Economic Growth and Development Center
Executive Chairman – Prof. Magnus L. Kpakol
Building Productive People, Competitive Economies, and Thriving Societies – From Home to Global Value Chains
Introduction: Why Total Economic Development?
Many countries today are rich in natural resources, youthful populations, and intellectual talent, yet they remain poor, unstable, and uncompetitive. This paradox persists not because people are lazy or incapable, but because development efforts are often fragmented. Homes are disconnected from schools, education is disconnected from production, markets exclude large segments of society, institutions fail to enable productivity, global engagement is pursued without strong local foundations and most importantly people do not follow the driving principle – “love thy neighbor as thyself”
Total Economic Development (TEDev) is conceived as a corrective framework. It treats economic development not as a collection of isolated policies, but as a complete human and institutional system, beginning with the family and extending all the way to participation in global value chains. It recognizes that productivity is learned, values are cultivated, and competitiveness is built deliberately over time through coordinated action.
TEDev is therefore not merely a course. It is a development philosophy, leadership framework, and practical training system designed to transform individuals, institutions, communities and economies.
The Home as the First Economic Institution
Total Economic Development begins where most development models stop: the home. The family is the first place where discipline, time management, cooperation, savings culture, responsibility, and respect for work are learned. A society that neglects the productive role of the home cannot build a productive workforce, ethical leadership, or sustainable enterprises.
TEDev teaches parents, guardians, and young people how everyday family life directly shapes economic outcomes. It emphasizes parenting for productiveness and productivity, raising children with problem-solving skills, financial awareness, creativity, and social responsibility. In this framework, human capital is not something that starts at university—it starts at birth. All adults will benefit from our TEDev course on economic development for the family. Any one looking for family victory in the global market place should take this course. This course is invaluable for adults who want to make an impact themselves and learn how to prepare their children for an increasingly competitive world.
Education as a System for Production, Not Certification
One of the most damaging weaknesses in many societies is an education system that rewards certificates rather than solutions. TEDev directly challenges this model. It asserts that every field of study—whether engineering, economics, humanities, medicine, arts, or administration—must consciously contribute to solving real problems and producing goods and services people need.
Within TEDev, teachers and university lecturers are trained not just as instructors, but as development facilitators. Regardless of discipline, every classroom becomes a place where students are encouraged to ask: What problem does this knowledge solve? What value does it create? How does it translate into output, productivity, enterprise, or improved services?
Universities, in this vision, are not ivory towers cut off from practical realities. They are engines of innovation, entrepreneurship, and local economic transformation, deeply connected to industry and government. All teachers and university lecturers should take this course to help them as heroes and champions of the society we want. The economic development of our future should not be left to chance. In the final analysis it is mostly in the hands of our teachers.
Markets as Instruments for Shared Prosperity
Economic development fails when markets are accessible only to a privileged few. TEDev places strong emphasis on both physical markets and financial markets as tools for inclusive wealth creation. It recognizes that prosperity cannot be sustained if large segments of society are excluded from production, investment, and ownership. The course therefore teaches how to design and participate in value chains that integrate farmers, intellectuals, artisans, SMEs, professionals, and large firms. It also emphasizes access to finance, savings, investment vehicles, and capital markets for people across income levels. Wealth creation, in TEDev, is not a zero-sum game; it is a shared process that strengthens social stability and long-term growth. Everyone is in the market place for wealth creation and economic development. This course will show you how to maximize the opportunity for yourself.
Institutions, Governance, and the Enabling Environment
Total Economic Development recognizes government not as the driver of business, but as the creator of the environment in which productivity can flourish. Poor governance, weak health systems, insecurity, policy inconsistency, waste, and leakages impose hidden taxes on citizens and businesses, making competitiveness impossible.
Through TEDev, government leaders and practitioners learn how to design policies that reduce friction, support entrepreneurship, protect property rights, provide infrastructure, promote productiveness in human capital development, and ensure security. Traditional leaders and local governments are trained to see themselves as economic developers, responsible for creating healthy, livable, safe, and investment-ready communities.
Development, in this sense, becomes a shared responsibility across formal and informal institutions. Every institution is in effect an economic development agency. Make your institution more relevant by taking this course.
From Local Productivity to Global Value Chains
While TEDev is firmly rooted in local realities, it is explicitly global in outlook. It recognizes that competitiveness today depends on understanding international standards and globalization principles that include interconnectedness, integration, and intensification of worldwide social, economic, and cultural processes, driven by factors like technology, trade, investment, and migration. Key aspects in all this, include the flow of goods, capital, people, information, logistics, quality control, branding, and cross-border partnerships leading to greater interdependence between nations.
A key component of TEDev is structured exposure to successful economic ecosystems through virtual and physical value-chain study tours. These experiences allow academic, business, and government leaders to observe firsthand how productive societies promote human capital development and overall economic development by the way they organize education, health systems, industry, civic space, infrastructure, governance, and markets to compete globally.
The emphasis is not on imitation, but on adaptation—learning how global best practices can be localized to different cultural, institutional, and economic contexts.
Our Value Chain Study Tours are essential for everyone. Raise your value by globalizing your brand with our global value chain study tours and training.
Partnerships, Exchange, and Continuous Learning
Total Economic Development is intentionally designed as a living system, not a one-off training. It incorporates faculty exchange programs, practitioner exchanges, quarterly virtual study tours, annual physical study tours, and a recurring annual conference that brings together academia, business, government, traditional institutions, and international partners.
Through these platforms, ideas are tested, relationships are built, projects are refined, and investments are mobilized. Over time, TEDev becomes a network of leaders committed to human capital development — productiveness, productivity, shared prosperity, and ethical development.
Our TEDev partnerships, exchange and continuous learning platforms are for you to be the best you can be.
Conclusion: A New Development Architecture
Total Economic Development offers a new architecture for economic transformation—one that aligns values, education, markets, institutions, and global engagement into a single coherent system. It is practical without being simplistic, visionary without being abstract, and ambitious without losing sight of human realities.
By starting with the home, reforming education, opening markets, strengthening governance, and engaging globally, TEDev provides a credible pathway for societies seeking not just growth, but lasting prosperity and social stability.