The Study of Inclusive Development in the Period of the First to Fifth Development Programs in Iran (1989-2016)

The concept of inclusive development focuses on the relationship between equality and development to refer to the inclusion of various dimensions of development, especially its social and political dimensions. Moreover, inclusive development highlights how well-being is distributed among different sections of society, especially marginalized groups and social minorities. In the present study, a multi-dimensional index of inclusive development in the form of 5 dimensions, 11 components, and 33 variables was used to examine the inclusiveness of development in the implementation period of the first to fifth development programs. The results showed that despite the improvement of inclusive development during the implementation of development programs, firstly, the quantitative achievements of growth were weakly correlated with the qualitative achievements of development. Secondly, there was a significant correlation between the political aspect of inclusive development (governance) and development achievements. Thirdly, the country’s inclusive development process was considered reversible, which means that the improvement of inclusive development stopped during the fourth and fifth development plans. Furthermore, this study indicated that out of the 11 components of the studied index, only in the second and third development plans most of the components were improved. Thus, when this result was combined with the six-year implementation period of the first, fourth, and fifth five-year development plans, it indicated that the Inclusive Development Index was a good criterion for evaluating the development performance of these plans. Overall, it is suggested that the planners consider inclusive development at the heart of the Seventh Development Plan.