Human Development Report 2015
"Work for Human Development"
Overview
Is gender equality destined to remain our perpetual aspirational dream?
Human development is about enlarging human choices—focusing on the richness of human lives rather than simply
the richness of economies. Critical to this process is work, which engages people all over the world
in different ways and takes up a major part of their lives. Of the world’s 7.3 billion people, 3.2 billion are in jobs, and
others engage in care work, creative work, voluntary work or other kinds of work or are preparing themselves as future
workers. Some of this work contributes to human development, and some does not. Some work even damages human
development.
Work enables people to earn a livelihood and
be economically secure. It is critical for equitable
economic growth, poverty reduction and
gender equality. It also allows people to fully
participate in society while affording them a
sense of dignity and worth. Work can contribute
to the public good, and work that involves
caring for others builds cohesion and bonds
within families and communities.
Work also strengthens societies. Human
beings working together not only increase material
well-being, they also accumulate a wide
body of knowledge that is the basis for cultures
and civilizations. And when all this work is
environmentally friendly, the benefits extend
across generations. Ultimately, work unleashes
human potential, human creativity and the
human spirit.
This year’s Human Development Report
explores how work can enhance human
development, given that the world of work
is changing fast and that substantial human
development challenges remain. The Report
takes a broad view of work, including voluntary
work and creative work, thus going beyond
jobs. And it examines the link between
work and human development, focusing on
care work as well as paid work and discussing
sustainable work.
The Report also makes the points that the
link between work and human development
is not automatic and that some work, such as
forced labour, can damage human development
by violating human rights, shattering human
dignity and sacrificing freedom and autonomy.
And without proper policies, work’s unequal
opportunities and rewards can be divisive, perpetuating
inequities in society.
The Report concludes that work can enhance
human development when policies expand
productive, remunerative and satisfying work
opportunities, enhance workers’ skills and
potential and ensure their rights, safety and
well-being. The Report also pursues an action
agenda based on a New Social Contract, a
Global Deal and the Decent Work AgendaTwenty-five years ago the first Human
Development Report presented the concept
of human development, a simple notion with
far-reaching implications. For too long, the
world had been preoccupied with material
opulence, pushing people to the periphery.
The human development framework, taking a
people-centred approach, changed the lens for
viewing development needs, bringing the lives
of people to the forefront.
It emphasized that the true aim of development
is not only to boost incomes, but also to
maximize human choices—by enhancing human
rights, freedoms, capabilities and opportunities
and by enabling people to lead long,
healthy and creative lives .
The human development concept is complemented
with a measure—the Human
Development Index (HDI)—that assesses human
well-being from a broad perspective, going
beyond income .
With this simple but powerful notion of
people-centred development, nearly twodozen global Human Development Reports
and more than 700 national Human
Development Reports have been produced
over the past 25 years. They have contributed
to the development discourse, assessed development
results, spurred research and innovative
thinking and recommended policy
options.
Work, not just jobs, contributes
to human progress and
enhances human development
From a human development perspective, the
notion of work is broader and deeper than that
of jobs or employment alone. Jobs provide income
and support human dignity, participation
and economic security. But the jobs framework
fails to capture many kinds of work that have
important human development implications
—as with care work, voluntary work and such
creative work as writing or painting.
The link between work and human development
is synergistic. Work enhances human
development by providing incomes and livelihoods,
by reducing poverty and by ensuring
equitable growth. Human development—by
enhancing health, knowledge, skills and
awareness—increases human capital and
broadens opportunities and choicesSince 1990 the world has made major strides
in human development. The global HDI value
has increased by more than a quarter and that
of the least developed countries by more than
half. This progress has been fairly steady over
time and across regions. The number of people
living in low human development fell from
3 billion in 1990 to slightly more than 1 billion
in 2014 (see table 8 in Statistical annex).
Today, people are living longer, more children
are going to school and more people have
access to clean water and basic sanitation. This
progress goes hand in hand with rising incomes,
producing the highest standards of living in human
history. A digital revolution now connects
people across societies and countries. Just as
important, political developments are enabling
more people than ever to live under democratic
regimes. All are important facets of human
development.
Between 1990 and 2015 income poverty in
developing country regions fell by more than
two-thirds. The number of extreme poor people
worldwide fell from 1.9 billion to 836 million.
The child mortality rate fell by more than half,
and under-five deaths fell from 12.7 million to
6 million. More than 2.6 billion people gained
access to an improved source of drinking water,
and 2.1 billion gained access to improved sanitation
facilities, even as the world’s population
rose from 5.3 billion to 7.3 billion.1
Work in various forms by 7.3 billion people
has contributed to this progress. Nearly a billion
people who work in agriculture and more
than 500 million family farms produce more
than 80 percent of the world’s food, improving
nutrition and health.2
Worldwide, 80 million
workers in health and education have enhanced
human capabilities.3
More than a billion
workers in services have contributed to human
progress. In China and India 23 million jobs
in clean energy are increasing environmental
sustainability.4
Work has a societal value that goes beyond
the gains of individual workers. More than
450 million entrepreneurs are contributing
to human innovation and creativity.5
Some
53 million paid domestic workers are addressing
the care needs of people.6
Care work for
children is preparing them for the future. Work
that involves caring for older people or people
with disabilities is helping them maintain their
capabilities. Work by artists, musicians and
writers is enriching human lives. More than
970 million people who engage in volunteer
activity each year are helping families and
communities, building social networks and
contributing to social cohesion.7
Yet human progress has been
uneven, human deprivations
are still widespread and much
human potential remains unused
Human development has been uneven among
regions, across countries and within countries.
