Human Development Reports - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Although the Human Development Report is UNDP’s flagship product, over 700 other human development reports have been prepared since 1992 at national, regional and local levels from 135 countries.

National and regional Human Development Reports represent a locally led movement for change. The production of the reports contributes significantly to national capacities to gather and analyses data relevant to human development. Through excellence in research - in an atmosphere of editorial independence supported by recognized expertise - Human Development reporting transforms goals for poverty reduction and human development into benchmarks, plans and approaches for national, regional and international action. The reports make recommendations for change that generate attention and debate among stakeholders and policy makers, and they raise public awareness of ideas about human development. They promote resource mobilization in key areas of development and trigger responses to the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

The first global HDR appeared in 1990; the first national HDR was published in Bangladesh in 1992, and the first regional HDR, on the transition in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, was published in 1996. From 1990 to 2011, there were 21 global reports and more than 700 national and regional reports produced in over 135 countries and all regions of the world.