Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the transition countries now have National Human Development Reports. This year s report includes some important improvements in the methodology and data use for the HDI giving us a better indicator and making it possible for the first time to assess HDI advances from 1975 to 1997 for some 80 countries, and for 90 countries over the 1990s. Globalization and Human Development. Shrinking time, shrinking space and disappearing borders are linking millions of people more closely than ever before but billions of the world s people are left out in the cold. The report takes a broad view.
Globalization involves much more than trade and finance.
The internet and interpol, pop culture and global crime, immunization and AIDS, new rules and new roles are part and parcel of a world hurtling towards global integration. The report also takes a positive view. Notwithstanding the problems and inadequacies of globalization, many countries have exploited the opportunities and controlled its costs with considerable success. The challenge is to improve governance, nationally and internationally, so that the power and potential of globalization works for people, not just for profits or capital. Yet efforts so far to strengthen global governance have been too narrow - fixated on the economic, largely ignoring human consequences and human needs and working to an agenda heavily dominated by the industrialized countries.