HDialogue

Energising Human Development

14 April 2016 | Dr Julia K Steinberger, Associate Professor in Ecological Economics, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
Reducing the risk of climate change requires large and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are caused by the burning of fossil energy sources (1). The debate around emission reductions has been dominated by concern for economic...Read more

Living Free and Equal

06 April 2016 | Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the Ibero-American General Secretariat
In the quarter-century since the publication in 1990 of the first Human Development Report, the world has made astounding strides in reducing poverty and improving the health, education, and living conditions of hundreds of millions of people. And yet...Read more

Recyclers: from waste pickers to global agents of sustainable development

05 April 2016 | Nohra Padilla, Director of the National Association of Recyclers (Colombia) and recipient of the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize.
The Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 Agenda for Sustainable Development have drawn attention to the world’s 20 million recyclers. Given the international nature of these platforms, this attention will likely lead to local and national...Read more

The Pursuit of Happiness: paying greater attention to Mental Health

18 March 2016 | Natalia Linou and Jon Hall are policy specialists in, respectively, UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development team and the Human Development Report Office.
Sunday marks the United Nations’ 5th International Day of Happiness. Few people are against the pursuit of happiness, but many argue that governments – and international organisations for that matter – have no business in setting happiness as a public...Read more

Is gender equality destined to remain our perpetual aspirational dream?

18 March 2016 | Selim Jahan and Tanni Mukhopadhyay
The global record on gender equality remains mixed with progress on many fronts, but gaps remaining in others. The 2015 Human Development Report ‘Work for Human Development’, twenty years...Read more

Paid parental leave, including mandatory paternity leave

17 March 2016 | 2015 Human Development Report
Paid parental leave is one of the most important benefits of flexibility extended to working parents, especially when mandatory paternity leave policies are implemented. The correct mix of policies can help ensure high rates of female labour force...Read more

Valuing care work

15 March 2016 | HDRO Research Team
The Human Development Report, 2015 highlights a contradiction: it is care work mostly undertaken by women - that makes possible much of the paid work that drives the market economy. Care work is also essential for advancing human capabilities yet,...Read more

Inequality and Labour Markets

02 February 2016 | Robert Reich, Former United States Secretary of Labor
The argument voiced in the late 19th century over alleged “freedom of contract” was that any deal between employees and workers was perfectly fine if both sides voluntarily agreed to it. - So workers were worth no more than the wages they could...Read more

Decent Work Opportunities Central to Achieving Inclusive Growth in Asia and the Pacific

18 January 2016 | By Selim Jahan, Director of the Human Development Report Office and lead author of the 2015 Human Development Report
The 2015 Human Development Report (HDR) considers major changes in the world of work, affecting when, how, and where people work. Technological progress, deepening globalization, aging societies and environmental challenges are transforming work,...Read more

Education in an Uncertain World

22 December 2015 | Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD’s Secretary-General
Until the Industrial Revolution, neither formal education nor advances in technology made much of a difference for the vast majority of people. But as technological progress accelerated, education failed to keep pace, leaving vast numbers of people...Read more
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