Chapter 06 · Governance & regulationDevelopment, Impact & Global Frameworks
Capability approach
Definition
A normative framework for assessing wellbeing, development and justice, pioneered by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. It evaluates arrangements in terms of people's capabilities — their real opportunities to achieve functionings (the "doings and beings" they value, such as being nourished, educated or politically active) — together with agency, the ability to pursue goals one values, whether or not they serve one's own wellbeing.
References
Sen–Nussbaum origins and divergent views; functionings and capabilities definitions; wellbeing and agency distinction; UNDP human development paradigm linkage.
Overview
What it means
The approach reframes development: resources and GDP are means; freedom to live a valued life is the end. Two people with identical incomes differ in capability if disability, discrimination or environment constrains conversion of resources into functionings. Sen and Nussbaum diverge philosophically — Sen resists a fixed list of capabilities; Nussbaum proposes one — a productive tension the field carries.
Institutionally, the approach underpins the UNDP's human development paradigm and the Human Development Index, shifting development policy from growth alone toward health, education and freedom.
How it is used
Development agencies, wellbeing-economy frameworks and social-impact measurement adopt capability language; sustainability discourse uses it to argue that environmental goals must be pursued through expanding — not restricting — human freedoms, especially for the poor.
Why it matters
The capability approach is the leading theoretical answer to "sustainable development of what, for whom?" : it grounds sustainability in human freedom, giving the field's equity commitments philosophical backbone.