Mark Carroll's Journal

You might be interested in Amartya Sen's Development and Freedom, in which he argues that the real point of development is expanding the range of real freedoms, not just narrowly measured wealth, and that various categories reinforce each other as well as being good in their own right. Political freedoms, economic opportunity, social investment (literacy, lifespan), transparency (not covered yet, I'm still reading) and security guarantees (not fearing loss of life and property.)

Sen's famous for arguing that democracies don't have famines, with India before and after independence as the star example. Political freedoms avoid disasters and help elucidate what the needs that other categories must address actually are, as well as being part of a desirable human experience.