In the latest edition of its Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has concluded that, in spite of impressive human development progress made over the past quarter-century, many people are still behind, “with systemic, often unmeasured, barriers to catching up”.
The report, titled ‘Human Development for Everyone’, finds that although average human development improved significantly across all regions from 1990 to 2015, one in three people worldwide continues to live in low levels of human development, as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI).
At the launch of the report, which is usually compiled and published yearly by UNDP, Administrator Helen Clark noted that the world has come a long way in rolling back extreme poverty; in improving access to education, health and sanitation; and in expanding possibilities for women and girls; but emphasized, “those gains are a prelude to the next, possibly tougher, challenge: to ensure the benefits of global progress reach everyone”.
The report shows that, in almost every country, several groups face disadvantages that often overlap and reinforce each other, increasing vulnerability, widening the progress gap across generations, and making it harder to catch up as the world moves on.
According to the report, women and girls, rural dwellers, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and the LGBTI community are among those systematically excluded by barriers that are not purely economic, but political, social, and cultural as well.
Further, the report mentions that populations living in rural areas also face multiple barriers. For instance, children from poor rural households attending school are less likely to be learning reading, writing and mathematics.
Of note, too, is that marginalised groups often have limited opportunities to influence the institutions and policies that determine their lives. The report underscores the point that changing this is central to breaking the vicious circle of exclusion and deprivation. For example, Indigenous peoples account for five percent of the world’s population, but 15 percent of people living in poverty.
As part of its numerous recommendations, the report calls for far greater attention to empowering the most marginalised in society, and for giving them a greater voice in decision-making processes.
Additionally, the report calls for a more refined analysis to inform actions, including making a shift towards assessing progress in such areas as participation and autonomy. Key data, disaggregated for characteristics such as place, gender, socioeconomic status and ethnicity, is vital to know who is being left behind.
Moreover, the report warns that key development metrics can overstate progress when they focus on the quantity, rather than the quality, of development. For instance, girls’ enrolment in primary education has increased, but in half of 53 developing countries with data, the majority of adult women who completed four to six years of primary school are illiterate.
UNDP believes that despite progress gaps, universal human development is attainable. It explains that, over the last decades, we have witnessed achievements in human development that were once thought impossible. For example, since 1990, one billion people have escaped extreme poverty, and women’s empowerment has become a mainstream issue; while as recently as the 1990s, very few countries legally protected women from domestic violence, today 127 countries do.
The report stresses the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to build on these gains, noting that the agenda and human development approach are mutually reinforcing. The report includes recommendations to reorient policies to ensure progress reaches those furthest behind, and urges reforms of global markets and global institutions, to make them more equitable and representative.
An important point mentioned in the report is that too much attention is placed on national averages. Out of the 188 countries examined in the report, Guyana is listed as a ‘Developing Country’, and is grouped with Latin America and the Caribbean.
These national averages, however, often mask enormous variations in people’s lives. Hence, in order to move ahead with developmental aims, there is need to examine more closely not just what has been achieved, but also who has been excluded, and why.
