Abstract
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of human development. This paper reviews the strengths and limitations of the HDI as a monitoring instrument of human development and of human rights in economic and social areas. It focuses on the following questions:
- The what and why – the purpose of the HDI as a summary measure of average national achievement in human development, focussing on survival, knowledge and decent standard of living.
- Beyond the HDI – beyond national average achievements to focussing on deprivation and inequality perspectives.
- Beyond the HDI – beyond the 3 HDI dimensions (survival, knowledge and decent standard of living) to other important dimensions of human development such as personal security, participation.
- HDI and human rights – human rights and human development are two sides of a coin but not the same thing.
- HDI and human rights – human rights measures focussing on accountability.
- Statistics and human rights.
The paper draws from the Human Development Report 2000, especially the following sections: Chapter 1, Chapter 5 and ‘What do the Human Development Indices Reveal?” The Human Development Report 2000 is available on line http://www.undp.org/hdro/hdr2000.html.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.