Filling Gaps in the Human Development Index: Findings for Asia and the Pacific

http://www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1308

Author(s): David A. Hastings
Economic Sector(s): (1) Global, regional and multisectoral economic and social development strategies and policies
UNESCAP Reference No.: WP/09/02
Division: Poverty and Development
Published Date: February 2009
Country: {Non-country Specific Publication}
Hard Copy Price: Online Copy Only

This paper reports on the geographic extension of the Human Development Index from 177 (a several-year plateau in the United Nations Development Programme's HDI) to over 230 economies, including all members and associate members of ESCAP. This increase in geographic coverage makes the HDI more useful for assessing the situations of all economies – including small economies traditionally omitted by UNDP's Human Development Reports. The components of the HDI are assessed to see which economies in the region display relatively strong performance, or may exhibit weaknesses, in those components. Middle-HDI economies in the region are found to generally lag their peers in GDP per capita, exceed many of their peers in literacy, and slightly lag many of their peers in life expectancy. High-HDI economies in the region tend to parallel their global peers with HDI normally being pulled up by income and literacy, and pulled down by life expectancy. Some lesser-developed economies slightly lead their developmental peers in life expectancy, while a few lag their peers in literacy and/or income. A plot of the Connection Index vs. Basic HDI indicates that Asian-Pacific developing economies tend to lag their global developmental peers in individual connectivity. Suggestions on using the HDI to support strategizing development policies and programmes are offered. The paper also offers thoughts on possible intellectual extensions, in the direction of a Human Security Index, which the author recently described elsewhere.

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1. Introduction

2. Increasing geographic inclusiveness of the HDI
Consistency issues

3. Findings on Asia and the Pacific: some examples
Discussion on income
Discussion on literacy
Discussion on life expectancy
The Human Development Index over time
Example application: connectivity and human development

4. Discussion: on the concept of an HDI

5. Discussion: the HDI as an aid to strategizing development

6. Conclusions and suggestions

7. Acknowledgements

References

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