Shaping human development: Which way next?

Abstract

The United Nations Development Programme's concept of human development, first presented in the 1990 Human Development Report (HDR), distilled the essence of the evolution in development thinking and effectively reoriented the debate by bringing people back into the centre of development. There has been much discussion of the HDRs in the literature and the reports have also evolved somewhat over the years. But the basic concept of human development seems to have become stagnant and the reports have not lived up to their own initial promises. We feel that if the reports are to maintain their position as frontrunners of the development debate, then they must explore further the relationship between the widening of human choices and the framework within which these choices are exercised, as alluded to in the first report itself. Furthermore, the reports should choose to focus explicitly on the role of the richest people and countries in promoting human development, the plight of the poorest people and countries, and on the growing disparities in today's world. The global perspective afforded by such a focus could be coupled to an exploration of the norms and values on which human development should be based. This should lead to an evolving and improved conception of human development that better reflects current global realities and future global aspirations.