Human Development Report

Dear Colleagues,

We have received Volume 7, Number 1 (March 2006) of the Journal of Human Development: Alternative Economics in Action. We would like to offer a free copy to the first 100 members of both HDR Networks (HDR-Net and HDRStats-Net) that email their request including their mailing address to Ms. Mamaye Gebretsadik (mamaye.gebretsadik@undp.org)

There is growing consensus that violent conflict is a major obstacle to human development. As stressed in the UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) 2005, the obvious human development costs of conflict include ‘loss of life, wounding, disability and rape’. But there are also other costs that ‘are less immediately visible and less easy to capture in figures’, including ‘collapsing food systems, disintegration of health and education services and lost income’, as well as ‘psychological stress and trauma’. As the UNDP HDR 2005 also stresses, addressing the human development costs of conflict raises the question of ‘challenges to reconstruction’ and ‘creating an effective umbrella for the development of human security’. This issue of the Journal of Human Development includes two contributions that aim to address aspects of these challenges.

In his contribution on violent conflicts and transnational wars organized around cultural identities, Barnett Rubin analyzes how these identities ‘constitute transnational networks as well as sub-state collectivities’. Post-conflict recovery and achieving human security are also affected by the ‘current global politico-security environment’ which ‘poses challenges to principled humanitarian action’, as Abby Stoddard and Adele Harmer argue in their contribution to this Journal issue.

A different but no less important aspect of addressing human development is analyzed in the contribution by Marjorie Gassner, Darwin Ugarte Ontiveros and Vincenzo Verardi which aims to test if electoral systems and human development are linked. Using quantitative analysis and econometric techniques, the authors conclude that ‘electoral systems play a critical role in explaining the difference in the levels of human development between countries’. The well-being aspect of human development, focusing specifically on how children conceptualize their priorities, is the focus of the contribution by Mario Biggeri, Renato Libanora, Stefano Mariani and Leonardo Menchini. Children participating in the ‘Children’s World Congress on Child Labour’ (Florence/Italy, May 2004) were invited to express their opinions on the most relevant issues related to their childhood and adolescence.

What are the implications of intra-urban inequalities for human development? The contribution of Monica A. Haddad and Zorica Nedoviæ-Budiæ aims to answer this question by exploring the relationship between, on the one hand, the UNDP Human Development Index and, on the other hand, the provision of public services and utilities as well as investment in socials programmes. The limits of pro-poor growth policies – taking Guatemala as an example - are the focus of Roman Krznaric’s contribution. The author argues that the persistence of rural poverty in Guatemala since the early 1990s ‘challenges the purported association between agricultural export growth and poverty alleviation’.

This Journal issue also includes a review by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr of the World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development published by the World Bank. What is the purpose of development and how do we asses progress? GDP growth? Expanding education and health? Democratization of political life? Reducing absolute poverty? Or reducing disparities and achieving greater equality of outcomes and opportunities? As the reviewer points out, the World Development Report 2006 is particularly important in helping the development community of academics, government policy makers, development practitioners in cooperation agencies, activists, companies and the public at large understand why equity is an important part of the development agenda.

I look forward to hearing from you with your comments and suggestions.

With best personal regards,

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Watkins
Director
Human Development Report Office
United Nations Development Programme

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Journal of Human Development
Alternative Economics in Action
Volume 7 Number 1 March 2006

Contents

Editors’ Introduction

• Central Asia and Central Africa: Transnational Wars and Ethnic Conflict
  Barnett R. Rubin
   
• Little Room to Maneuver: The Challenges to Humanitarian Action in the New Global Security Environment
  Abby Stoddard and Adele Harmer
   
• Human Development and Electoral Systems
  Marjorie Gassner, Darwin Ugarte Ontiveros and Vincenzo Verardi
   
• Children Conceptualizing their Capabilities: Results of a Survey Conducted during the First Children’s World Congress on Child Labour
  Mario Biggeri, Renato Libanora, Stefano Mariani and Leonardo Menchini
   
• Using Spatial Statistics to Analyze Intra-Urban Inequalities and Public Intervention in Sao Paulo, Brazil
  Monica Haddad and Zorica Nedoviæ-Budiæ
   
• The Limits on Pro-Poor Agricultural Trade in Guatemala: Land, Labour and Political Power
  Roman Krznaric
   
• Book Review
  World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development
  Published by The World Bank, 2005
  Reviewed by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
   
• Notes on Contributors