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Human Development Report 1997

Publication report cover: Human Development Report 1997
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UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 1997. Human Development Report 1997: Human Development to Eradicate Poverty. New York.

Human Development Report 1997

Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative - it is a practical possibility. That is the most important message of the Human Development Report 1997. The world has the resources and the know-how to create a poverty-free world in less than a generation.

The Report focuses not just on poverty of incomes but on poverty from a human development perspective - poverty as a denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life. The strategies proposed in the Report go beyond income redistribution - encompassing action in the critical areas of gender equality, pro-poor growth, globalization and the democratic governance of development.

Eradicating poverty entails:

  • Removing barriers that deny choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life;
  • Safeguarding people from the new global pressures that create or threaten further increases in poverty;
  • Building assets for the poor;
  • Empowering men and women to ensure their participation in decisions that affect their lives;
  • Investing in human development - health and education; and
  • Affirming that the eradication of absolute poverty in the first decades of the 21st century is feasible, affordable and a moral imperative.