10 NEWS The United Nations 20th Human D e v e l o p m e n t Report, launched un-der the theme: “The real wealth of nations: path-ways to human develop-ment,” shows an increase in human development in Guyana from 1980 to 2010. The report was launched on Thursday at the offices of the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme on Brickdam; and UNDP’s Resident Coordinator, Kiari Liman Tinguri, said that social sector spending in Guyana has been a prior-ity in local development.He noted that key re-sults show Guyana’s hu-man development indica-tor (HDI) value for 2010 is 0.611, placing Guyana in the medium human development catego-ry, and positioning the country at 104 out of 169. “Between 1980 and 2010, Guyana’s human devel-opment value increased from 0.500 to 0.611, an increase of 22 per cent, or average annual in-crease of about 0.7 per cent. “Most of the results are encouraging in the context of what we are all working to achieve, though much remains to be done,” he said. He pointed out that the overall report found that gaps in health and education have nar-rowed significantly; yet a small set of countries remain at the top of the world income distribu-tion, and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that group.He added that despite overall progress, trends have not been whollypositive, and variation is striking. Some countries have suffered serious setbacks, particularly in health – sometimes eras-ing in a few years the gains of several decades. The recent global finan-cial crisis has been a fur-ther setback for many, he said. “Human development goes beyond education, health and income; and not all good things go to-gether. Countries mayhave a high HDI and be undemocratic, inequita-ble and unsustainable – just as they may have a low HDI and be relative-ly democratic, equita-ble and sustainable,” he noted. He stated that the report also found that political freedoms are ex-panding, and more peo-ple than ever can choose their own leaders and hold them accountable. The 2010 report, he says, reaffirms the ba-sic concept of human de-velopment as the expan-sion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shap-ing development equi-tably and sustainablyon a shared planet. He pointed out that people in most of the world have experienced major ad-vances in recent decades, since a systematic analy-sis of 135 developing and developed countries from 1970 to 2010 shows dra-matic progress. “Average life expectancy rose from 59 to 70 years, pri-mary school enrolment grew from 55 to 70 per cent, and per capita in-comes doubled to more than $10,000. Many of the poorest countries (have) achieved some of the greatest gains,” he said. The UNDP official high-lighted that progress is possible even without massive resources, and the lives of people can be improved through means already at the disposal of most countries. “Global knowledge and techni-cal progress are enabling critical advances, even in relatively poor countries. Command over resources week ending november 14, 2010 | guyanatimeSinternational.com Guyana gets good reviews in UN Human Development Report is still the key to expand-ing many capabilities,but countries can achieve improvements even where growth is elusive,” he said. He stressed the need for continued in-vestments in data acqui-sition and monitoring,especially covering miss-ing dimensions like im-portant aspects of gender and empowerment.Meanwhile, ForeignAffairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who received the report, said that the 2010 report re-affirms that develop-ment is primarily about people, and celebrates the human development approach as an approach that points out that the development objectiveshould be to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long and healthy lives.She pointed out that, while the report recogn-ises there is no consen-sus on a development policy, it offers impor-tant insights on impor-tant issues. She said the report offers a mixed re-view of the last two de-cades in which, although there has been signifi-cant progress in several areas, there has been in-creasing inequality.She stated that, de-spite this, Latin America and the Caribbean — the region with the widest income disparity –has made major improve-ments as a result of mainly public spending and targeted social poli-cies. “This is interesting and instructive, since it was during this period, too, that many states in Latin America reject-ed the conventional pol-icy prescriptions for ad-dressing developmentissues; and, indeed, the states played the leading role,” she said. She pointed out that in order for human devel-opment to become tru-ly sustainable, the close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be realised. “In other words, the biggest challengefor us now is that of cli-mate change. This is not any different (from) what we have been saying in Guyana. Indeed, we have gone further to offer solu-tions via the Low Carbon Development Strategyand forests, even though we recognise that this challenge has to be faced down with a global re-sponse,” the minister noted. She emphasised the need for the individuality of states, their strengths and weaknesses to be taken into consideration. “There are times when some of our development partners believe theycan import or transplant a model from some other place without recognis-ing our own peculiarity,” she said. 16 homeless after fire guts two Golden Grove homes
