Human Development In An Unequal World

Human Development in an Unequal World deals with the twenty-first-century challenges of unstable economic growth and sustainability and the re-emergence of deprivations and inequalities in multiple realms. It argues that the broader perspective of human development is most suited in reorienting development towards a more equitable, sustainable, and empowering world. The authors discuss the concept and philosophy of the capabilities and human development approach, its measurement, the links between economic growth and human development, and the role of social sector policy, gender equality, and securing sustainability. In doing so, they analyse frameworks, processes, institutions, and actors, and weave together concepts, methods, and evidence from numerous developing countries. The chapters offer an integrated understanding of the importance of capabilities, freedoms, and human flourishing in the process of development. This volume calls for an approach that focuses on the humanness of development and brings people back to the centre stage—a phenomenon that has receded to the background in the neoliberal era.

This volume offers an introductory and accessible overview of key issues, debates, and perspectives in human development and human rights worldwide. The book explores topics such as human development, sustainability, justice, women's rights, international inequality patterns, aid, education, and ideas about change. Written and designed for use in a variety of educational contexts, 80:20: Development in an Unequal World makes extensive use of descriptive analyses, facts and figures, case studies, graphics, cartoons, photos, and onward referencing. The accompanying DVD provides extensive additional materials and information, including over 100 activities for use in classroom, community, and youth work settings. It also includes a range of video and stimulus materials with suggestions on their use, practical ideas for debating the issues, and an annotated guide to sources of additional information.

Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises. This book argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice.

The age of human rights has been kindest to the rich. Even as state violations of political rights garnered unprecedented attention due to human rights campaigns, a commitment to material equality disappeared. In its place, market fundamentalism has emerged as the dominant force in national and global economies. In this provocative book, Samuel Moyn analyzes how and why we chose to make human rights our highest ideals while simultaneously neglecting the demands of a broader social and economic justice. In a pioneering history of rights stretching back to the Bible, Not Enough charts how twentieth-century welfare states, concerned about both abject poverty and soaring wealth, resolved to fulfill their citizens’ most basic needs without forgetting to contain how much the rich could tower over the rest. In the wake of two world wars and the collapse of empires, new states tried to take welfare beyond its original European and American homelands and went so far as to challenge inequality on a global scale. But their plans were foiled as a neoliberal faith in markets triumphed instead. Moyn places the career of the human rights movement in relation to this disturbing shift from the egalitarian politics of yesterday to the neoliberal globalization of today. Exploring why the rise of human rights has occurred alongside enduring and exploding inequality, and why activists came to seek remedies for indigence without challenging wealth, Not Enough calls for more ambitious ideals and movements to achieve a humane and equitable world.

A development education resource designed and written by an international group of authors and educationalists. It explores inequalities and injustices in an accessible and understandable fashion, with infographics, figures, graphs, photographs and cartoons. Now in its seventh edition, it is extensively used in universities, schools, adult and youth groups and NGOs. Tony Daly is co-ordinator of Irish development education and human rights organisation 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World and project manager for an NGO consortium website www.developmenteducation.ie. Previously, he led a pilot project advancing a human rights approach to community development with the British Institute for Human Rights, London and has been directly engaged in human rights education, development education, curriculum reform and research projects in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia for over 15 years. He holds degrees from University College Dublin and University College London. Ciara Regan is education consultant to 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World. Since 2010 she has worked directly on the developmenteducation.ie website and has researched and published in the area of women and development in the context of HIV and AIDS in Zambia. She has worked on community art projects in Lusaka, Zambia and across Dublin on a wide range of issues such as public accountability, women’s rights, diversity and interculturalism. She holds degrees from NUI Galway and Birkbeck, University of London. Colm Regan initiated and, for many years edited 80:20 Development in an Unequal World – the reader is now widely used internationally, particularly in Africa. He is former co-ordinator of 80:20 in Ireland and has been professionally active for over 40 years in education for human rights, justice and human development – subjects he has written extensively on. In this context, he has worked in development education in Ireland, the UK, Australia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Brazil and Zambia. He holds post graduate degrees from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and McGill University, Montreal and now lives, writes and teaches in Gozo, Malta.

Inequalities in human development are a roadblock to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They are not just about disparities in income and wealth. They cannot be accounted for simply by using summary measures of inequality that focus on a single dimension. And they will shape the prospects of people that may live to see the 22nd century. The 2019 Report explores inequalities in human development by going beyond income, beyond averages and beyond today. It asks what forms of inequality matter and what drives them, recognizing that pernicious inequalities are generally better thought of as a symptom of broader problems in a society and economy. It also asks what policies can tackle those drivers—policies that can simultaneously help nations to grow their economies, improve human development and reduce inequality.

'Punchily written ... He leaves the reader with a sense of the gross injustice of a world where health outcomes are so unevenly distributed' Times Literary Supplement 'Splendid and necessary' Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm, New Statesman There are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. A poor man in Glasgow is rich compared to the average Indian, but the Glaswegian's life expectancy is 8 years shorter. The Indian is dying of infectious disease linked to his poverty; the Glaswegian of violent death, suicide, heart disease linked to a rich country's version of disadvantage. In all countries, people at relative social disadvantage suffer health disadvantage, dramatically so. Within countries, the higher the social status of individuals the better is their health. These health inequalities defy usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasised access to technical solutions – improved medical care, sanitation, and control of disease vectors; or behaviours – smoking, drinking – obesity, linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These approaches only go so far. Creating the conditions for people to lead flourishing lives, and thus empowering individuals and communities, is key to reduction of health inequalities. In addition to the scale of material success, your position in the social hierarchy also directly affects your health, the higher you are on the social scale, the longer you will live and the better your health will be. As people change rank, so their health risk changes. What makes these health inequalities unjust is that evidence from round the world shows we know what to do to make them smaller. This new evidence is compelling. It has the potential to change radically the way we think about health, and indeed society.

This report examines the links between inequality and other major global trends (or megatrends), with a focus on technological change, climate change, urbanization and international migration. The analysis pays particular attention to poverty and labour market trends, as they mediate the distributional impacts of the major trends selected. It also provides policy recommendations to manage these megatrends in an equitable manner and considers the policy implications, so as to reduce inequalities and support their implementation.