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s stated in his nine-point Nawacita agenda, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo is introducing the idea of development starting from villages and peripheries '€” the areas that have been left far behind and neglected for decades. This seems to be a new policy so that underdeveloped groups in Indonesian society can benefit from development.

Development has always been associated with economic development by creating centers of economic growth. Such an approach was applied by the government of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, through the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).

With such a plan, development was conceived as the process of enhancing the capacity of the country'€™s economy as indicated by growth, revealing the expansion of capital investment and the increase of gross national product (GNP) per capita. Not surprisingly, growth and income have been the focus of academic debate among Indonesian scholars, technocrats and policymakers.

It seems President Jokowi is not interested in continuing the MP3EI, since he is deeply conscious that growth means nothing if economic inequality and income discrepancy prevail. He is also alert that growth is worthless if poverty becomes far-reaching, while the state fails to equally distribute earnings to people. Therefore, growth-based economic development cannot be used as a single model of development.

Empirical evidence has clearly shown that growth without equity and social progress often instigates public discontent and social unrest. Indonesia had the very bitter experience of applying economic development by prioritizing growth while neglecting equity, which sadly resulted in riots and political upheaval.

This is because economic development alone is inadequate for assessing social progress outcomes, and GNP per capita is just a partial indicator of the country'€™s overall performance. Therefore, development should go beyond economic considerations, while growth and income should not be the sole measures of its success.

As growth-based economic development, in many cases, causes social exclusion in the form of deprivation and marginalization, it is important to promote inclusive development, which allows all stakeholders to gauge social progress.

The concept of inclusive development ensures that all marginalized and deprived groups are involved in the development process.

This means that development should not leave anyone behind, especially the most disadvantaged groups. Basically, inclusive development is a critique of growth-based economic development as many groups of society are excluded from development because of either socio-cultural backgrounds (ethnicity, race, gender and disability) or geographic characteristics (remote and peripheral areas, outermost islands, underprivileged regions).

Further, inclusive development essentially seeks to address social exclusion, inequality and poverty. In the case of Indonesia, development strategies and policies employed for years have widened economic inequality and regional disparity, despite constant growth. This can be seen in the Gini index, which steadily increased from 0.31 during the presidency of Megawati Soe-karnoputri to 0.41 during the Yu-dhoyono administration.

Therefore, development will truly be beneficial if all people share economic prosperity and material wealth in common, as Jeffrey Sachs has compellingly argued in his marvelous work, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008).

In accordance with Sachs'€™ views, the main goal of inclusive development is to build an open society, recognize differences, respect diversity, maintain social cohesion and impose social justice. In this regard, inclusive development applies four basic principles: participation, non-discrimination, involvement and accountability.

The proponents of inclusive development suggest that policymakers should move beyond measuring gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Instead, they should take social progress into account, translating economic gains into better social and environmental performance. In other words, economic prosperity alongside social progress must be used as the main indicators of successful development.

What is social progress and why is it important in the context of development? Michael Porter and Scott Stern'€™s Social Progress Index (2014) may help us understand the concept, as they explain it to mean '€œthe capacity of a state to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow them to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential'€.

Porter and Stern'€™s index consists of three dimensions with some specific components for each.

First, basic human needs, which include nutrition and basic medical care, water and sanitation, shelter and personal safety.

Second, the foundations of well-being, which include access to basic knowledge, access to information and communications, health and wellness, and ecosystem sustainability.

Third, opportunity, which includes personal rights, personal freedom and choice, tolerance and inclusion, and access to advanced education.

Here, the social progress index is a result of thorough assessment and analysis of an interrelated set of indicators comprised in the measurement framework.

Moreover, social progress is indispensable to explain the major achievement of development using a particular index, in addition to other indexes, such as the human development index and the gender parity index.

The importance of the social progress index is because it offers a comprehensive and meticulous measurement framework, covering the most '€” essential issues of development related to social and environmental performance.

Indeed, applying the social progress index will be worthwhile for any government since it can be used as an instrument to examine the success of and analyze the complexity of development. It is also useful to provide policy choices, propose relevant programs and suggest action plans to improve the quality of people'€™s lives.

With reference to the idea of inclusive development, policymakers should take both social progress and economic prosperity into consideration, utilized as the essential measures of successful development.