This is the 15th report, prepared by a team of independent experts, which explores major development issues of global concern. The 2004 report focuses on issues of cultural liberty and concludes that countries must actively devise multicultural policies to prevent cultural discrimination (whether on grounds of religion, ethnicity or language), since the expansion of cultural freedoms is at the core of human development. Rather than presenting a threat to state unity, the report argues that diversity is the only sustainable option to promote stability and democracy within and across societies. Issues discussed include: confronting extremist movements for cultural domination; myths surrounding cultural liberty and development; the impact of globalisation on cultural choice; social exclusion, human rights and participation. It also includes data tables for the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures key social and economic indicators for rich and poor countries, including life-expectancy, health and sanitation, employment rights, gender equality, education and income per-person.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Nepal a country which is located between its powerful neighbours India and China is one of the poorest countries in the world. Nepal has never enjoyed much press coverage, that is, until February 2005, when the king Gyanendra dissolved the Nepali government and announced the state of emergency , which allowed him to rule the country exclusively. The international community regarded this decision as non-democratic and called on the king to restore universal human rights which were suspended according to the declaration of the state of emergency. The king issued an official statement cited the ongoing, radicalised Maoist insurgency and the inability of the government to curb the movement as main reasons for his takeover. Nevertheless, high officials in the country and foreign observers question this pretence. During the conduction of my field research in Nepal, I considered a combination of multiple causes as main reasons for the protracted Nepalese conflict. The main conflict parties, the political elite including the monarch, and the Maoist movement have strong negative perceptions of each other. The perception that Maoists are undertaking terrorist attacks to come into power because they want to disturb the peace of a stabile regime should be regarded as misguided. Even if personal ambitions have to be considered, interviewees mentioned several times that the Maoists are responding to grievances within the Nepalese society and that the political elite could not provide the basic needs for its population. This assumption can be supported by the published 40-Point Demands of the Maoists, which includes the demands of political rights, liberties, economic and social security. It becomes apparent that those asserted claims call for social responsibility, equality and justice. Furthermore, this poses the question, of whether the Maoist insurgency is a form of indicator or warning signal of the political, economic and social situation in Nepal. In particular, it implies the fundamental question, how a state should operate and what kind of responsibilities the state has. The concept of good governance is regarded as a contemporary means and guarantor for an effective state. In every respect, good governance presupposes accountability, honesty or transparency of a state with all its institutions, but besides the structural characteristics the concept disregards the actions that will be undertaken by the [...]

Human Development has been advocated as the prime development goal since 1990, when the publication of the first UNDP Human Development Report proposed that development should improve the lives people lead in multiple dimensions instead of primarily pursuing economic growth. This approach forms the foundation of Advancing Human Development: Theory and Practice. It traces the evolution of approaches to development, showing how the Human Development approach emerged as a consequence of defects in earlier strategies. Advancing Human Development argues that Human Development is superior to measures of societal happiness. It investigates the determinants of success and failure in Human Development across countries over the past forty years, taking a multidimensional approach to point to the importance of social institutions and social capabilities as essential aspects of change. It analyses political conditions underlying the performance of Human Development, and surveys global progress in multiple dimensions such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and education and outcomes, whilst reflecting on dimensions which have worsened over time, such as rising inequality and declining environmental conditions. These deteriorating conditions inform Advancing Human Development's account of the challenges to the Human Development approach, covering the insufficient attention paid to macroeconomic conditions and the economic structure needed for sustained success.

Pt. 1. Employment generation and participatory -- pt. 2. Local economic development -- pt. 3. Agriculture and rural development for poverty reduction -- pt. 4. Localization of millennium development goals and monitoring -- pt. 5. Social safety nets and microfinance -- pt. 6. Community mobilization and advocacy for the millennium development goals.

This volume provides a very high quality set of papers on the relationship between globalization and human development. . . any one with interest in this wide ranging subject matter would find the volume an interesting and engaging read. Global Business Review Honoring Keith Griffin s more than 40 years of fundamental contributions to the discipline of economics, the papers in this volume reflect his deep commitment to advancing the well-being of the world s poor majority and his unflinching willingness to question conventional wisdom as to how this should be done. Four overarching themes recur in Keith Griffin s work and this book: the need to both eradicate poverty and redress inequalities in the distribution of wealth within and among nations; the impact of growth on inequality, and conversely inequality s impact on growth; the political economy of policy-making; and the need for openness to heterogeneity in both analytic tools and in policy recommendations. The volume begins with an introduction by the editors followed by a paper by Keith Griffin. In succeeding chapters the contributors explore strategies for reducing poverty and inequality, and provide perspectives on issues such as human development, the rural/urban divide in China, and biodiversity and sustainability. Students, researchers, policymakers and NGO analysts exploring issues in development economics, development studies, alternative economic systems, globalization, environmental sustainability, inequality and well-being will find this book of great interest.

This book evaluates the extent to which post-conflict reconstruction has addressed problems of horizontal inequalities through country case studies on Burundi, Rwanda, Nepal, Peru, Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Afghanistan, and four thematic studies on macro-economic policies, privatisation, PRSP's, and employment generation.

Identity movements, based on ethnicity, caste, language, religion and regional identity, have become increasingly significant in Nepal, reshaping debates on the definition of the nation, nationalism and the structure of the state. This book analyzes the rapid rise in ethnic and nationalist mobilization and conflict since 1990, the dynamics and trajectories of these movements, and their consequences for Nepal. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the book looks at the roots of mobilization and conflicts, the reasons for the increase in mobilization and violent activities, and the political and social effects of the movements. It provides a historical context for these movements and investigates how identities intersect with forms of political and economic inequality. Nepal’s various identity groups - Dalits, indigenous nationalities, Madhesis and Muslims - have mobilized to different extents. By examining these diverse movements within the same time period and within a unitary state, the book illuminates which factors are more salient for the mobilization of identity groups. Bringing together empirical contributions on key issues in identity production in a comparative perspective, the book presents an interesting contribution to South Asian studies as well as studies of nationalism and identity more broadly.