Defining “human development”

People have sought to define, explain, measure, alter and redefine the meaning of “hu-man development” throughout recorded history, particularly in the recent past (SARIPS, 2000; UNDP, 2004; UNDP, 2011a). The HDR-SA 2012 defines “human development”

as “a process that enlarges human choices and improves the quality of life for every man, woman and child across generations”. This definition is a summarised version of the defi-nition used in the 2000 HDR, which stated: “Human development is the process of enlarging people’s choices so that they can live a long and healthy life, be educated, have access to resources for a decent standard of living, enjoy political, economic, social and cultural freedoms, and have human rights, self-esteem and opportunities for being creative and productive”. The main point in both definitions is that human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about allowing people to realise their potential now and in the future, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives that they value.

The success of human development will depend on the elimination of barriers to eco-nomic, social, political and cultural opportunities, thus fostering the creation of human capabilities and freedoms for all human beings. These concerns are by no means easy to address. The HDR tries to bear this in mind throughout.

The HDR-SA 2012 on SADC acknowledges the many annual Human Development Re-ports (HDRs) produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others in the last few years. These have explored the challenges of development using dif-ferent themes such as:

• Fighting climate change and supporting human solidarity in a divided world (2007/2008)

• Overcoming barriers to human mobility and development (2009)

• The real wealth of nations (people) and pathways to human development (2010)

• Sustainability and equity towards a better future for all (2011)

• Towards a food-secure future (2012).

Their main thrust has been the Human Development Index (HDI), which provides a general measure of human progress through three components of human development, namely longevity, education levels and living standards. The important contribution of the HDI to our understanding of poverty, human development and progress cannot be overemphasised.

However, the HDI suffers from some limitations and is perhaps best used to complement other measures of human social progress. For instance, it does not give sufficient weight to the importance of other indicators in weighing the satisfaction of desires and needs which allows citizens to enjoy their rights of citizenship. In an era when freedom of expression and of participation are taken for granted as gains and unequivocal forms of democracy, measures of participation in the decisions and destinies of countries and regions, analysed by gender, are important determinants of the extent to which citizens of both sexes enjoy the same rights as enshrined in the constitutions of their countries and the policies of their regions and subregions.

Various observers have attempted to address some of the limitations of the HDI, partially addressing these by exploring alternative indicators. One example is the Human Poverty Index (HPI), which indicates the proportion of people living below the threshold in basic dimensions of human development. Another is the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which measures the extent to which gender inequality erodes development in three aspects of human development: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. It is well documented that UNDP and others have done important work in the area of tracking human development progress along different dimensions. The summary below – drawing mainly from a paper of Prof V. Seshamani (2010)¹ – presents a useful account of some of the most ground-breaking efforts:

Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Atlas Method: a measure of income, it works on the principle of firstly measuring a society or country’s output in monetary terms as national income and then dividing the result by the mid-year population size to get the broad average income share of each member of the population. This was popularised by the World Bank.

The Human Development Index (HDI): the concept of human development, which is sum-marised in the HDI, was introduced in 1990 and went beyond the concept of per capita income. The HDI included non-money metric variables (average life expectancy at birth and education) in addition to money-metric income, adjusted for purchasing-power par-ity. The concept was popularised by UNDP.

Human Poverty Index (HPI): In 1997, the Human Development Report of UNDP intro-duced the concept of the HPI in addition to the money-metric indices of poverty. Ac-cording to the UNDP²: “The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential 1 V. Seshamani is a professor of economics at the University of Zambia. The paper cited here is a

revised version of a paper presented at an Annual National Economic Development Conference organized by Zambia Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) on the theme “Achieving Middle Income Status” on November 25, 2010 in Lusaka, Zambia.

2 See for example the UNDP definitions at http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/understanding/indices/

elements of human life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living”. The index suggests that even if a country is making progress in GNI and HDI, it can be deemed to be developing only if it was making progress in reducing deprivation based on both the HPI and money-metric measures of poverty.

Happy Planet Index: There is growing realisation globally that happiness is a more funda-mental goal to strive for than income and wealth and attempts are being made to develop methodologies to quantify happiness. Some scholars believe that the use of the GDP is not appropriate as the most people’s ultimate aim is to be happy rather than rich. Prosperity in the sense of human well-being is characterised as “Happy Life Years”. A Happy Planet Index has been developed based on life expectancy, subjective life satisfaction and ecologi-cal footprint. The third factor is considered important to gauge sustainability of welfare over time.

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Pursuant to developing HDI and HPI, in its Hu-man Development Report 2010, the UNDP developed a new MPI. SeshaHu-mani (2010) ex-plains: “The MPI considers deprivation in three dimensions with several constituents:

Living Standards (assets, floor, electricity, water, toilet, cooking fuel); Education (children enrolled, years of schooling); and Health (child mortality, nutrition).”

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Another avenue for measuring and tracking progress in human development is through the MDGs (which are not discussed in Ses-hamani’s paper). The MDGs are part of a global action plan. They are a set of eight anti-poverty goals (eradicate extreme anti-poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education;

promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustain-ability; and develop a global partnership for development) that the global community has committed to achieve by 2015.

Although there is this extensive array of definitions and measurement efforts, there is appreciation for the need to provide a comprehensive report on progress made in the SADC subregion in human development using appropriate sets of indicators, supported by sound empirical research and policy analysis. The HDR-SA 2012 on SADC does not seek to include or draw on each of the listed measures of human development. The list is simply meant to illustrate that understanding what human development is and what it takes to make meaningful gains in this area has been a preoccupation of many develop-ment scholars. It shows that the subject matter of this report is very important throughout the world.

Social integration aspects of human development in a subregional context are another very important element in understanding true human progress. Social integration has to do with progress beyond economic aspects of integration and it includes things such as cultural integration and exchange, free movement of natural persons, harmonisation of political systems, like-mindedness in security and conflict-resolution efforts, and so on. It is also important to understand bottlenecks to social integration, such as overly prohibitive

hpi/ (accessed on 6 July 2013).

laws and regulations, and “sticky” traditions. These aspects have important implications for human development and ideally should be included in any effort that seeks to measure and track human progress.

Ultimately this simply underscores the need to appreciate but also to go beyond the tra-ditional indicators of human development, which are captured in many UNDP reports, to include various aspects of human progress, including from a subregional perspective.

The tracking, monitoring and evaluating of human development on an ongoing basis and using the ensuing knowledge to achieve further human development through appropriate policy formulation and implementation is at the heart of the development agenda. It is quintessential at international, subregional, national and sub-national levels. Elaborating an HDR on the SADC subregion is very closely related to the core mandates of SADC (see www.sadc.int).