One of the burning issues that face many countries is how to transform economic growth into human development, as there are many instances, particularly in the developing world, where there is high economic growth without a corresponding growth in human development. However, the United Nations contends that there could be human development without particularly fast economic growth rates.
In its 20th edition of the Human Development Report (HDR),  it reviewed trends over the past four decades and concludes that people today are generally healthier, wealthier and better educated than they were in 1970.
Human development is different from economic growth, and substantial achievements are possible even without fast growth.
These advances are not directly linked to national economic growth, showing that impressive long-term gains can and have been made even without consistent economic performance, according to the report.
“Our results confirm… two central contentions of the Human Development Report from the outset,” said the report’s lead author, Jeni Klugman. “Human development is different from economic growth, and substantial achievements are possible even without fast growth.”
Globally, life expectancy has risen from 59 years in 1970 to 70 in 2010, the report states. Primary and secondary school enrolments have risen from 55 per cent to 70 per cent in the same period. While all regions shared in this progress, there were wide variations in scope; for example, life expectancy rose by 18 years in the Arab world but by eight years in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report also highlights serious inequalities, both within and between countries. Over the past 40 years, countries at the lower end of the Human Development Index experienced an improvement of less than 20 per cent, compared to the top-performing group, which averaged gains of 54 per cent.
“The gaps in human development across the world, while narrowing, remain huge.”
It was precisely against this backdrop which Guyana’s late President Dr Cheddi Jagan formulated the visionary concept of a New Global Human Order (NGHO), which was adopted unanimously by the UN.
As Dr. Odeen Ishmael recalled : “Immediately after his election, Dr. Jagan wrote to world leaders expressing his ideas for the establishment of a New Global Human Order. The ideas were developed over a period of time during which the Guyanese leader carefully examined previous international proposals aimed at alleviating social and economic ills worldwide, and combining some of these ideas with fresh ones of his own. He then explained very clearly how the ideas could actually be implemented and how funding could be obtained to put the necessary action programmes on stream. He outlined a global strategy which would benefit both the North and South and which would lead to sustainable development, democracy, peace, freedom and social progress.”
The 2011 UNDP HDR on Guyana has shown that Guyana’s Human Development Index (HDI) has moved up and in fact has been doing so over the last 20 years. It moved from 0.489 in 1990, to 0.579 in 2000, to 0.629 in 2010, and then to 0.633 in 2011.
While this is a most welcome achievement, it is not surprising because the government has been investing steadily and heavily in the social sector with deep focus on equity and sustainable development through poverty-reduction policies and strategies.
Today, the huge gap between the standards of living of the coastland and hinterland have been sharply reduced as a result of the government’s poverty-reduction strategy.
UNDP Represetative in Guyana, Carlos del Castillo, summed it up well when he declared that: “Human development, which is about expanding people’s choices, builds on shared natural resources. Promoting human development requires addressing sustainability locally, nationally and globally, and this can and should be done in ways that are equitable and empowering.”