Importance of Human Development

Abstract

The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index used to rank countries by level of “human development”, which usually also implies whether a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped. The origins of the HDI are to be found in the Programmes (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDRs). These were launched by Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 and had the explicit purpose: "to shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people centered policies."