Opportunities and Improving Their Well-Being. It Denotes Both The Process of Widening

THE ENTREPPRENEURIAL MINDSET
Chapter 1 – HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and

opportunities and improving their well-being. It denotes both the process of widening
people’s choices and the level of their achieved well-being. It helps distinguish clearly
between two sides of human development. Human development is about the real
freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live.
People: human development focuses on improving the lives people lead

rather than assuming that economic growth will lead, automatically, to greater
wellbeing for all. Income growth is seen as a means to development, rather
than an end in itself.
Opportunities: human development is about giving people more freedom to
live lives they value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and
giving them a chance to use them. For example, educating a girl would build
her skills, but it is of little use if she is denied access to jobs, or does not have
the right skills for the local labor market. Three foundations for human
development are to live a long, healthy and creative life, to be knowledgeable,
and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Many
other things are important too, especially in helping to create the right
conditions for human development, and some of these are in the table below.
Once the basics of human development are achieved, they open opportunities
for progress in other aspects of life.
Choice: human development is, fundamentally, about more choice. It is about
providing people with opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them.
No one can guarantee human happiness, and the choices people make are
their own concern. The process of development – human development -
should at least create an environment for people, individually and collectively,
to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading
productive and creative lives that they value.
As the international community moves toward implementing and monitoring the 2030
agenda, the human development approach remains useful to articulating the objectives
of development and improving people’s well-being by ensuring an equitable, sustainable
and stable planet.
Intellectual and Historical Underpinnings
The human development approach, developed by the economist Mahbub Ul Haq, is

