Category: Human Development
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Democracy Index and Human Development
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has recently published the latest iteration of its democracy index. The biggest headline about the new EIU report was the demotion of the US from “full” to “flawed democracy”, complemented by the medium-term decline of democracy in Eastern and Western Europe, and in North America. The latter is based on…
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More on Measuring Human Development
In a previous blog, I examined the relationship between GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI), which the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has published annually for the last 25 years. In this post, I want to dive deeper into the latter and explore some of its potential policy implications. HDI components and calculation The HDI…
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Measuring Well-Being and Human Development
GDP: Thanks, but no thanks A recent issue of The Economist had a couple of articles (plus the issue’s cover) on measuring prosperity, defined as advancing living standards over time. Nowadays, gross domestic product, GDP,1 We can also include here GDP’s sibling, Gross National Income or GNI. is king for measuring such progress. However, The…
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Technology and Development in History
Nowadays, the diffusion pace of technologies on a global scale is unprecedented. This is true for Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) best represented by the Internet (and all its newer platforms) and mobile technologies. Most will also agree that technologies somehow play a decisive role in fostering economic development and economic growth. While that might be true…
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Digital Dividends Déjà Vu
Background The first time I run into the notion of digital dividends was at the end of the last century. At the time, the first dot-com boom still running at full steam, totally unaware of the looming crash. Building on the hype of the new technologies and of the Internet in particular, the G-8 launched…
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Information Disclosure Panel meeting
Yesterday, I attended the first formal meeting of the Information Disclosure Oversight Panel which is being supported by BRSP/Civil Society unit. The information disclosure policy of UNDP was approved by the EB back in 1997, after extensive discussions and reviews both within UNDP and external partners. The document is buried somewhere deep in the UNDP…
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Irish Aid Meeting
Today, Stephen, Sarah and myself met with an Irish Aid delegation which included Mr. Tom Hanney- Director, Multilateral UN Policy, Ms. Dympna Hayes Deputy Director, Multilateral UN Policy, and Ms. Joana Betson, First Secretary. Mission of Ireland to the UN. The delegation had great interest in hearing from UNDP about the relevance of ICT into…