-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.undp.org/hdro/
> HUMAN
> DEVELOPMENT
> REPORT
> 1999
>
> Globalization
> with a human face
>
> Global markets, global technology, global ideas and global
> solidarity can enrich the lives of people everywhere. The
> challenge is to ensure that the benefits are shared equitably and
> that this increasing interdependence works for people—not just
> for profits. This year’s Report argues that globalization is not
> new, but that the present era of globalization, driven by
> competitive global markets, is outpacing the governance of
> markets and the repercussions on people.
>
>
> Characterized by “shrinking space, shrinking time and
> disappearing borders”, globalization has swung open the door to
> opportunities. Breakthroughs in communications technologies and
> biotechnology, if directed for the needs of people, can bring
> advances for all of humankind. But markets can go too far and
> squeeze the non-market activities so vital for human development.
> Fiscal squeezes are constraining the provision of social
> services. A time squeeze is reducing the supply and quality of
> caring labour. And an incentive squeeze is harming the
> environment. Globalization is also increasing human insecurity
> as the spread of global crime, disease and financial volatility
> outpaces actions to tackle them.
>
> The Report recommends an agenda for action: reforms of global
> governance to ensure greater equity, new regional approaches to
> collective action and negotiation and national and local policies
> to capture opportunities in the global marketplace and translate
> them more equitably into human advance.
>
> In addition to the ranking of 174 countries on the human
> development index (HDI), this year’s Report presents a new table
> on trends in human development from 1975 to 1997 for 79
> countries. This new table reveals that, overall, countries have
> made substantial progress in human development, but that the
> speed and extent of progress have been uneven.
>
> This Report also includes special contributions. Nobel laureate
> Amartya Sen describes the success of the human development index
> in bringing a human face to the assessment of development
> processes. Professor Paul Streeten gives a 10-year perspective on
> the Human Development Reports. And media magnate Ted Turner
> appeals for partnerships with the United Nations to face the new
> global challenges of our times.
>
> Human Development Report 1999 was prepared by a team of eminent
> economists and distinguished development professionals under the
> guidance of Richard Jolly, Special Adviser to the Administrator
> of UNDP, and Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director of the Human
> Development Report Office. The panel of consultants included
> Adebayo Adedeji, Philip Alston, Galal Amin, Lourdes Arizpe,
> Isabella Bakker, Yusuf Bangura, David Bigman, Bob Deacon, Meghnad
> Desai, Nancy Folbre, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Gerry Helleiner, K.
> S. Jomo, Azizur Rahman Khan, Martin Khor Kok Peng, Jong-Wha Lee,
> Michael Lipton, Nguyuru Lipumba, Raisul Awal Mahmood, Ranjini
> Mazumdar, Süle Özler, Theodore Panayotou, Alejandro Ramirez,
> Mohan Rao, Changyong Rhee, Ewa Ruminska-Zimny, Arjun Sengupta,
> Victor Tokman, Albert Tuijnman and John Whalley.
>
>
>
> The 1999 Human Development Report will be
> launched on the 12th of July in London, UK.
>
> Ordering Information
From
http://www.undp.org/hdro/indicators.html
<<This site lists all kinds of statistics -- listings for
Industrial Countries:
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
Statistics from the 1998 Human Development Report
• Human development index (All countries)
• Gender-related development index (All countries)
• Gender empowerment measure (All countries)
• Human poverty profile and index
• Women's access to education
• Women's participation in economic and political life
• Health profile
• Education profile
• Profile of people in work
• Unemployment
• Access to information and communications
• Social stress and social change
• Aid flows (disbursed)
• Aid flows (received)
• Military expenditure and resource use imbalances
• Financial inflows and outflows
• Growing urbanistaion
• Population trends
• Energy use
• Profile of environmental degradation
• Managing the environment
• National income accounts
• Trends in economic performance
>From IrishTimes
> Monday, July 12, 1999
>
> Poverty here second worst
> in developed world
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ------- By Paul Cullen, Development Correspondent
>
> Ireland has the highest levels of poverty in the industrialised
> world outside the USA, according to a report from the United
> Nations published today.
