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 was
launched on the 12th of July in London, UK.
