Forum (Spotlight Weekly)

Human Development Report 2002

By Ms. Alessandra Tisot, Resident Representative, a.i.

In the last two decades we witnessed a shift in the spread of democracies: some 81 countries took steps towards democratization. It meant overthrowing authoritarian one-party regimes, out of which 33 were military, it meant multiparty elections, it meant higher degree of freedom of the press, and a tremendous increase in the number of NGOs and INGOs. At the same time the dividers are increasing and we are all aware that the signs of global fragmentation persist and are more glaring than ever.

At current trends, a quarter of the world's people will achieve fewer than half of the agreed upon Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. If global progress continues at this pace it will take more than 130 years to rid the world of hunger.

A growing number of new democratic governments as well as some longer established ones in old Europe, with mine in the forefront ñ have slipped back into increasingly undemocratic practices with leaders altering constitutions, forcefully limiting the independence and influence of legislatures and judiciaries, manipulating elections, all factors leading to devastating results in terms of human development.

The recent democratic experiences show that the process of deepening democracy and making it work for people has just begun. Many have fought for democracy in the past 10 to 20 years in the hope of greater social justice, broader political participation and peaceful resolution of violent conflicts. Democracy, however, has not produced dividends in the lives of ordinary people in too many countries. The overall result is the increase in numbers of alienated and angry, disappointed citizens around the world.

The core message the Report delivers, is on how can democracies be made more responsive and work better for the needs and concerns of ordinary people.

It was felt that the public debate on governance had been on two distinct approaches. To make markets function better, underlining issues such as the rule of law, transparency and corruption, efficient management of institutions and processes, and to improve governance as electoral processes and institutions of democracy. Neither of the two approaches engages a discussion on the quality of democracy and its relationship with human development.

The accountable nature of political processes and increased popular participation is the focus of the discourse supported by the HDR 2002.

The Human Development Report 2002 argues that only through the widening and deepening of democracy can politics and political institutions promote human development and safeguard the freedom and dignity of all people. Even when accountability measures do exist, they do not function well to protect the interests of minorities, women and poor people if democratic institutions are subverted by corruption and elites. When we allow this to happen, there are gaps in democratic practices and in outreach.

Effective governance needs to be grounded in democratic politics to be understood in the broadest sense.

Politics is as important to successful development as economics. Successful development requires a set of principles and values that allow poor people to gain power, to give political space to their voice.

The Report demonstrates that the links between democracy and human development are not automatic when a small elite dominates economic and political decisions, the link between democracy and equity can be broken. In such circumstances democracy may indeed be in no position to deliver.

More alarmingly, the trend is that when democratic governments do not respond to the demands of the poor people, internal strife becomes increasingly common as people's expectations continue to remain unfulfilled, as the dominance of the elite continue unabated and as the poor are consistently left out of mainstream development. It provides also grounds for the people to become more inclined to support authoritarian or populist leaders who claim that limiting civil liberties and political freedoms will accelerate economic growth and promote social progress and stability. People begin to question whether there is a trade-off between securing peace and establishing democratic governance, some may favor despotic peace over no peace at all. I believe all of us have witnessed such circumstances some times, somewhere.

Countries can restore public trust in representative structures and reduce the concentration of political power. These measures could be achieved by strengthening the democratic functioning of political parties, by promoting the participation of minorities and women, by limiting the distorting effects of money in politics, by strengthening political parties' professionalism and management capabilities moving away from patronage.

Checks on arbitrary powers should be strengthened. Increasing the importance of oversight independent bodies such as independent commissions, forcefully reviewing democratization processes in decentralization, facilitating civic and media engagement, checking abuses of powers, increasing budget transparency, and public reviews of budgetary allocations, holding public officials accountable for their actions in the court of public opinion.

While democracy guarantees political and civil freedoms, it also provides the space for political oppositions and contributes to political stability. The Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen has highlighted the effectiveness of democracies in averting catastrophes like famines. Thus the HDR 2002 clearly highlights that advancements in human development can only take place when the governance systems are accountable to all people where each individual becomes a part of the decision-making process that shapes their lives.

There is no single best model of democracy that every nation should adopt. But rather the type of democracy a nation chooses to adopt is contingent upon country specific circumstances.

Moving to what has become a trademark of the annual HDR, the ranking of all countries in terms of their HDI, Nepal shows slight improvements compared to last year. Nepal ranks 142 out of 173 countries with an HDI value of 0.490. I would like to call your attention on the fact that data refer to the year 2000 and do not capture the rapid degradation in some of the dimensions of the composite index witnessed in the past 18 months.

We trust the Human Development Report 2002 will provide interesting elements to deepen the debate on democratic governance globally and in Nepal as it strives to strengthen the foundations for its human development, framework. I hope this report will prove useful in the evolution of a governance system that embraces the norms and values of democracy and the betterment of humankind.

Experts of the statement delivered at the launching of Human Development Report 2002.