ABSTRACT
The development of human resources is seen not as the hoped-for pioduct of measures of economic development, but as the very means of development. The most striking result of structural adjustment programmes throughout Africa, which the vice-chancellor believed had most urgently to be corrected, was the widening gap between the few rich and the many poor. Increases in productivity of both land and labour depend essentially on reform of land ownership, especially in favour of women, and on supplementing human labour with draught animals or mechanical power. Education, supported by good health and adequate nutrition, must be placed at the head of all the priorities for the development of human resources. Placing human resources at the centre of development strategy implies the availability of some measure of human development. Land tenure is a crucial issue in Africa. This is most serious in the case of the denial of women’s rights on the land they work.
