THE HUMAN-DEVELOPMENT INDEX - A CRITICAL-REVIEW

Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has publis hed a series of annual Human Development Reports (HDRs) in which the h uman development index (HDI) is computed for each country. This index has become an important alternative to the traditional unidimensional measure of development (i.e. the gross domestic product). Although the index still fails to include any ecological considerations, it has br oadened the discussion surrounding the evaluation of development. Unfo rtunately, over the years, the HDRs seem to have become stagnant, repe ating the same rhetoric without necessarily increasing the HDI's utili ty. This paper evaluates how well these reports have lived up to their own conceptual mandate and assesses the ability of the HDI to further the development debate. We find that the reports have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capture the essence of t he world it seeks to portray. In addition, the index focuses almost ex clusively on national performance and ranking, but does not pay much a ttention to development from a global perspective. We propose the inco rporation of three simple modifications for the index as a first step to overcome these shortcomings. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.