is produced
p.62 "what is so important that we cannot do without it"
p.63 Through dialogue people help each other, raising the general awareness and consciousness of their own
true needs... meaning by that what they really cannot do without.
p.64 A third point in BNA is that they indicate a future agenda for development, and
a very rich and open one... First, they open for the exploration of true versus false needs... Second, they
open for the whole exploration of true versus false satisfiers... Third, they open for the whole exploration
or richer relations between needs and satisfiers... Anyhow, the point is to reason from the needs, combining
them mentally, asking for rich satisfier contexts that may speak to new, more integrated combinations
p.65 Conclusion: basic needs approaches are indispensable in any theory of development that sees
development as development of human beings
p.66 we referred to the subject of this paper as approach, not as "model", and not as "strategy";
--well knowing there are strong forces trying to pull basic needs in that direction.
