Space, power, and human development in the Muslim world: Connections and conclusions

This chapter concludes that the human development index (HDI) is not a sound measurement for human development, but one of the best tools available to comprehend and compare development among nations. It is contextual and needs to be approached and analyzed considering many geography-related factors such as climate, topography, resources, and so forth. The factors such as the population structure and dependency ratio, the economic structure and income inequality, and the power structure (colonial system, governance pattern, postcolonial external relationships) and its misuse also have been of paramount importance for analyzing human development in the Muslim majority countries (MMCs). The chapter shows how these latter dimensions are also influenced by geographical phenomena, and comments that since geography and climate influence the location of industry, the geographically challenged MMCs need to be compensated by economic policy for larger 'non-primary' sector.