human development
Order Description
The assignment for this course involves the writing of a brief report or essay on “human development,” its meaning and its measure, in the context of a specific country. The purpose of the assignment is to promote thought and analysis on the meaning of the term “development” and how it could be measured, with an application to a specific country.
Please select a country of interest to you.
It should be about 2000 to 2500 words or ten to 12 typewritten pages (double-spaced, font 12, one inch margins.) It may be hand-written if easily legible. Use a standard and consistent citation system.
The due date for the assignment is October 14. 10:00 AM (at the beginning of the class.) The assignment is worth 20% of the final term grade.
This Report should answer a number of questions:
1. What is your own definition of “development”? How might this be measured? How does this compare with the United Nations Development Program’s definitions and measures in its Human Development Reports?
2. Examine the “development record” of a specific country of interest to you in the light of your answer to question 1 above. Has this country achieved some aspects of “development”?
3. Are your conclusions regarding “levels” and comparative performance regarding the development of this country in accord with the conclusions of the UNDP? Explain why and/or why not.
Some of the main sources for your work should be:
• Readings from the text book for Parts I, II and III of the Course Outline.
• Readings on the country of your choice, sufficient to gain an understanding of its record regarding Human Development
• UNDP Human Development Report, 2010: The Real Wealth of Nations,
• You can obtain useful insights from the UNDP Human Development Reports of past years, available here: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/ebooks/. Another useful source is the new UNDP publication entitled Measuring Human Development: A Prime r, 2011
• To Use the UNDP Human Resource Development Report Data Bank for the Construction of your own Tables, go to Human Development Indicators, 2010, or http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/tables/default.html.