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Date: 2024-12-09 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00009491

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Human Development Report 1990 Concept and Measurement of Human Development This Report is about people - and about how development enlarges their choices. It is about more than GNP growth, more than income and wealth and more than producing commodities and accumulating capital. A person's access to income may be one of the choices, but it is not the sum total of human endeavour. Human development is a process of enlarging people's choices. The most critical of these wide-ranging choices are to live a long and healthy life, to be educated and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard ofliving. Additional choices include political freedom, guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect. Development enables people to have these choices. Noone can guarantee human happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. But the process of development should at least create a conducive environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. Human development thus concerns more than the formation of human capabilities, such as improved health or knowledge. It also concerns the use of these capabilities, be it for work, leisure or political and cultural activities. And if the scales of human development fail to balance the formation and use ofhuman capabilities, much human potential will be frustrated. Download: hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf


Human Development Report 1991 Financing Human Development The lack of political commitment not of financial resources, i often the real cause of human neglect. That is the main conclusion of Human Development Report 1991. The Report is about financing human development. A single powerful idea runs through it-that the potential is enormous for restructuring national budgets and international aid in favour of human development. The Report concludes that much current spending is misdirected and inefficiently used. If the priorities are set right, more money will be available for accelerated human proggres . The concept of human development introduced in the first of of these Reports last year--established that me basic objective of human development is to enlarge the range of people's choices to make development more democratic and participatory. These choices should include access to income and employment opportunities, education and health, and a clean and safe physical environment. Each individual should also have the opportunity to participate fully in community decisions and to enjoy human, economic and political freedom . Download: hdr_1991_en_complete_nostats.pdf Human Development Concepts and Measurement http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/220/hdr_1991_en_complete_nostats.pdf


Human Development Report 1992 Global Dimensions of Human Development The world has a unique opportunity in the current decade to use global markets for the benefit of all nations and all people. Human Development Report 1992 looks at the workings of these global markets-at how they meet, or fail to meet, the needs of the world's poorest people. The global issues in this Report supplement the analysis of domestic policy issues in the first two Reports, which stressed that the real causes of poverty and human deprivation lie deep in the national policy actions of the developing countries. Improvements in external environment can help greatly, but they can never substitute for domestic reforms. This Report attempts to place global markets in proper perspective. Competitive markets are the best guarantee for efficient production. But these markets must be open to all the people, they require a skilfully crafted regulatory framework, and they must be supplemented by judicious social policy action. 'It is not a question of state or market: each has a large and irreplaceable role', as World Bank's World Development Report 1991 aptly summed up. Download: hdr_1992_en_complete_nostats.pdf Human Development Concepts and Measurement http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1992


Human Development Report 1993 People's Participation People's participation is becoming the central issue of our time. The democratic transition in many developing countries, the collapse of many socialist regimes, and the worldwide emergence of people's organizations- these are all part of a historic change, not just isolated events. People today have an urge-an impatient urge-to participate in the events and processes that shape their lives. And that impatience brings many dangers and opportunities. It can dissolve into anarchy, ethnic violence or social disintegration. But if properly nurtured in a responsive national and global framework, it can also become a source of tremendous vitality and innovation for the creation of new and more just societies. The dangers arise as the irresistible urge for participation clashes with inflexible systems. Although the achievements in human development have been significant during the past three decades, the reality is continuing exclusion. More than a billion of the world's people still languish in absolute poverty, and the poorest fifth find that the richest fifth enjoy more than 150 times their income. Women still earn only half as much as men-and despite constituting more than half the votes, have great difficulty securing even 10% representation in parliaments. Rural people in developing countries still receive less than half the income opportunities and social services available to their urban counterparts. Many ethnic minorities still live like a separate nation within their own countries. And political and economic democracy is still a reluctant process in several countries. Our world is still a world of difference. Download: hdr_1993_en_complete_nostats.pdf Human Development Concepts and Measurement http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1993


Human Development Report 1994 New Dimensions of Human Security The 1994 Report introduces a new concept of human security, which equates security with people rather than territories, with development rather than arms. It examines both the national and the global concerns of human security. The Report seeks to deal with these concerns through a new paradigm of sustainable human development, capturing the potential peace dividend, a new form of development co-operation and a restructured system of global institutions. It proposes that the World Summit for Social Development approve a world social charter, endorse a sustainable human development paradigm, create a global human security fund by capturing the future peace dividend, approve a 20:20 compact for human priority concerns, recommend global taxes for resource mobilization and establish an Economic Security Council. Increasing human security entails:

Investing in human development, not in arms;

Engaging policy makers to address the emerging peace dividend;

Giving the United Nations a clear mandate to promote and sustain development;

Enlarging the concept of development cooperation so that it includes all flows, not just aid;

Agreeing that 20 percent of national budgets and 20 percent of foreign aid be used for human development; and

Establishing an Economic Security Council. Download: hdr_1994_en_complete_nostats.pdf Human Security and Conflicts http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/255/hdr_1994_en_complete_nostats.pdf


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