The UNDP is not perfect but it's quite distinct from the IMF and World
Bank -- The "Human" in the _Human Development Report_ was chosen as an
implied criticism of the World Bank's _World Development Report._ The
HDI is of course more a rhetorical tool than a measure of anything, but
if you don't like it choose your own statistics. The basic purpose of
HDI was to develop a popular indicator that would give more weight to
the condition of poor people than GDP/capita does.
Provided you understand what they're measuring, there's also no shame in
using IMF or World Bank data. These two organizations have a lot of
power, and as a result they can get prompt figures out of a lot of
countries on a lot of things. The UN, lacking such power, tends to be
about five years behind. So if you want current GDP data on a lot of
countries there's nowhere else to go. Of course the global power
relations that exact this data are horrible. But even within nations,
the power relations that produce social data are often pretty worrisome
too.
Best, Colin
