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Human Development Report 2025

A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI

The 2025 Human Development Report explores the implications of artificial intelligence for human development and the choices we can make to ensure that it enhances human capabilities. Rather than attempting to predict the future, the report argues that we must shape it—by making bold decisions so that AI augments what people can do.

Human Development Perspectives

2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Poverty amid conflict

The 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report overlays violent conflict data with multidimensional poverty data to better understand their interlinkages across countries and over time.

Global Reports

Human Development Report 2023-24

Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world

The 2023/24 Human Development Report assesses the dangerous gridlock resulting from uneven development progress, intensifying inequality, and escalating political polarization, that we must urgently tackle. The report emphasizes how global interdependence is being reconfigured and proposes a path forward where multilateralism plays a pivotal role.

Human Development Perspectives

2023 Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI)

Breaking down gender biases: Shifting social norms towards gender equality

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Background Papers
The human development discourse is conceptually underpinned by the capability approach. As such, a number of doubts and misgivings that have emerged over time regarding the capability approach has also caused a renewed soul-searching over the conceptual foundations of human development. The present note is an attempt to clarify some of the issues that have emerged in the course of this soul- searching.
Background Papers
This paper analyses the interactions among income, health and educational inequality, and reviews changes in the distribution of income, health and education during the last three decades in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The analysis tries to relate such changes to the development strategies followed by the countries of these regions during this period. Such strategies have exerted a considerable influence on public policy and human development inequality.
National Reports
Both theoretical foundations and empirical analysis demonstrate a direct but more intricate relationship between industrialization and human development. Human development is defined as the process of expanding individual freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance towards other goals that they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping equitable and sustainable development on a shared planet.
Background Papers

This paper provides a literature review of intrahousehold gender disparities in South Asia. The paper draws on quantitative and qualitative research focusing on three countries—Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka—as well as Pakistan to a lesser extent. The paper captures the disparities within households between men and women as well as boys and girls.
Regional Reports

Gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa on average $US95 billion a year, peaking at US$105 billion in 2014– or six percent of the region’s GDP – jeopardising the continent’s efforts for inclusive human development and economic growth, according to the Africa Human Development Report 2016. The report analyses the political, economic and social drivers that hamper African women’s advancement and proposes policies and concrete actions to close the gender gap.
Regional Reports

Sixth in the series, Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) 2016: Youth and the Prospects for Human Development in a Changing Reality examines challenges and opportunities facing youth in the region, especially since the transformative changes that had swept across many Arab countries in 2011. The report provides an evidenced-based overview on youth in the region.
National Reports
The report is about human development in Lesotho, particularly from the perspective of youth. It is directed to policy-makers, youth, development practitioners, journalists, captains in the private sector, civil society, development partners and all the citizens concerned about Lesotho’s human progress. The purpose is to solicit not only attention, but also action.
National Reports
The goal of the National Human Development Report (NHDR) 2015/2016 is to identify and analyse the inequalities both in terms of income and non-income that jeopardize sustainable development of the country and impact negatively the welfare of the population.