Human Development Report 2019

Human Development Reimagined

21 March 2019

By Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP

UNDP’s Human Development Report (HDR) celebrates its 30th birthday next year. And in the run up to that the Human Development Report Office is embarking on a major effort to re-articulate human development for today’s world.

The HDR came at a turning point in the global development debate. During the second half of the 20th century there were growing concerns about the tyranny of the GDP: many decision makers seemed to believe that economic growth and development were synonymous even though the architects of GDP had specifically warned against it being used to measure a nation’s welfare. That first HDR in 1990marked a new era in which progress was not defined by economic growth alone, but by giving people opportunities and freedoms to live the lives they would value.

Global development stands at another milestone today: the 2030 Agenda offers a roadmap to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy lasting peace and prosperity. The agenda’s breadth and depth offers an opportunity, once again, for human development thinking to inspire a new generation of analysis, measurement and decision making to revolutionize global development.