Enterprise Excellence 1

Telling Statistics

The United Nations Development Programme produced its first Human Development Report in 1990. The compilers of that report struck an optimistic note: 'The 1990s are shaping up as the decade for human development.' Much of this optimism was well founded – since 1990 we have seen substantial improvements including:

• On average, people in developing countries are healthier, better educated and less impoverished and they are more likely to live in a multiparty democracy;
• Life expectancy in developing countries has increased by 2 years;
• There are 3 million fewer child deaths annually and 30 million fewer children out of school;
• More than 130 million people have escaped extreme poverty.

Huge challenges remain, however. The 2005 Human Development Report notes that:

• In 2003, 18 countries with a combined population of 460 million people registered lower scores on the human development index than in 1990 – an unprecedented reversal;
• 10.7 million children every year do not live see their fifth birthday;
• More than 1 billion people live in abject poverty on less than $1 per day;
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic claimed 3 million lives in 2003 and left 5 million people infected. Millions of children have been orphaned.

These statistics teach a simple but important lesson: development gains over the last fifteen years should neither be underestimated nor exaggerated. Much has been achieved but much remains to be done.

The 2005 Human Development Report can be downloaded here: www.hdr.undp.org