>
> For the second year in a row, the Human Development Report ranks
> Ireland 16th out of 17 Western countries, with 15.3 per cent of
> the population living in "human poverty".
>
> For the first time in many years, Ireland has fallen in the main
> ranking of social progress used in the report prepared by the UN
> Development Programme.
>
> Ireland now ranks 20th of the 174 states surveyed in the Human
> Development Index (HDI), down from 17th last year.
>
> The UNDP says the fall derives from new ways of calculating data,
> as well as changes in some of Ireland's figures for educational
> enrolment.
>
> The results show that while Ireland remains one of the most
> desirable places to live in the world, there are still massive
> inequalities in the distribution of wealth in the State.
>
> While the survey is based on statistics compiled several years
> ago, there is no evidence that the current boom is diminishing
> these inequalities.
>
> HDI is a widely accepted measure of the quality of life which
> takes account of income levels, life expectancy and education.
> For the sixth year in succession, Canada topped the index,
> followed by Norway and the US. The finding that large
> concentrations of poverty persist within the "Celtic Tiger"
> economy is likely to prove highly embarrassing to the Government.
>
> When similar results emerged from last year's reports, officials
> sought urgent meetings with the UNDP to ascertain whether the
> Irish statistics used in the report were accurate and up to date.
>
> The UNDP measures "human poverty" by looking at the figures for
> life expectancy after 60, illiteracy, poverty and long-term
> unemployment. The US tops the index with 16.5 per cent in
> poverty, followed by Ireland at 15.3 per cent and the UK at 15.1
> per cent. In contrast, 7 per cent of Sweden's population is in
> poverty.
>
> Ireland's bad showing in this index can be largely attributed to
> high figures for functional illiteracy. Almost 23 per cent of
> Irish people are functionally illiterate, meaning that they have
> difficulty performing basic tasks such as reading a bill or
> following instructions on a medicine bottle.
>
> Ireland also has one of the highest rates of long-term
> unemployment, at 7.1 per cent. Only Spain and Italy are higher.
> And about 10 per cent of the Irish population will not survive
> into their 60s.
>
> Ireland is the only state for which no figures indicating the
> distribution of wealth are provided. The UK emerges as the most
> unequal of societies, with the wealth of the richest 20 per cent
> almost 10 times that of the poorest 20 per cent.
>
> The report singles out Ireland's computer industry as an example
> of how a country can open a "fast track" to knowledge-based
> growth. It also cited this State's national partnership
> agreements as a model for other countries seeking consensus-led
> development.
>
> In the plethora of statistics contained in the report, it also
> emerges that Ireland has the lowest murder rate among Western
> countries, and the lowest rate of recorded rapes.
>From TheIndependent (UK)
> INTERNET HELPS MAKE THE WORLD MORE UNEQUAL THAN IT HAS EVER
BEEN
> BEFORE ITS MOST UNEQUAL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN GLOBAL INEQUALITY
> ACCELERATES TO THE WORST LEVELS IN HISTORY ACCESS TO THE NET:
THE
> NEW INDEX OF DEPRIVATION FOR THE WORLD'S POOR
>
>
> AVERAGE INCOME in the world's five richest countries is 74
times
> the level in the poorest five, the widest the inequality gap
has
> ever been.
>
> The tenth anniversary edition of the United Nations Human
> Development Report, which ranks countries according to their
> level of economic and social development, describes the
growing
> gap as "grotesque" and calls for urgent action to make the
world
> a fairer place.
>
> A special message from Ted Turner, the media mogul who donated
> $1bn (pounds 602m) to the UN last year, echoes the report's
> demand for poverty reduction. "It is as if globalisation is in
> fast forward and the world's ability to react to it is in slow
> motion," he writes.
>
> Other figures show that the world's richest 200 (Mr Turner is
> 38th) have more than doubled their wealth in the four years to
> 1998, to more than one trillion dollars (pounds 602bn). The 20
> per cent of the world's population that lives in developed
> countries enjoy 86 per cent of the income.
