Improving development model

The terms "developed countries" and "less developed countries" or "underdeveloped countries" are used in economic development literature more or less synonymously with the terms "North" and "South". However, implicit in the terms "developed" and "developing" is the assumption that "developed" countries look like countries such as Germany, Japan and the United States, and that through "development" all of the world can and should be made to look like "developed" countries. Since the sustainability of the western development model is being questioned increasingly, words are needed which facilitate rethinking the goals of "development" for all nations, including the so-called "developed" countries. The terms "North" and "South", while themselves having many limitations, do not perpetuate an assumption that the western model is the obvious choice for the future.

Existing models of development run counter to ecological and biological imperatives, placing an overemphasis on growth as the solution to development, and resulting in considerable cultural wastage.