SPL 579 (Graduate Seminar): “UNDP and the Making of Human Development as the Global Development Paradigm from 1990”

Boğaziçi University
Master of Arts in Social Policy
SPL 579 (Graduate Seminar)

Kamal Malhotra

(United Nations Resident Coordinator &
United Nations Development Program Resident Representative in Turkey)

“UNDP and the Making of Human Development as the Global Development Paradigm from 1990”

March 3rd (Thursday), 2016

15.00-17.00

 Kriton Curi, South Campus

The premises, conceptual underpinnings and substantive policy positions and prescriptions of UNDP’s global Human Development Reports (HDR) which began in 1990 represented a significant paradigm shift for the global development debate. The Human Development concept pioneered by UNDP was and remains much more holistic and multi-faceted compared with the then prevailing international financial institution (IFI) paradigm emphasizing primarily or even only economic and per capita income related indicators. It is now clear that UNDP has significantly contributed to progressively shifting the global development debate to a point where the Human Development paradigm has become mainstream wisdom and thinking at global, regional, national and local levels even if implementation unfortunately lags significantly behind. All major stakeholder groups from relatively conservative governments to the most progressive civil society organizations, nevertheless, now largely accept its relevance and universal validity. This inaugural lecture will trace the history, reach and influence of the paradigm which continues to be led by UNDP, also highlighting some of its limitations, especially in the areas of indices and measurement.