>
> The figures in this year's report show the UK climbing from
14th
> to 10th in the human development ranking, which incorporates
life
> expectancy, literacy and educational indicators as well as the
> more conventional GDP per head. The improvement, reflecting
> figures up to 1997, is due mainly to increasing enrolment in
> higher education.
>
> However, the UK fares worse on indicators of poverty. A high
> proportion of the population living on less than 50 per cent
of
> median income and a high proportion unable to read and write
well
> enough to function take it to number 15 in the poverty
rankings.
>
> Canada, Norway and the US top the human development table, as
> they did in 1998. At the bottom of the table, dominated by
> sub-Saharan Africa, lie Sierra Leone, Niger and Ethiopia.
>
> A chapter on technology highlights the unequal spread of new
> technologies such as the Internet and biotechnology. Only in
the
> richest countries is Internet access widespread, and even
there
> it is mainly a white, male, upper-income group phenomenon.
>
> Basic phone connections are rare outside big cities in the
> developing world, and can be poor in the rainy season.
Thailand
> has more mobile phones than all of Africa. The Human
Development
> Report is highly critical of the international rules that have
> allowed western multinationals to corner intellectual property
> rights and patents. This is allowing corporations to hijack
> traditional remedies. For example, two researchers at the
> University of Mississippi were granted a US patent for using
> turmeric to heal wounds, a practice which had been common
> knowledge in India for thousands of years. The patent was
> eventually repealed thanks to evidence provided by an ancient
> Sanskrit text. The exploitation of traditional knowledge has
> created a new skill: "bioprospecting". A few firms have agreed
to
> pay royalties to countries on sales of drugs successfully
derived
> from indigenous materials.
>
> Some multinationals are praised for their good global
> citizenship. For example, Mattel, the Disney organisation and
> Nike are singled out in the document for improving working
> conditions and pay in their Asian factories.
>
> The report, to be formally launched in London today by Clare
> Short, the Secretary of State for International Development,
says
> such voluntary action will not be enough and pleads for "a
> rewriting of the rules of globalisation".
>
> Its action plan includes controversial proposals for new
> international organisations such as a global central bank in
> addition to the IMF and a world investment trust that could
> redistribute incomes globally. It also urges a "bit tax" on
> Internet use to generate finance for the spread of new
> technology.
>
> However, Mark Malloch Brown, the administrator of the UN
> Development Programme, takes issue with the report's findings.
In
> a foreword he emphasises the need to make existing
institutions
> work better and says markets must remain the "central
organising
> principle of global economic life".
>
> The Widening Gap: Main Points of the UN Report
>
> n The three richest people in the world, Bill Gates, Warren
> Buffett and Paul Allen, have total assets - $156bn, according
to
> Forbes magazine - greater than the combined GNP of the 43
least
> developed countries. More than 600 million live in these
mainly
> sub-Saharan African states.
>
> n The number of computers connected to the Internet was 36
> million in 1998; ten years earlier it was 100,000.
>
> n A Bangladeshi would have to save all of his wages for eight
> years to buy a computer; an American needs only one month's
> salary.
>
> n Of all the patents in the world, 97 per cent are held by
> industrialised countries.
>
> n Organised crime syndicates are estimated to gross 15
trillion
> dollars (nine trillion pounds) a year.
>
> n More than 80 countries have a lower per capita income today
> than a decade ago.
>
> n Of all the new HIV infections, 95 per cent happen in
developing
> nations. World-wide, 16,000 people are infected every day.
>
> n Half of the $30bn (pounds 18bn) that was grossed by
Hollywood
> films in 1997 was taken at box offices outside the United
States.
>
>
> n Each day one-and-a-half trillion dollars (pounds 900bn)
flows
> through the world's currency markets.
>
> n The number of telephones per 100 people in Cambodia is one;
in
> Monaco it is 99.
>
> n Tanzania spends nine times more on repaying debts than on
> health care and four times more than it spends on education.
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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