The United Nations Development Programme: A better way?
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Review
The United Nations Development Programme: A better way? GILLIAN YOUNGS
ABSTRACT Gillian Youngs discusses some of the broad themes featured in The United Nations Development Programme : A Better Way? by Craig Murphy. She looks at the central role of the concept of human development in the progress of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the pivotal contribution of the annual Human Development Report published by the UNDP from 1990 onwards. KEYWORDS Human Development Report; SDP; networking; poverty; inequalities
The Human Development Reports through their statistical data and analysis, as well as focus on individual themes year by year, have provided a continually growing understanding of the multiple dimensions of human development, including inequalities related to gender. The move to bottom up perspectives on development has been aided by attention to women’s diverse roles in the development process. This has been one of the most significant shifts in discourses and practices of development. The Human Development Report has told the negative side of the globalization story: deepening inequality gaps across the world. In this regard it has been a vital advocacy tool. But it is as yet unclear whether there will be sufficient political will to overcome these problems, especially in the context of the security steer on development related to ‘war on terror’ priorities. y the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile (cited Murphy, 2006: 243).
If words help to capture some of the inadequacies of the reductive picture painted by mainstream economic indicators like gross national product (GNP), then these count. They help us to understand the aims and possibilities as well as the wider social and ethical context for the work of UNDP. In Craig Murphy’s impressively detailed history of the organization, such interjections are a potent reminder that development is a highly contested, problematic and political concept, both in discursive and practical (policy) terms. The quote is from US presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy shortly before his assassination in 1968. They tell us that crude economic framings of success such as GNP hide as much as they reveal, mystify as much as they enlighten. And if these are the main Development (2007) 50(S1), 153–159. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100392
Development 50(S1): Review ways of depicting economic achievement and wealth, then it is a particular interpretation, and one that separates much that is human from the concept of development rather than working to bind the two together. This theme of separation
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