Development is an effort to create positive change to enhance people's lives. It is a concept whose meanings and goals are hotly debated. Nonetheless, two ideas promoted by the United Nations Development Program guide the GDS concentration: sustainable development and human development. Sustainable development explicitly recognizes the constraints imposed by the natural environment by calling for development that meets the needs of the present without decreasing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Human development links development and human rights by regarding development as the expansion of human freedoms. Under this approach, income, education, and health are all viewed as keys to expand human capabilities.

The GDS concentration focuses on these processes in the world's developing countries. Furthermore, it is founded on the principle that understanding development requires work in more than one discipline and meaningful dialogue between the disciplines.