Occasional Papers

Global South Shapers of Norms, Human Development and Sustainability

By: Nuzhat Ahmad
2020
This study looks at how human development and sustainability norms are generated and which norm makers from the South have played a role in their emergence and diffusion. It identifies specific norm entrepreneurs from the South, explores their diverse...Read more

Multidimensional Measurement of National Progress: A Practitioner’s Suggestions for a New Framework

By: Simon Anholt
2020
This paper proposes a new multidimensional approach to the measurement of national progress that combines three metrics: the level of human development of each country’s own population (using the Human Development Index), the impact each country has on...Read more

A Bird’s-Eye View of Well-Being: Exploring a Multidimensional Measure for the United Kingdom

By: Sabina Alkire and Fanni Kovesdi
2020
This paper explores a new approach to capturing well-being and human development in a single, joint multidimensional index that is at once intuitive, rigorous and policy salient. Based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and the Alkire-Foster method as...Read more

Inequality, Social Mobility and Career Ladders

By: Anirudh Krishna
2020
This paper advances three related claims. First, raising social mobility and enhancing equality of opportunity are important for dealing with rising inequality. Second, promoting broad human development and raising individuals’ advanced capabilities is a...Read more

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