Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a series of annual Human
Development Reports (HDRs) in which the human development index (HDI) is computed for each country. This
index has become an important alternative to the traditional unidimensional measure of development (i.e. the gross
domestic product). Although the index still fails to include any ecological considerations, it has broadened the
discussion surrounding the evaluation of development. Unfortunately, over the years, the HDRs seem to have become
stagnant, repeating the same rhetoric without necessarily increasing the HDI’s utility. This paper evaluates how well
these reports have lived up to their own conceptual mandate and assesses the ability of the HDI to further the
development debate. We find that the reports have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capture
the essence of the world it seeks to portray. In addition, the index focuses almost exclusively on national performance
and ranking, but does not pay much attention to development from a global perspective. We propose the
incorporation of three simple modifications for the index as a first step to overcome these shortcomings. © 1998
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a series of annual HumanDevelopment Reports (HDRs) in which the human development index (HDI) is computed for each country. Thisindex has become an important alternative to the traditional unidimensional measure of development (i.e. the grossdomestic product). Although the index still fails to include any ecological considerations, it has broadened thediscussion surrounding the evaluation of development. Unfortunately, over the years, the HDRs seem to have becomestagnant, repeating the same rhetoric without necessarily increasing the HDI’s utility. This paper evaluates how wellthese reports have lived up to their own conceptual mandate and assesses the ability of the HDI to further thedevelopment debate. We find that the reports have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capturethe essence of the world it seeks to portray. In addition, the index focuses almost exclusively on national performanceand ranking, but does not pay much attention to development from a global perspective. We propose theincorporation of three simple modifications for the index as a first step to overcome these shortcomings. © 1998Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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