Guyana gets good reviews in UN Human Development Report
The United Nations 20th Human D e v e l o p m e n t Report, launched un-der the theme: “The real wealth of nations: path-ways to human develop-ment,” shows an increase in human development in Guyana from 1980 to 2010. The report was launched on Thursday at the offices of the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme on Brickdam; and UNDP’s Resident Coordinator, Kiari Liman Tinguri, said that social sector spending in Guyana has been a prior-ity in local development.He noted that key re-sults show Guyana’s hu-man development indica-tor (HDI) value for 2010 is 0.611, placing Guyana in the medium human development catego-ry, and positioning the country at 104 out of 169. “Between 1980 and 2010, Guyana’s human devel-opment value increased from 0.500 to 0.611, an increase of 22 per cent, or average annual in-crease of about 0.7 per cent. “Most of the results are encouraging in the context of what we are all working to achieve, though much remains to be done,” he said. He pointed out that the overall report found that gaps in health and education have nar-rowed significantly; yet a small set of countries remain at the top of the world income distribu-tion, and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that group.He added that despite overall progress, trends have not been whollypositive, and variation is striking. Some countries have suffered serious setbacks, particularly in health – sometimes eras-ing in a few years the gains of several decades. The recent global finan-cial crisis has been a fur-ther setback for many, he said. “Human development goes beyond education, health and income; and not all good things go to-gether. Countries mayhave a high HDI and be undemocratic, inequita-ble and unsustainable – just as they may have a low HDI and be relative-ly democratic, equita-ble and sustainable,” he noted. He stated that the report also found that political freedoms are ex-panding, and more peo-ple than ever can choose their own leaders and hold them accountable. The 2010 report, he says, reaffirms the ba-sic concept of human de-velopment as the expan-sion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shap-ing development equi-tably and sustainablyon a shared planet. He pointed out that people in most of the world have experienced major ad-vances in recent decades, since a systematic analy-sis of 135 developing and developed countries from 1970 to 2010 shows dra-matic progress. “Average life expectancy rose from 59 to 70 years, pri-mary school enrolment grew from 55 to 70 per cent, and per capita in-comes doubled to more than $10,000. Many of the poorest countries (have) achieved some of the greatest gains,” he said. The UNDP official high-lighted that progress is possible even without massive resources, and the lives of people can be improved through means already at the disposal of most countries. “Global knowledge and techni-cal progress are enabling critical advances, even in relatively poor countries. Command over resources week ending november 14, 2010 | guyanatimeSinternational.com Guyana gets good reviews in UN Human Development Report is still the key to expand-ing many capabilities,but countries can achieve improvements even where growth is elusive,” he said. He stressed the need for continued in-vestments in data acqui-sition and monitoring,especially covering miss-ing dimensions like im-portant aspects of gender and empowerment.Meanwhile, ForeignAffairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who received the report, said that the 2010 report re-affirms that develop-ment is primarily about people, and celebrates the human development approach as an approach that points out that the development objectiveshould be to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long and healthy lives.She pointed out that, while the report recogn-ises there is no consen-sus on a development policy, it offers impor-tant insights on impor-tant issues. She said the report offers a mixed re-view of the last two de-cades in which, although there has been signifi-cant progress in several areas, there has been in-creasing inequality.She stated that, de-spite this, Latin America and the Caribbean — the region with the widest income disparity –has made major improve-ments as a result of mainly public spending and targeted social poli-cies. “This is interesting and instructive, since it was during this period, too, that many states in Latin America reject-ed the conventional pol-icy prescriptions for ad-dressing developmentissues; and, indeed, the states played the leading role,” she said. She pointed out that in order for human devel-opment to become tru-ly sustainable, the close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be realised. “In other words, the biggest challengefor us now is that of cli-mate change. This is not any different (from) what we have been saying in Guyana. Indeed, we have gone further to offer solu-tions via the Low Carbon Development Strategyand forests, even though we recognise that this challenge has to be faced down with a global re-sponse,” the minister noted. She emphasised the need for the individuality of states, their strengths and weaknesses to be taken into consideration. “There are times when some of our development partners believe theycan import or transplant a model from some other place without recognis-ing our own peculiarity,” she said. 16 homeless after fire guts two Golden Grove homes
