The UN Development Programme has published its 2014 Human Development Report, titled Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience.
Established in 1990, this annual report uses a range of measures and indices to provide people-centred assessments of countries' development. The results then form the basis of a rankings system, known as the Human Development Index.
This year's report finds that 1.2 billion people currently live on less than $1.25 a day - the widely accepted definition of extreme poverty - but that overall these numbers are falling. Importantly, the report emphasises that a country's economic growth alone will not be sufficient to pull the remaining 1.2 billion out of poverty.
This will be particularly relevant to the UN's post-2015 development agenda, which is considering a global target of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. The report states:
Reducing both poverty and people's vulnerability to falling into poverty must be a central objective of the post-2015 agenda ... Eliminating extreme poverty is not just about 'getting to zero'; it is also about staying there.
In order for poverty eradication efforts to be both sustainable and resiliant, the report focusses on the need for much wider social protection measures - safety nets such as pensions and welfare assistance - to protect the most vulnerable. Currently only 20 per cent of the world's population enjoys such social protections, and it's estimated that 800 million people could slip back into extreme poverty if faced with external shocks, such as food crises or natural disasters.
Human development in the UK
Sir Richard Jolly, former UNA-UK Chairman and current Policy Advisory Group member, spoke at the UK launch of the report, linking its findings to human development here in the UK:
Last week, the IMF reported that the UK was the fastest growing economy among developed countries. The 2014 Human Development Report, released today by the United Nations Development Programme, provides a more challenging perspective ... Judged by the Human Development Index, a metric based on a country’s life expectancy, education and income, the UK stands number 14 on the list, not number one.
From 1996 to 2000 Sir Richard was a Special Adviser to the Administrator of the UN Development Programme, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Human Development Report.
