A Means to Closing Gaps

Within each country, there are significant disparities, gaps: among regions, between the sexes, between urban and rural areas and among ethnic groups. Operationalizing the Human Development requires some analysis of the distribution of Human Development itself. Can Human Development Index (HDI) profile become a useful tool to understand the underlying sources of and potential causes of problems? Can it cope with distributional characteristics of Human Development? Studies in disaggregated HDI have been initiated in a number of countries: Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Gabon, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Poland, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, USA. Based on these this study aims at a review.