HIV/AID & Human Development South Africa

Since 1990, UNDP has sponsored the production of annual Human Development Reports (HDR) as a contribution to the global search for more equitable and people-centred forms of development. Challenging assumptions that human well-being can be measured in terms of economic growth and per capita income alone, the Reports have demonstrated the importance of expanding the choices of all people, of enhancing their capabilities and of broadening their opportunities so that individuals, communities and nations may have the possibility to achieve their full potential and to contribute to the well-being of all. The series has served as a catalyst for informed discussion in all regions of the world; it has encouraged nations and communities to review their comparative achievements against recorded facts; it has demonstrated the need for clear policies, more effective incentives and more targeted interventions to translate economic growth into human development. Over the past years, a steadily increasing number of countries, currently over 100, have produced national human development reports, with UNDP support. Here in South Africa, the analysis of human development issues has included several important national exercises, in several of which UNDP has been involved: the Poverty and Inequality Report (PIR) process; the review of Basic Social Expenditures (20:20 study); and the civil society-led Poverty. Hearings process, the outcomes of which are presented in the pioneering"People Voices " report. These studies have adopted a people-centred approach to the review of key issues relating to poverty, inequality and access to basic services. Together with the PIR, the 20:20 Study and the Report on the Poverty Hearings, the SAHDR provides an assessment of the state of human development in South Africa. This Report includes a preliminary application of Human Development index methodologies to the South African context. New data, new methods of analysis and new insights will be applied to a more comprehensive review that will be presented in the South Africa Human Development Report for 1999.