How to Evaluate Local Economic Development Projects from a People-Centred Perspective? An Analytical Framework Based on the Capability Approach

Abstract

The present paper argues that the capability approach of Amartya Sen provides a meaningful contribution in understanding, evaluating and improving the well-being effects of local development projects. It focuses on what people can actually achieve, instead of what they have; and places equal attention to the process and the outcomes of the development process. The paper develops an analytical framework to evaluate local development projects, which is fine-tuned for middle and high income settings and allows comparison between cases. The framework is applied to three local development projects in a middle-sized city in Hungary. We found that the rich informational basis of the capability-based perspective helps to identify the places for intervention: the barriers, which prevent people from actually using the newly created means (the results of the development projects), and the valued options of citizens either unaddressed or neglected by the development projects.

Keywords

• Capability approach
• local development
• analytical framework
• opportunity aspect
• process aspect