anchored in the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities, often framed
in terms of whether people are able to “be” and “do” desirable things in life. Examples
include
Beings: well fed, sheltered, healthy
Doings: work, education, voting, participating in community life.
Freedom of choice is central to the approach: someone choosing to be
hungry (during a religious fast say) is quite different to someone who is hungry
because they cannot afford to buy food.
Ideas on the links between economic growth and development during the second half of
the 20th Century also had a formative influence. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and
economic growth emerged as leading indicator of national progress in many countries,
yet GDP was never intended to be used as a measure of wellbeing. In the 1970s and
80s development debate considered using alternative focuses to go beyond GDP,
including putting greater emphasis on employment, followed by redistribution with
growth, and then whether people had their basic needs met. These ideas helped pave
the way for the human development (both the approach and its measurement).
Levels of human development:
1. Primary –
a. Longevity of life
b. Knowledge
c. Resources for a decent standard of living
2. Secondary –
a. Political, economic and social freedom
b. Opportunities for being creative and productive
c. Personal self-respect and guaranteed human rights
Human Development Index
Human Development Reports (HDRs) have been released most years since 1990 and
have explored different themes through the human development approach. They have
had an extensive influence on development debate worldwide. The reports, produced
by the Human Development Report Office for the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), are ensured of editorial independence by the United Nation’s
General Assembly. Indeed, they are seen as reports to UNDP, not of UNDP. This allows
each report greater freedom to explore ideas and constructively challenge policies. The
reports have also inspired national and regional analyses which, by their nature, usually
address issues that are more country – or regionally - specific.
The first Human Development Report introduced the Human Development Index
(HDI) as a measure of achievement in the basic dimensions of human development
across countries.
2018 Statistical Update
Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical update is being released
to ensure consistency in reporting on key human development indices and statistics. It
includes an analysis of the state of human development—snapshots of current
conditions as well as long-term trends in human development indicators.
With a comprehensive statistical annex, our data gives an overview of the state of
development across the world, looking at long-term trends in human development
indicators across multiple dimensions and for every nation, the 2018 Update highlights
the considerable progress, but also the persistent deprivations and disparities.
Looking at 2018 results, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland and Germany lead the
HDI ranking of 189 countries and territories, while Niger, the Central African Republic,
South Sudan, Chad and Burundi have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement of
national achievements in health, education and income.
The overall trend globally is toward continued human development improvements, with
many countries moving up through the human development categories: out of the 189
countries for which the HDI is calculated, 59 countries are today in the very high human
development group and only 38 countries fall in the low HDI group. Just eight years ago
in 2010, the figures were 46 and 49 countries respectively.
Ireland enjoyed the highest increase in HDI rank between 2012 and 2017 moving up 13
places, while Turkey, the Dominican Republic and Botswana were also developing
strongly, each moving up eight places. All three steepest declines in human
development ranking were countries in conflict: the Syrian Arab Republic had the largest
decrease in HDI rank, falling 27 places, followed by Libya (26 places), and Yemen (20
places).
Movements in the HDI are driven by changes in health, education and income. Health
has improved considerably as shown by life expectancy at birth which has increased by
almost seven years globally, with Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia showing the
greatest progress, each experiencing increases of about 11 years since 1990. And,
today’s school-age children can expect to be in school for 3.4 years longer than those in
1990.
Disparities between and within countries continue to stifle progress
Average HDI levels have risen significantly since 1990 – 22 percent globally and 51
percent in least developed countries – reflecting that on average people are living
longer, are more educated and have greater income. But there remain massive
differences across the world in people’s well-being.
A child born today in Norway, the country with the highest HDI, can expect to live
beyond 82 years old and spend almost 18 years in school. While a child born in Niger,
the country with the lowest HDI, can expect only to live to 60 and spend just five years
in school. Such striking differences can be seen again and again.
A closer look at the HDI’s components sheds light on the unequal distribution of
outcomes in education, life expectancy and income within countries. The Inequality-
Adjusted Human Development Index allows one to compare levels of inequality within
countries, and the greater the inequality, the more a country’s HDI falls.
While significant inequality occurs in many countries, including in some of the wealthiest
ones, on average it takes a bigger toll on countries with lower human development
levels. Low and medium human development countries lose respectively 31 and 25
percent of their human development level from inequality, while for very high human
development countries, the average loss is 11 percent.
Gender gaps in early years are closing, but inequalities persist in adulthood
One key source of inequality within countries is the gap in opportunities, achievements
and empowerment between women and men. Worldwide the average HDI for women is
six percent lower than for men, due to women’s lower income and educational
attainment in many countries.
Although there has been laudable progress in the number of girls attending school,
there remain big differences between other key aspects of men and women’s lives.
Women’s empowerment remains a particular challenge.
Global labor force participation rates for women are lower than for men – 49 percent
versus 75 percent. And when women are in the labor market, their unemployment rates
are 24 percent higher than their male counterparts. Women globally also do much more
unpaid domestic and care work than men.
Overall, women’s share of parliamentary seats remains low although it varies across
regions, from 17.5 and 18 percent in South Asia and the Arab States, respectively; to 29
percent in Latin America and Caribbean and OECD countries. Violence against women
affects all societies, and in some regions childhood marriage and high adolescence birth
rates undermine the opportunities for many young women and girls. In South Asia, 29
percent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before their 18th
birthday.
High adolescent birth rates, early motherhood, and poor and unequal access to pre-
and post-natal health services result in a high maternal mortality ratio. At 101 per 1,000
live births, Sub-Saharan Africa’s adolescent birth rate is more than twice the world
average of 44 per 1,000 live births. Latin America and the Caribbean follows with 62 per
1,000 live births. Even though Sub-Saharan Africa’s maternal mortality ratio is 549
deaths per 100,000 live births, some countries in the region such as Cabo Verde have
achieved a much lower rate (42 deaths per 100,000 live births).
Looking beyond the HDI at the Quality of Development
There is tremendous variation between countries in the quality of education, healthcare
and many other key aspects of life.
In Sub-Saharan Africa there are on average 39 primary school pupils per teacher,
followed by South Asia with 35 pupils per teacher. But in OECD countries, East Asia and
the Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia there is an average of one teacher for every
16-18 primary school pupils. And, while in OECD countries and East Asia and the
Pacific there are on average 29 and 28 physicians for every 10,000 people respectively,
in South Asia there are only eight, and in Sub-Saharan Africa not even two.
New statistical dashboards
In addition to the standard HDR tables, statistical dashboards are included to draw
attention to the relationship between human well-being and five topics: quality of human
development, life-course gender gaps, women’s empowerment, environmental
sustainability and socioeconomic sustainability.
Latest Human Development Index (HDI) Ranking

Opportunities and Improving Their Well-Being. It Denotes Both The Process of Widening

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Opportunities and Improving Their Well-Being. It Denotes Both The Process of Widening

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Opportunities and Improving Their Well-Being. It Denotes Both The Process of Widening

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE ENTREPPRENEURIAL MINDSET

Chapter 1 – HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and

People: human development focuses on improving the lives people lead

Intellectual and Historical Underpinnings

The human development approach, developed by the economist Mahbub Ul Haq, is

Human Development Index

2018 Statistical Update

You might also like