LocationsToday UNDP launch the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR), Report entitled “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century”.
The new report pioneers a more holistic way to measure countries’ progress beyond economic growth alone, in response to a new generation of inequalities that is emerging around technology, climate change and tertiary education.
The HDR suggests that this new face of inequality requires that we look beyond income, beyond statistical averages and beyond today, to tackle the deep and rising frustration with inequalities, fuelled by social and political interests that pit the power of the few against the powerlessness of the many. It will require the shifting of deeply entrenched social and political norms, embedded within a nation’s history and culture.
According to UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner “Inequality is not just about how much someone earns compared to their neighbour. It is about the unequal distribution of wealth and power: the entrenched social and political norms that are bringing people onto the streets today, with triggers as diverse as - the price of petrol, demands for political freedoms, the pursuit of fairness and justice. This is the new face of inequality and addressing it is not beyond solutions. Recognising it is a first step; what happens next is a choice that each leader must make.”
The HDR includes a Human Development Index (HDI) for a number of countries and regions, including Trinidad and Tobago which ranks high in the HDI - positioned at 63 out of 189 countries. However, a closer disaggregation of the data shows significant gaps and inequalities.
The report notes that in Latin America and the Caribbean, the perception of unfairness in the distribution of wealth has increased since 2012, returning to levels of the late 1990s. Inequality in self-reported happiness (or subjective well-being as it is also called), which had remained steady in the region until 2014, has risen since.
Please see here for the full report: http://hdr.undp.org/