In 2014 Latin America and the Caribbean’s
HDI value was 0.748, compared with 0.686
in the Arab States. And the maternal mortality
ratio was only 21 per 100,000 live births in
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development countries, compared with 183 in
South Asia (see table 5 in Statistical annex).
Globally women earn 24 percent less than
men and hold only 25 percent of administrative
and managerial positions in the business
world—while 32 percent of businesses have
no women in senior management positions.8
Women still hold only 22 percent of seats in
single or lower houses of national parliament.
In Malaysia the richest 10 percent of the population
had 32 percent of national income in
2012, the poorest 10 percent of the population
had only 2 percent.9
In Moldova 69 percent
of urban people have access to safe drinking
water, compared with only 23 percent of rural
people.10
Added to the uneven human development
achievements are widespread human deprivations.
Worldwide 795 million people suffer
from chronic hunger, 11 children under age
5 die every minute and 33 mothers die every
hour. About 37 million people live with HIV
and 11 million with tuberculosis.11
More than 660 million people use an unimproved
source of drinking water, 2.4 billion
people use an unimproved sanitation facility
and nearly a billion people resort to open
defecation.12
Worldwide 780 million adults and 103 million
young people (ages 15–24) are illiterate.
In developed countries 160 million people are
functionally illiterate. Globally 250 million
The number of people
living in low human
development fell by
nearly 2 billion
4 | HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2015
children have not learned basic skills—even
though 130 million of them have spent at least
four years in school.13
One critical human deprivation is not using,
misusing or underusing the deep human potential
of people for human development–enhancing
work. In 2015, 204 million people were out
of work, including 74 million young people—
based on formal unemployment data. About
830 million people in the world are working
poor—living on less than $2 a day—and more
than 1.5 billion are in vulnerable employment,
usually lacking decent working conditions and
adequate voice and social security.14
Unleashing this potential becomes even
more important when considering the emerging
human development challenges.
Take the rising inequalities in income, wealth
and opportunity. Today around 80 percent of
the world’s people have only 6 percent of the
world’s wealth. The share of the richest 1 percent
is likely to be more than 50 percent by
2016. In the world of work, wages lag behind
productivity, and workers’ shares in income
have been falling.15
Population growth, driven mostly by South
Asia and increasingly by Sub-Saharan Africa,
will have major implications for human
development—for work opportunities, the
care gap between care needs and care providers
and the provision of social protection. Recent
estimates indicate that there is a global shortage
of 13.6 million care workers, causing extreme
deficits in long-term care services for those
over age 65.16 Greater longevity, ageing, the
youth bulge and dependency ratios will all have
impacts. In 2050 more than two-thirds of the
world’s population—or 6.2 billion people—are
expected to live in urban areas, stressing the
coping capacities of cities.17
Human security is under threat from many
sources. At the end of 2014, 60 million people
had been displaced worldwide.18 Between 2000
and 2013 the cumulative death tolls from global
and national violent extremism rose more
than fivefold, from 3,361 to 17,958.19 Violence
against women is one of the most brutal threats
to human development. One in three women
has been subject to physical or sexual violence.20
Human development is undermined by multiple
shocks, vulnerabilities and risks—by epidemics,
by emerging health risks, by economic
and financial crises and by food and energy
insecurities. For example, noncommunicable
(or chronic) diseases are now a global health
risk, killing 38 million people each year, almost
three-quarters of them (28 million) in low- and
middle-income countries. 21 Almost 30 percent
(2.1 billion) of the world’s people are obese,
more than three-fifths of them in developing
country regions.22
Around the world communities are becoming
more vulnerable to the effects of climate
change, including the loss of biodiversity—the
lifeline of many poor communities. Around
1.3 billion people live on fragile lands.23
Millions are affected by natural disasters.
Work can enhance human
development, but some work
damages it—the link between
the two is not automatic
The link between work and human development
is not automatic. It depends on the
quality of work, the conditions of work, the
societal value of work and so on. Whether people
have a job is important, as are other issues.
For example: Is work safe? Are people fulfilled
and satisfied by their work? Are there prospects
for advancement? Does employment support
a flexible work–life balance? Are there equal
opportunities for women and men?
The quality of work also includes whether a
job provides dignity and a sense of pride and
whether it facilitates participation and interaction.
To strengthen the link with human
development, work also has to enhance environmental
sustainability. Work strengthens its
link with human development when it goes
beyond individual benefits to contribute to
shared social objectives, such as poverty and
inequality reduction, social cohesion, culture
and civilization.
Conversely, the value of work is diminished
and its link with human development becomes
weaker when there is discrimination and violence
at work. The most observable discrimination
is along gender lines—in positions, pay and
treatment. In the United States female financial
specialists’ salaries are only 66 percent of their
male counterparts’.,,,
courtesy:- HDR 2015
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