UN General Assembly
1998

even the most developed. The reality of global interdependence demands a greater commitment to collective security goals and better coordination of actions against the global security threat. I now turn briefly to another dimension of the global security problem — namely, human security. In this connection, let me acknowledge the debt of gratitude which developing countries owe to the distinguished Pakistani economist, the late Mahbub ul Haq, my friend and colleague. More than any other, he made the human condition central to modern development thinking, especially through his pioneering work in the Human Development Report series of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). His intellectual contribution to the debate on sustainable development and poverty reduction was substantial. It focused policy attention on people, and in particular on the plight of more than one fifth of the world?s population that lives in conditions of poverty and hopelessness. This concern with the right to development for all people should be a central component of the discussion on globalization and liberalization and the impact of these 30