text: "social" planning) was not appropriate for the countries in the ESCAP region, given the complex interrelations of social and economic goals and the mutual impact of social and economic processes and develop;. ments. The Group concluded that the process of development must be viewed as an integrated process wherein economic growth targets were recognized as purely instrumental for the achievement of social goals. The Group further recognized that the appropriate role to be played by sets of social indicators in that respect was twofold: (a) to monitor progress towards the achievement of specific social goals and (b) to 29 detect and measure the social impacts of particular socio-economic policies and programmes, thereby providing essential "feedback" in­ formation for assessing those programmes, modifying or adapting them in accordance with changing conditions, and formulating new pro­ grammes as needed. B. THE RELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL INDICATORS AND THE PLANNING PROCESS 120. The Group gave detailed consideration to the requirements to be met by social indicators if they were to be integrated in the planning process. It was noted that exclusive attention to instrumental targets - i.e. measures of economic growth and development -had produced serious distortions in past evaluations of development plans and pro­ grammes by failing to appreciate the social impacts of those programmes. But it was also recognized that if those social impacts were to be con­ sidered together with measures of economic growth they would have to be expressed in quantitative terms to the extent possible. Further­ more, the Group noted that quantitative measures -social indicators - must satisfy the following requirements. First, they must emphasize outputs or results (including unintended side-effects), but selected "input" measures must also be included so that the observed results could be viewed in association with pertinent input data. Secondly, the measures should be made readily comprehensible to policy-makers 
analysis: The text discusses the importance of considering social goals and indicators in the planning process of economic development, highlighting the need to balance economic growth with social impacts. It emphasizes the importance of using quantitative measures to monitor progress towards social goals and to assess the social impacts of economic policies and programs. This suggests that the text is primarily focused on economic development, but with a strong emphasis on social aspects.