Is there evidence that democracy is needed to sustain economic growth? What are the links between good governance and the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)? Could international institutions benefit from an injection of democracy?

The UNDP’s Human Development Report 2002 offers an independent analysis of the role that politics plays in achieving human development. It emphasises the importance of political freedoms and explores how democratic institutions and practices can promote equitable economic growth.

The report annually ranks 173 countries according to their level of human development and provides a country-by-country assessment of trends towards meeting MDGs. It shows growing divisions between those who are prospering under globalisation and those who are not:

• More than 60 countries are poorer than they were a decade ago: on current trends, 33 will not meet even half of the MDGs.
• Income poverty seems irreversible: per capita income in 127 countries is failing to grow fast enough to halve the number of people subsisting on less than a dollar a day.
• The richest one per cent of the world’s people receive as much income each year as the poorest 57 per cent combined.
• Sixty per cent of the world’s people are not on track to achieve the MDG of reducing infant mortality by two thirds by 2015.
• Hunger stalks Africa: South Africa is the only country among the 44 sub-Saharan states where less than 10 per cent of children are malnourished.
• Rich countries spend US $1 billion a day in subsidies – six times the amount given as aid.

The report warns that the recent wave of democracy building has stalled as many states lapse back into authoritarianism. When 50 000 people in 60 countries were asked if their country was governed by the will of the people, less than a third of the respondents said yes. Over 100 governments still restrict civil and political freedoms. Seven Islamic states have no female suffrage. Only 14 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians are women. Money subverts democratic policies as the spiralling costs of electioneering lead politicians to be disproportionately influenced by business interests. Thirty eight per cent of the world’s inhabitants live in states without full press freedom.

How can we tackle the global democracy deficit? The report argues that democracy is neither a luxury nor a cure-all for poor countries but is intrinsic to the process of human development. The report calls for a second wave of democratisation characterised by:

• parliaments and judiciaries that protect human rights and give scope for vigorous political debate
• accountable police forces that provide safe streets and safe borders
• decentralised power so that local people can monitor and mobilise to ensure schools have trained and motivated teachers and hospitals with proper drugs and equipment
• a thriving civil society and a free press at the forefront of attacks on corruption and mismanagement by government and business
• replication of the process already pursued in some 40 countries of gender-responsive budgeting which examines the implications for gender equity of national and local budget.
• removing the anomaly whereby seven rich countries hold 48 per cent of the voting power at the IMF.

Source(s):
‘Human Development Report 2002: Deepening democracy in a fragmented world’, UNDP / Oxford University Press, by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2002 Full document.

Funded by: UNDP

id21 Research Highlight: 28 August 2003

Further Information:
Nena Terrell
Human Development Report Office
UNDP/ff-12106
304 East 45th Street
New York, NY  10017
USA

Tel: +1 212 906 3601
Fax: +1 212 906 5161
Contact the contributor: nena.terrell@undp.org

Human Development Reports Office, UNDP

Other related links:
'From populist democracy to rule-based regulation: regulatory regimes in Brazil'

'Women in contemporary democratisation'

'Brave new world? Reforming global governance'

'Dealing with democratic deficits: helping democracy deliver the goods'