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About Human Development

What is human development?
2015 marks 25 years since the first Human Development Report introduced a new approach for
advancing human wellbeing. Human development or the human development approach - is about
expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which
human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities and choices.

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 peoples 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 labour 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 up 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 seeks to define a new development agenda post-2015, the human
development approach remains useful to articulating the objectives of development and improving
peoples 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 Sens 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).
The Human Development Report Office: inspiring the world towards human progress
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 Nations 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. A library of reports is available
here.
Measuring Human Development: The Human Development Index
One of the more important achievements of the human development approach, as embodied in
successive HDRs, has been to ensure a growing acceptance of the fact that monetary measures,

such as GDP per capita, are inadequate proxies of development. 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. This somewhat crude measure of human
development remains a simple unweighted average of a nations longevity, education and income
and is widely accepted in development discourse. Over the years, however, some modifications and
refinements have been made to the index. Indeed, the critics of the HDI and their concerns have
stimulated and continue to stimulate - adjustments to the index and the development of companion
indices which help paint a broader picture of global human development.
Key Readings
Take the Human Development Journey Course (2010), and online overview of human development (2 hours)

Mahbub ul Haq (1995) The Advent of the Human Development Report Chapter 3 from Reflections
on Human Development, Oxford University Press.
Amartya Sen (1999) The ends and means of development Chapter 2 from Development as
Freedom, Oxford University Press.
Selim Jahan (2002) Evolution of the Human Development Index, Section 2 from Handbook of
Human Development, Oxford University Press.
France Stewart (2013) Capabilities and Human Development: Beyond the individual the critical
role of social institutions and social competencies, Human Development Report Office Occasional
Paper, 2013/03.

Life expectancy - the average age to which a person lives, eg this is 79 in the
UK and 48 in Kenya.

Infant mortality rate - counts the number of babies, per 1000 live births, who
die under the age of one. This is 5 in the UK and 61 in Kenya.

Poverty - indices count the percentage of people living below the poverty level,
or on very small incomes (eg under 1 per day).

Access to basic services - the availability of services necessary for a healthy

life, such as clean water and sanitation.

Access to healthcare - takes into account statistics such as how many doctors
there are for every patient.

Risk of disease - calculates the percentage of people with diseases such as

AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Access to education - measures how many people attend primary school,

secondary school and higher education.

Literacy rate - is the percentage of adults who can read and write. This is 99
per cent in the UK, 85 per cent in Kenya and 60 per cent in India.

Access to technology - includes statistics such as the percentage of people

with access to phones, mobile phones, television and the internet.

Male/female equality - compares statistics such as the literacy rates and

employment between the sexes.

Government spending priorities - compares health and education expenditure

with military expenditure and paying off debts.