This book discusses the emergence of the human development approach in the 1990s, its impact on development objectives and concepts, and the subsequent changes in global perspectives on development. One of its innovative aspects is that it relates two debates, that on human development and that on macroeconomic policy, which are normally treated separately in the literature. The book explores whether the definite progress in shifting the goals of development towards egalitarian, anti-poverty, and multidimensional perspectives has been accompanied by progress on the ground. It shows there has ... More

This book discusses the emergence of the human development approach in the 1990s, its impact on development objectives and concepts, and the subsequent changes in global perspectives on development. One of its innovative aspects is that it relates two debates, that on human development and that on macroeconomic policy, which are normally treated separately in the literature. The book explores whether the definite progress in shifting the goals of development towards egalitarian, anti-poverty, and multidimensional perspectives has been accompanied by progress on the ground. It shows there has been some progress in education and definite progress in social protection, but no progress in terms of employment, while the world has generally become more unequal. The book considers also whether the new attention placed on human development has affected macroeconomic policies. Here too, the picture is a mixed one, with some evidence that recent changes in macro-fundamentals helped to reduce inequality in Latin America and a few other countries, and that a broader adoption of competitive real exchange rates and countercyclical fiscal policies would promote a more egalitarian pattern of development. Overall, the volume offers a message of hope: there has been progress in developing concepts and some advances in policy implementation. This suggests that the debates on adjustment with a human face, human development, and poverty reduction have not been in vain. But it also underscores that these initial gains have been accompanied by the globalization of inequality, job informalization, and dominance of an unregulated and volatile global finance. Without progress on these fronts, the recent gains in pro-human development policies risk being squandered