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1. General Background
 

Human Development Reports (HDRs) have emerged as one of the chief policy analysis and advocacy tools at the global, regional, national, and sub-national level. Over the years global, regional and national HDRs have developed niches in their respective fields. While national HDRs reflect specific country contexts, priorities and aspirations, the regional and global HDRs go beyond national boundaries to highlight regional and global issues and recommend multi-country cooperation in order to tackle them.

What makes these HDRs distinct from the other reports is that in their approach they keep people at the centre of development, and in their preparation they are a culmination of inclusive consultations that help to build consensus among various stakeholders. Realising the importance of a participatory and inclusive process, this aspect has been included as one of the basic principles of UNDP Corporate Policy on NHDRs (see http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/nhdr_cp_english.pdf).

Though global, regional and national HDRs are different in their choice of themes and address different (though overlapping) stakeholders, the basic principles common to all are:

  • Independence of analysis
  • Quality of analysis
  • Participatory and inclusive preparat
  • Flexibility and creativity in presentation
  • Follow up/advocacy after publication

About 640 NHDRs and 35 RHDRs have been produced across the globe since 1990. However, the challenge to conform to the above principles still remains. Each HDR is based in a different context, addresses different themes and uses different tools for analysis. Some HDRs have lived up to these principles and are remembered as a landmark in the field of human development. Others, despite the most sincere efforts, have not been able to match these standards. The challenge is thus to make each one of these unique and effective without compromising on any of the basic principles.

2. Scope of the Capacity Development Workshop

How do we improve our methods of mapping and tracking changes in human wellbeing in different societies taking into account multiple dimensions of progress? Efforts to answer this fundamental question have led to many advances in measurement techniques over the past several years, including through the work of Human Development Reports teams.

The HDRs often offer innovative statistics and other quantitative and qualitative measures in their attempt towards supporting better analysis and evidence-based policy messages that place people at the centre of development.

One of the most common techniques the HDRs use to measure human development is through composite indices, the best known being the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI, which goes beyond the conventional GDP measure as an indicator of progress, has continued to evolve since its introduction in 1990. It measures human wellbeing across some key HD dimensions for a large number of countries across the world. Globally, it has been a powerful advocacy tool that has gained the attention of policy makers, the media, academia and civil society. It has been exceptionally successful in providing an alternative to the GDP; the GDP which is used to reflect material conditions, is actually limited to capturing market activities only.

Despite the success of the HDI in offering an alternative to GDP, like any index, it still only measures some key aspects of human development. Its design and scope are constrained by the requirements of a globally comparative index. Some dimensions - such as long-term sustainability - are so conceptually different across countries and societies that attempting to include them in the index would likely simply muddle the interpretation.

In this context, the forthcoming 2010 global HDR will present a new dashboard of human development indicators which can help us make more informed judgements about what happens in different societies, in addition to a revised HDI.

At the same time, many additional measures and methodologies have been formulated and applied through the work of researchers, sister agencies, governments and other practitioners to assess progress. Because many of these are adapted to local contexts without the limitations of globally comparable indices they often can support a richer and more nuanced analysis of national and sub-national human development issues.

At the request of some COs in Asia-Pacific, the UNDP Regional Center with the Human Development Report Office and support from the Viet Nam CO is organizing a Multi-CO Technical Capacity Development Workshop on "Measuring Human Development" for Human Development Report (HDR) teams, UN programme staff, and national partners from the region.

The Workshop will be held in Ha Noi on 1-2 June 2010 and it aims to cover the following areas:

  • promote a better understanding of benefits and limitations of statistics in HDRs including the global HDR indices,
  • address issues related to methodological and data challenges in contexts of Asia- Pacific countries,
  • contribute to ways of capturing better the multi-dimensionality of poverty in the context of local circumstances,
  • encourage new approaches for measuring HD through South-South cooperation,
  • identify how to better link data with HDR policy recommendations,
  • share strategies on the effective use of HD data for wider outreach, effective advocacy and for programmes of development areas.

3. Objectives of the Capacity Development Workshop

This event is part of a series of capacity development initiatives supported by HDRU through a) training events on human development, b) stakeholder consultations on regional issues critical for human development, c) HD Fellowships, and d) partnership with the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre, resulting in the South Asia HDR.

The two main objectives of this workshop are:

  • Capacity development: strengthen technical capacity in countries, especially on issues of measurement of human development indicators/indices, multidimensionality of poverty and promote a better understanding of benefits and limitations of statistics in HDRs and MDGRs.
  • Information sharing: encourage South-South cooperation and share experiences and challenges in the preparation of HDRs, methodological and data related challenges and innovations in the context of local circumstances, and build on best practices with regard to analysis, advocacy, dissemination, etc.

4. Target Audience

The Workshop will have participants from UNDP's Human Development Report Office (HDRO), New York, the Asia-Pacific HDR Unit (HDRU) Colombo, HDR teams of UNDP Country Offices, and government officials concerned with measuring human development or the MDGs. The workshop is also expected to benefit from participation from government of Mexico, a South-South exchange of knowledge.

5. Suggested Readings

Human Development: Concept and strategies

Measuring Human Development

Human Development Reporting

Multidimensional Poverty

  • Alkire, Sabina, and James Foster. 2009. Counting and multidimensional poverty.Chapter 3 of The Poorest and Hungry: Assessments, Analyses, and Actions. IFPRI.
  • Alkire, Sabina, and James Foster. 2008. Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. OPHI Working Paper No 7. [http://www.ophi.org.uk/pubs/Alkire_Foster_CountingMultidimensionalPoverty.pdf]. Last accessed on 20 May 2010.
  • Santos, Maria Emma, and Karma Ura . 2008.Multidimensional poverty in Bhutan: Estimates and policy implications. OPHI Working Paper No 14. [http://www.ophi.org.uk/pubs/OPHI_WP14.pdf ]. Last accessed on 20 May 2010.

See other OPHI working papers available at
[http://www.ophi.org.uk/subindex.php?id=publications0]. Last accessed on 20 May 2010.

See conference papers on "The many dimensions of poverty" in [http://www.undppovertycentre.org/md-poverty/papers.htm]. Last accessed on 19 May 2010.