The 2007/08 China National Human Development Report, "Basic Public Services for 1.3 Billion People", builds on the 2005 report by digging deeper into underlying causes of domestic development gaps. It focuses on the delivery of four essential basic public services—primary and junior secondary education, basic health care, social insurance and employment services—and analyses the important national goal of “equalization” of access to these, closely linked to the equity goal that was presented in the 2005 report.

Publication Date: 2008

The Human Development Report continues to frame debates on some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. It is an independent report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Kevin Watkins is the Lead Author of the 2006 report, which includes special contributions from U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown, Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, President Lula of Brazil, Former U.S. President Carter, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Report is translated into more than a dozen languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually.

The 2005 China Human Development Report, Development With Equity, presented a detailed analysis of these development gaps, between urban and rural areas, coastal and interior regions, genders and population groups.

Publication Date: 2005

This report attempts to summarize the history and current status of sustainable human development in China, focus attention on the outstanding challenges to be overcome, and make broad policy recommendations for tackling them. Special attention is given to the theme of poverty reduction. The Report finds that China has complied an admirable record of promoting human development, with falling poverty rates and improvements in the health and educational status of the population.

Publication Date: 1997

Human development is first and foremost about allowing people to lead the kind of life they choose—and providing them with the tools and opportunities to make those choices. In recent years Human Development Report has argued strongly that this is as much a question of politics as economics—from protecting human rights to deepening democracy. Unless people who are poor and marginalized—who more often than not are members of religious or ethnic minorities or migrants—can influence political action at local and national levels, they are unlikely to get equitable access to jobs, schools, hospitals, justice, security and other basic services.

This Report is about a simple idea whose time has come: the Millennium Development Goals.

Publication Date: 2003

This Human Development Report is first and foremost about the idea that politics is as important to successful development as economics. Sustained poverty reduction requires equitable growth—but it also requires that poor people have political power. And the best way to achieve that in a manner consistent with human development objectives is by building strong and deep forms of democratic governance at all levels of society.

With the Internet, agricultural biotechnology advances and new generations of pharmaceuticals reaching the market, it is time for a new partnership between technology and development. Human Development Report 2001 is intended as the manifesto for that partnership. But it is also intended as a source of cautionary public policy advice to ensure that technology does not sweep development off its feet, but instead that the potential benefits of technology are rooted in a pro-poor development strategy.