National Human Development Reports

Core Principles and Good Practices

GCC Human Development Workshop

9-11 May 2011– Doha, Qatar

Regional, National and Local HDRs:More than just Reports

Since 1992, more than 600 National and Local HDRs, as well as 30 Regional Reports, in more then 130 countries.

• Inspired by the global HDR• Tool to tailor development strategies to local realities• Seeing people as the nation’s wealth, end and means

of advancing the development agenda• Provide new research and disaggregated data• Offer innovation in concept, measurement, and policy• Focus on equity, efficiency, empowerment, and

sustainability in policies and the HDR process itself

HDR Policy

•Framework for the development of high quality HDRs•Reaffirms core principles and standards of influential national and regional HDRs•Covers the whole process: preparation, analysis, advocacy and follow-up.•NHDRs require different processes in different contexts• Prepared by the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) based on the experiences of the global HD community• Support materials and detailed guidance http

://hdr.undp.org/en/nhdr/ .

HDR Policy: principles

HDRs’ success in influencing national policy and in meeting the high standards of the HDR flagship depend on 6 interlinked principles:

1. National relevance; 2. Inclusive consultation and engagement; 3. Integrity; 4. High quality data, analysis and recommendations;5. Strategic presentation; 6. Sustained advocacy and follow-up.

These principles apply to preparation, content, and advocacy

Principle 1: National Relevance

•Theme: respond to pressing national priorities, overlooked issues and/or emerging challenges - More effective and innovative if focus on a narrow theme/set of national issues, and if complement related research.•Potential for catalytic follow-up and to feed into country development strategies •Address country realities and consider national perspectives on policy issues:

– Promote stakeholder dialogue– Identify practical policy alternatives – Target national audiences throughout preparation– Engage prominent national scholars and thinkers

• When relevant and feasible: sub-national HDRs in partnership with local authorities.

1. National Relevance: exampleMongolia HDR2003• topography, climate and geography can cause

development inequalities.• HDI by urban /rural residency, provinces and

cities.• Recommendations incorporated in the Mongolia

Population Development Policy (promotion of regional centres and intensive livestock herding).

Mongolia HDR2007• Introduced the “poverty likelihood ratio” (capture

the link between poverty and employment)• The National Statistics Office approved new terms

and definitions of labour statistics• Amendment of the Employment Promotion Law.

2: Inclusive consultation and engagement•Engage with development stakeholders to influence policy: government officials, parliamentarians, policy and data analysis producers, international organisations•Iterative discussions on report goals and content:– formal mechanisms: advisory panels and expert groups– workshops and conferences that engage public, private, and

civil society actors at different levels.

Purposes:•Contribute to national capacities for inclusive debates;•Empower and give voice to targeted groups;•Advocate and raise awareness; •Collect data, inform analysis and validate findings;•Strengthen partnerships to facilitate follow-up.

2: The importance of an inclusive process

•216 events to gauge opinions and gather voices, proposals and commitments•4,369 people throughout the different territories: community members, local leaders, civil servants, government representatives, academics, businessmen and women, workers, country workers and farmers, displaced people, the disabled, those reinserted into society, women and the elderly, young people, homosexuals, indigenous people and people of African descent.

Colombia – Valle del Cauca sub-national HDR 2008“On the path to an inclusive and peaceful Valle del Cauca”

3: IntegrityHDRs’ influence policy depends on the real and perceived integrity of the report• objective, non-partisan, evidence-based analysis

based on best available data from a variety of sources•HDR team: multidisciplinary, drawing on perspectives and expertise from diverse groups and institutions, selected for professional reputation and technical skills.•Peer review by partners with thematic, country, economic, statistical, expertise. •Critical, yet constructive, recommendations - avoid unjustifiable support for a particular policy or ideology.•Transparency: preparation steps communicated to stakeholders and summarized in the final HDR text.•Inclusive process provides legitimacy

3: Capacity Development for Integrity in analysis

Chhattisgarh HDR2005• Bottom up methodology:

17,000 village-level reports on key HD issues State Annual Economic Survey and Plan

• Develop community capacities to participate in development policy making

• Training of village surveyors• Training of local journalists• Training of statistical officers

HDR Preparation:• multiple stakeholders participation• advocacy strategies• skills to formulate and implement HD policies

4: Quality• Champion the human development approach– freedom, equity, empowerment, and sustainability – prioritization of vulnerable and excluded groups (data and

analysis disaggregation)• HDR analysis based on sound quantitative and

qualitative sources (official data, surveys, case studies, quotes capturing people’s perceptions, etc.)

• Calculate the HDI and other indices (innovating to adjust methodologies and indicators to reflect national context).

• Recommendations:– target different actors– include ways to address the needs of marginalized groups– reference existing policies and consider constraints

(institutional capacities, financing, political economy, cultural norms and traditions, etc.)

4: Quality and Innovation

• Social, economic and institutional empowerment conditions the enlargement of people’s opportunities “enhancing HD means changing power structures”

• Empowerment index composed of two sub-indices (individual and collective empowerment) covering 52 indicators

Dominican Republic HDR 2008:“Human Development, an issue of power”

5: Strategic Presentation

• Professionally edited (logical structure and flow with a consistent tone and user-friendly style accessible to their target audiences).

• Technical terminology and statistical tables avoided in the main text (methodologies in annex or supplementary papers).

• Key messages and recommendations (within chapters, executive summary, and related advocacy materials).

• Data sourced and presented in creative formats (graphs, figures, maps and text boxes).

• Quotes, cultural references and cases studies to highlight human stories.

• HDRs published in major national languages.

5: Strategic and Accessible Presentation

• GIS based software to map social service delivery in underdeveloped areas

• Human Development radars:– Attainments in 8 HD indicators compared in different areas– Special surveys to collect data on migration, the Sabar

Community and food security

India – Bankura District HDR 2007

6: Sustained Advocacy and Follow-up

• Advocacy and follow-up strategies planned and budgeted at the start of a report process– events that complement existing national initiatives– within a larger project or programme– partnership building and capacity development

• Launch events – with senior officials, civil society, donor and other

stakeholders, including press conferences and seminars– Press kits and briefings for media – take into consideration major political events– broad dissemination and available on-line

• Other: background studies, public awareness campaigns, HD curricula, international conferences.

• HDRs every 2/3 years for continuity and follow-up.

6: Measurable Influence

• Inclusive: youth involvement in each stage of the HDR preparation process

• Thorough analysis: focus on 5 million youth out of education and employment

• Relevance: more than 1,000 news reports, articles and interviews

• Influence: youth policy and youth NGOs coalition

Turkey HDR 2008 “Youth in Turkey”

Resources

• HDR website: http://hdr.undp.org/en/ • HDR Database: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/• NHDR support: http://hdr.undp.org/en/nhdr/ • Human Development Journey:

http://learning.undp.org/ • HDR-net: hdr-et@groups.undp.org• HD space in Teamworks: https

://undp.unteamworks.org/node/16796

• Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA)• Journal on Human Development and Capability• Handbook of Human Development