International Development Glossary

Access to safe water:
The estimated percentage of the population having access to improved drinking water sources, such as household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection.

Basic education: 
Education provides reading, writing, math and social skills needed in life. It usually happens at pre-school, primary school, and secondry school and continues with life long learning

Capacity building: 
“Give a hungry person a fish, he's happy for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?”
Capacity building is about providing knowledge, tools and skills, instead of handouts, so people can set and achieve their own goals.

Child protection: 
Child protection is about one thing: keeping children safe from harm.

Collaboration:

Democratization :
The process of making the transition to democracy. It depends on an effective legislature that is supported by strong constitutional and procedural systems sustained by capable legislators, a free media, a strong civil society, and effective citizen engagement.

Development: 
Meeting the basic human needs of people by ensuring that their human rights are respected in the development process.

Fragile states 
In countries that have experienced years of extreme poverty, or have suffered social, political, or military strife, the government may have lost the will or capacity to be in control of its territory.

Governance :
This refers to the values, rules, institutions, and processes through which people and organizations attempt to work towards common objectives, make decisions, generate authority and legitimacy, and exercise power. Democracy is a critical element in good governance.

Gross domestic product (GDP) 
The GDP is one of the ways of measuring the size of a country’s economy. It is defined as the total market value of the goods and services produced within a country and by this country abroad during a given period of time, usually a year. The GDP is often contrasted with the gross national product (GNP), now called the gross national income (GNI).

Humanitarian aid: 
In emergencies, local and global charities deliver crisis supplies to meet people’s immediate needs
Also known as: emergency relief.

Human Development Index (HDI):
This is an index created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It measures the quality of life in United Nations member countries and is based on three aspects of human development: longevity (measured by life expectancy at birth), knowledge (measured by a combination of adult literacy and school enrolment) and standard of living (measured by GDP per capita in US$ purchasing power parity).

Human rights:
This refers to the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights and freedoms of all individuals as outlined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and detailed in many human rights conventions negotiated amongst national governments.

Food security: 
“When all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.”

Gender disparity: 
Inequality between people because of their gender – often between men and women.

Globalization: 
We live in a connected world of countries, people, cultures, and businesses over long distances. Globalization refers to cross-border relationships.

Immunization :
This refers to a medical procedure, usually a vaccine, that builds up a person’s resistance to contagious diseases such as polio, measles, and tuberculosis.

Infant mortality rate :
The probability of dying between birth and the age of one, according to current mortality rates and expressed as a rate per 1,000 live births, is called the infant mortality rate. The lower the rate, the greater the likelihood that basic health care is widely available throughout the country. See also Child mortality rate and Under-five mortality rate

Infrastructure :
This refers to such things as roads, electricity, water systems, telecommunication services, and public transportation, which play a key role in reducing poverty by helping to increase productivity and improve the quality of life in a community.

Innovation :


International cooperation:
This refers to countries around the world working together to provide development assistance to less-developed countries and/or fragile states.

Knowledge Society:
Life expectancy: 
The average period that a person may expect to live is what’s known as life expectancy. High rates of early death in a country bring down the average life expectancy of that country. Life expectancies help us compare countries to see how they are doing in meeting their citizen’s basic needs.

Literacy: 
Being literate means being able to read and write. The literacy rate looks at how many people in a country can read. Illiteracy, or being illiterate, is the opposite of literacy.

Livelihoods: 
Someone’s livelihood is the way that they can earn a living to secure the necessities of life. Having a job or farming are examples of different livelihoods.

Low and middle income countries: 
Take the average yearly income of people living in a country in US dollars and , see where they fit on the World Bank’s scale: low income, $1,005 or less; lower middle income, $1,006 – $3,975; upper middle income, $3,976 – $12,275; and high income, $12,276 or more. Low and middle income countries are also referred to as developing countries.

Mortality rate: 
Comparing the number of people who die to the number of people who live gives us a mortality rate. We use child, infant and maternal mortality rates to evaluate how well a country is doing towards meeting the basic needs of its citizens.

Malnutrition: 
“Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function.” It can happen in people who are both undernourished or over nourished.

Micronutrients:
These are nutrients needed only in miniscule amounts to enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones, and other substances that are essential for proper growth and development.

Microfinance: 
Providing loans to low income clients is known as microfinance. Even though the amounts are usually small, microfinance can allow small businesses to get up and running. Micro-loans are often targeted towards women and can help them break the cycle of poverty.

Millennium Development Goals: 
In 2000, the UN created 8 goals to change the world by the year 2015. These goals are to: end poverty and hunger, achieve universal education, gender equality and environmental sustainability, provide child and maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, and have countries work together to meet these targets.

NGO: 
NGO stands for non-governmental organization. They get that name because they are organizations that are independent from the government. NGOs are non-profit organisations, which means it's revenue totally used for the intended purpose. No dividents paid to members.

Primary health care: 
Just like basic education, primary health care is about the essentials when it comes to health. It’s about making sure that health care basics, like vaccines, medicine, and skilled care are available and affordable to every single person that needs them.

Sanitation: 
Sanitation refers to the tools and systems for preventing humans from coming into contact with wastes, whether they are from humans, animals, farms or industry.

Standard of living: 
Standard of living is another way to compare the quality of life between people from different countries and communities by measuring things like: wealth, employment, possessions, and happiness.

Population growth rate:
This refers to the increase in a country's population during one year, divided by the population at the start of that year. It reflects the number of births and deaths during the period and the number of people moving to and from a country.

Private sector development :
This means the creation of employment opportunities and higher income jobs in less-developed countries by helping markets function well and by stimulating the growth of private sector businesses.

Purchasing power parity (PPP):
This is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries' currencies for the same types of goods and services.

Sub-Saharan Africa:
This term refers to countries in Africa that are located below the Sahara Desert. It does not include the countries of North Africa.

Indernourishment:
This refers to the condition of people whose dietary energy consumption is continuously below the minimum requirement for carrying out light physical activity and maintaining good health.

Youth literacy rate :
This is the number of literate persons, aged 15 to 24, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group. A person is considered literate if he or she can read and write with understanding a simple statement related to everyday life.


Vaccine :
This refers to a preparation of micro-organisms administered by injection in order to produce or increase immunity to a particular disease.


Community Based Organisations:
Digital Media
E Learning
Empowerment
Youth Lead Development
Social Networks:
Telecentre :
Project:
Programme:
Replication:
Up-Scaling:
Resources Mobulization:
Visibility:
Strategy:
Sustainability:
Safety Networks:



Source : CIDA