Lao PDR

The 20th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, highlights Asian countries in leading development progress over the past 40-years. But ‘multidimensional’ poverty, gender gaps and rising inequality are identified as the region’s big challenges.  

The report was launched November 4 in New York by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in New York and spotlights countries that made the greatest progress in recent decades as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI analyzes health, education and income data over the past 40-years.  

The top ten countries that improved their HDI, the most relative to their starting point, include well-known ‘growth miracles’ such as China, Indonesia and South Korea, but also Lao PDR, Nepal and Tunisia, where progress in non-income dimensions has been marked.  

“The Human Development Reports have changed the way we see the world,” Ban Ki moon said today. “We have learned that while economic growth is very important, what ultimately matters is using national income to give all people a chance at a longer, healthier and more productive life.”  

In Lao PDR the high economic growth of nearly 8 percent is driving development but as highlighted at the recent 10th Round Table Meeting the challenge now is to produce ‘growth with equity’.  

The first Human Development Report published in 1990 stated that, the real wealth of a nation is its people. The 2010 report reaffirms the basic concept of human development as the expansion of people’s freedoms – underling the importance of employment, equity and sustainability.  

Helen Clark said, “the Report shows that people today are healthier, wealthier and better educated than before. While not all trends are positive, there is much that countries can do to improve people’s lives, even in adverse conditions. This requires courageous local leadership as well as the continuing commitment of the international community.”      

Lao PDR now stands at place 122 out of 169 countries listed.   

Read the full report

Watch video

See a short presentation on the 2010 report (pdf)

Read more on the global HDR website

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.