If sufficiency was the goal of society, what would a sufficiency approach to economic development look like?

It would be different from most traditional approaches to development in a number of ways.  Firstly, whereas the traditional approach to economic development focuses on groups or communities or countries, a sufficiency approach would focus on the individual first, since sufficiency is necessarily an individual experience and since a change in perspective begins with the individual.  Secondly, whereas the goal of the traditional approach is generally to improve survival and physical well-being, the goal of the sufficiency approach is to develop awareness of sufficiency.  This is not to say that improving physical well-being and survivability are not important. Indeed, it is hard to talk about sufficiency when people’s basic necessities are not being met.  However, meeting these needs is the means not the end of a sufficiency approach to development. Thirdly, whereas the traditional approach to development measures progress by focusing on external indicators of wealth or well-being such as GDP, sales, caloric intake, literacy levels, life expectancy or child mortality; a sufficiency approach would measure progress by observing levels of happiness and generosity.  External measures would still be important to a sufficiency approach but they would not be lead indicators.

One of the most important tools to develop sufficiency would be education to promote self-reliance and self-awareness. Providing for one’s own needs or the needs of one’s family is critical to an individual’s sense of sufficiency.  We become aware of our sufficiency firstly by proving to ourselves that we can survive and then grow.  Therefore a key part of a sufficiency approach to development would be to support technical or professional education that develops one’s talents and abilities and that leads to greater self-reliance. As individuals learn to express themselves and help themselves, their capacity for self-reliance grows. As their capacity for self-reliance grows, they gain a greater appreciation of the wide variety of choices available to them to help them grow and prosper.  These individuals gradually become self-aware if they do not become too attached to the fruits of their labour and they become teachers or role models for others to learn from.

To encourage non-attachment, a sufficiency approach would also encourage self-awareness education, including education about: 1) the self, 2) choice, and 3) reality.  The objective of this education would be to help individuals explore who they are, what is their relationship to the outside world is, what gives them meaning and happiness. Some might argue that this is too flakey or philosophical to be part of an economic development approach.  My response to this is that the traditional development approaches have their own implicit philosophies grounded primarily in materialism and that these approaches have not succeeded in the past precisely because they have ignored the spiritual (not religious) development of the individual.  If we only focus on the physical aspects of well-being or self-reliance, we end up being attached to the physical elements of that well-being, which means more consumption, hoarding, theft etc..  The spiritual dimension of sufficiency economics allows us to move beyond the physical to a much more limitless or sustainable way of life that shows us that self expression not consumption gets us to sufficiency and happiness.

In addition to education, a sufficiency approach to development would also support the use of other development tools like loans, grants, investment, technology transfer, trade agreements, taxation, health care, conservation and other tools to support self-reliance and sufficiency.

What do you think?  Does this make any sense?  Is it really just the same old approach to development or is it different?  Is it practical?  Could it work?  Or would it run into difficulties with political or religious organizations in the real world?