The Human Development Report (HDR), published by the UNDP, gained in respectability and importance soon after its publication in 1990. Its main theme, 'people are the main resource of a nation', engaged the attention of policymakers and development practitioners all over the world. It was not a new idea but did not have strong advocate before. Coming from the UNDP, the world body responsible for promoting socio-economic development, human development concept received ownership of developing countries and became integral to their development strategy in no time.
The HDR is an analytical report on human development with emphasis on the issues, trends and policies related to the growth of human development. The concept is elaborated through Human Development Index (HDI), Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Inequality Index and Poverty Index. The HDI focuses on three basic dimensions of human development: (i) healthy life (ii) access to education and (iii) access to resources needed for decent leaving. Human development, according to the current definition of the concept, creates an enabling environment for people to lead a life according to their choices.
Recently published HDR 2013 titled The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World is a departure from the past as it concentrates on a particular geographical area, the South. The Report has tried to explain the factors behind the rise of countries in the southern hemisphere, policies pursued by them and the impact of the rise to the global governance. According to the HDR 2013, more than 30 countries in the South have done better than expected in human development in recent decades. Among the countries are: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Thailand and Tunisia. It has been pointed out that on the one hand, this countries have achieved success in creating regulatory and management system for development, on the other, they have succeeded in avoiding the adoption of 'Washington Consensus' designed for open-ended liberalisation of the economy. The Report also points out that although growth in some of the southern countries has been slow, co-operation among them in trade, investment and financing have progressed satisfactorily. Sharing the same problems and challenges they have become more inter-connected.
According to HDR 2013, Bangladesh's HDI for 2012 is 0.515 which classifies the country in the low human development category as in previous years. But some improvement has taken place even in the midst of having this status quo in classification. The country now ranks 146 out of 187 countries in HDI in 2012, compared to last year when its rank was 147. Improvement is reflected in Bangladesh's life expectancy at birth which increased by 14 years, expected years of schooling which rose by 3.7 years and per capita income rise by about 175 per cent. It is seen that Bangladesh's HDI of 0.515 is above the average of 0.466 for countries in the low human development group. It is interesting to note that Bangladesh and India have succeeded in keeping a steady growth with the HDI over a period of three decades whereas Pakistan with similar socio-economic background has experienced fluctuations in HDI.
The Administrator of the UNDP has mentioned in the Foreword of the Report that economic growth alone does not automatically translate into human development. According to her, pro-poor policies and investment in peoples' capabilities through focus on education, nutrition, health and employment skills can provide for sustained progress in human development. She has identified four specific areas of priority: (a) promoting equity including gender equality (b) providing greater scope for participation of people (c) successful environmental management and (d) planning demographic change.
As regards the four pre-conditions for sustained human development, it can be said that Bangladesh has fulfilled these moderately. The pro-poor policy of Bangladesh is reflected in the many poverty alleviation porgrammes undertaken both by the government and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs). However, progress in education, health and nutrition of poor as a whole has been slow. Expanding employment skills has also not kept pace with the demand. Similarly, progress in the four key areas mentioned above has also lagged behind leaving much to be desired. Enhancing equity, particularly gender equality, is struggling to gain a foothold. The success in this respect is seen to be more in urban areas and among the educated class. Civil society and the media have done a fairly good job in giving voice to people but the role of the political parties in this respect is not very significant because of divisiveness and partisanship. Participation in governance has suffered because of lack of transparency and inadequate level of accountability. Again, political parties have failed to broaden the scope of participation because of lack of democratic practice within the parties. Awareness about sustainable management of environment has progressed rather slowly and poverty of people have undermined this significantly. As regards demographic change it appears that the issue was sent into hibernation for quite sometime. It is only recently that the management of population has gained renewed interest from policy makers and officials concerned. Half-hearted and inadequate management of demographic change has now become a problem defying easy solution.
HDR 2013 is important for Bangladesh as it draws attention to a number of key issues of human development. It succeeds in reminding that human development is a continuing goal and there is no room for complacency.
hasnat.hye5@gmail.com
Human development and Bangladesh
Hasnat Abdul Hye | Published: November 05, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2025 06:01:00
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