Occasional Papers

Protecting Our Human World Order: A Human Security Compass for a New Sustainability Decade

By: Oscar A. Gómez with contributions from Hanatani Atsushi, Murotani Ryutaro, Kubokura Ken, Makimoto Saeda, Muto Ako and Jacob Assa
2020
This paper locates human security ideas vis-à-vis the concept of sustainability in the context of the new international cooperation challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main aim is to show how a robust understanding of human security is...Read more

Measuring Human Development for the Anthropocene

By: Ajay Chhibber
2020
This paper makes the case for an adjusted Human Development Index (HDI) that adds sustainability, vulnerability and human security to the existing HDI components of income, health and education. It shows that these additional elements were part of the...Read more

Climate Change: Policies to Manage Its Macroeconomic and Financial Effects

By: Joaquín Bernal and José Antonio Ocampo
2020
It is increasingly recognized that climate change generates major macroeconomic and financial risks. There are physical risks associated with the disasters generated by hydrometeorological events, and gradual but persistent changes in temperatures that...Read more

Rethinking Human Development In an Era of Planetary Transformation

By: Kishan Khoday
2020
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction together set the vision for a new balance between...Read more

Examining Inequality in the Arts

By: Patrick Kabanda
2019
There is nothing new about the nature and scope of inequality engulfing the world today. Still, notwithstanding the ‘starving artist’ mantra—which has become an acceptable truism—inequality in the arts is rarely examined. This discussion aims to shed...Read more

Education as an equalizer for human development?

By: Fabrizio Bernardi and Ilze Plavgo
2019
This paper examines the potential of education to act as the ‘great equalizer’ and reduce the negative effects of economic inequality on health and other social outcomes, such as crime, educational proficiency and, in particular, social mobility. In the...Read more

Exploring Dynamics of Inequality in Human Development

By: Christina Lengfelder
2019
Human development is about putting people at the centre of the development debate. The human development approach traditionally goes beyond economic growth to assess human development around the world. The present paper explores how inequalities emerge,...Read more

The Conflict–Inequality Trap: How Internal Armed Conflict Affects Horizontal Inequality

By: Sirianne Dahlum, H ̊avard Mokleiv Nyg ̊ard, Siri Aas Rustad and Gudrun Østby
2019
This background paper examines how conflict affects horizontal inequality. While a large literature looks at how horizontal inequality is linked to the onset of armed conflict, we know very little about if, and how, conflict in turn affects such...Read more

The Historical Roots of Well-Being and Social Cohesion

By: Eric M. Uslaner
2019
A country’s levels of well-being and social cohesion are largely stable over long periods of time. Two key determinants of well-being—equality and education—follow this ‘path dependence’. This paper reviews these relationships and then move to a...Read more

On Human Development Indicators

By: Marc Fleurbaey
2018
The Human Development Index (HDI) has evolved over time and Anand (2018) offers a stimulating critique of various aspects. This paper discusses Anand's critique and, in particular, offers an argument in favor of some degree of complementarity between the...Read more