Let's Talk Human Development (blog)

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:30:22 GMT

What's new in the new Report

By Human Development Report - 20th Anniversary
The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development,

New findings about trends and patterns. We construct a to undertake a systematic review of HDI trends which provide new insights not seen through a sole focus on incomes and growth.

• Human development achievements are possible even without fast growth. Similarly, countries that achieve high growth rates do not always do well in terms of health and education. The overall correlation between growth and health and education improvements over the four decades since 1970 is weak. The “Top HDI Movers” are very different from a conventional list of national development successes. The top ten countries that improved their HDI the most relative to their starting point include well-known ‘growth miracles’ such as China, Indonesia and South Korea, but also several others, such as Lao PDR, Nepal and Tunisia, where progress in non-income dimensions has been marked.
• There has been significant overall progress since 1970, but trends have not been wholly positive and the variation is striking. Countries with similar starting points had vastly different performances in human development outcomes. Institutions, policies and politics – and their interaction with global technological progress and the diffusion of ideas – all play a role in the explanation of these differences.
• There is convergence in human development, but not income.

New Measures. We have pushed the frontiers in measurement to ensure relevance to emerging realities and to cast important new light on the major challenges that persist even in countries which have registered good overall gains in human development. We present a with the same three dimensions but that addresses valid criticisms and uses indicators that are better able to assess future progress. We build on recent innovations in methods and improved data to introduce three new indices designed to systematically capture disparities and deprivation in a human development framework.

• discounts average human development for inequalities in health, education and income in 139 countries. Losses range from 6 percent (Czech Republic) to 45 percent (Mozambique), with low HDI countries tending to have greater inequality.
• measures disparities in the work force, health and empowerment that adversely affect women in 137 countries. Losses are significant across the HDI spectrum, ranging from 17 percent (Netherlands) to a massive 85 percent (Yemen).
• identifies serious overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards, which is estimated to affect 1.7 billion people, or fully one-third of the populations in 104 developing countries. This is far more than the estimated 1.4 billion people in those countries who live on $1.25 a day or less and underlines that there can be widespread deprivation even where incomes have risen.

New insights for policy. The wide diversity of paths to success underlines the inappropriateness of one-size-fits-all approaches to policy. The policy implications raise key principles – such as poverty reduction, reducing inequality, closing gender gaps – which will imply different responses in different countries.

Reader's comments to this article

Panneerselva Mudaliar C, C P S Mudaliar Rural Reconstruction Trust wrote: "Very Good insights that enumerates the human value and shows where we are. Please continue your study." Respond to the comment | Back to the article

Reynaldo Peguero, Director Plan Estratégico "Santiago 2020", República Dominicana wrote: "Muy buen punto de abordaje, buenas recomendaciones, buen enfoque de empoderamiento social y el multilateralismo y la sociedad civil." Respond to the comment | Back to the article

Nate Levin, wrote: "I think this is a major, major underreported story--that for the most part the world is a much better place than it was 40 years ago. (The NY Times, for example, buried it.) Without ignoring the exceptions and concerns (such as climate change), I think the media would do well to emphasize how much good the human race has proved itself capable of. I believe big "good news" stories fail to fit the prevailing media frames, and as a result the public perception of their world, and even of human nature, suffers from significant distortion. I feel that a "good news" television channel could legitimately exist to explore all the beneficial developments that have occurred and are occurring from country to country over the last generation +. Of course such a channel would also need to present the remaining problems and setbacks as well, so as not itself to present a distorted view." Respond to the comment | Back to the article

Catalina Salazar Herrera, Consultora e Investigadora Free Lance, Lic. Trabajo Social, Diplomada en Estudios de Género y Mg. Sociología CELATS, DesdeNos wrote: "Excelente resumen de las posibilidades y aportes del IDH 2010, para la reflexión y el análisis de las realidades globales, regionales y nacionales; especialmente para quienes nos desempeñamos en el campo de la evaluación, investigación y sistematización de experiencias que intentan aportar al desarrollo humano, la inclusión, equidad y sustentabilidad, en la medida que los IDH suelen ser los marcos referenciales. En 1998, como parte de un ejercicio académico, un grupo de estudiantes de post grado analizamos la evolución de variables como crecimiento del PBI, producción agropecuaria, educación y tecnología en Singapur por seis décadas. Comprendiendo que su desarrollo se produjo por la inversión en capital humano, puesto que carecía de recursos naturales pero desbordaba en calificación y calificación de sus singapureños, revirtiendo una situación que lo colocaba en una posición de desventaja de los países de América Latina a inicios del siglo XX. El IDH del 2010, que según el artículo muestra la evolución de los índices de DH por cuatro décadas, es un aporte clave, en tanto ofrece el comportamiento de cada variable, al mismo tiempo que evidencia las tendencias y divergencias, útiles principalmente en las apuestas y/o precisiones de políticas sociales. Con ello nos proporciona elementos de afirmación a cerca de la vigencia del enfoque de DH, que articulados a otros enfoques como derechos y equidad nos abre perspectivas tanto de conocimiento como de nuevos retos. " Respond to the comment | Back to the article

Back to top

2013 Report