UNDP Iran launched the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) today, Thursday 4 November 2010 in a media conference, along with hundreds of other UNDP country offices around the world. Entitled The Real Wealth of the Nations, the Report also marks the 20th edition of the HDR since 1990. The UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ms. Consuelo Vidal opened the Launch with her remarks.

In her remarks, Ms. Vidal stated that since the beginning, HDR was based on a simple, yet important principle: national development should be measured not simply by national income, but also by life expectancy and literacy. Adding that during the past 20 years, HDRs have covered different issues leaving impacts on the human development, she also underlined a central thesis of the Report, which has been succinctly stated in its first sentence: “People are the real wealth of a nation”.

She also highlighted that accoridng to the  Report, many countries have made great gains in health and education despite only modest growth in income, while some countries with strong economic performance over the decades have failed to make similarly impressive progress in life expectancy, schooling and overall living standards. The Report reveals that Asian countries have led development progress, and have almost doubled the attainment of the Human Development Index (HDI) in the past 40 years.

Ms. Vidal referred to Iran and said, "I am pleased to share with you here today that the Islamic Republic of Iran has made outstanding achievements in a number of areas, as a result of which its ranking has changed from 88 in 2009 to 70 in 2010."

She also signified one very special innovation in HDR 2010, which is the addition of three new measures:  capturing multidimensional inequality, gender disparities and extreme deprivation. The inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (HDI), Gender Inequality Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index are applied to most countries in the world and provide important new insights.

The Launch continued with a technical presentation by Dr. Mohammad Ali Farzin, Programme Specialist and head of the Poverty Alleviation and Economic Development Programme Cluster at UNDP Iran. He explained the three new measures added to HDR 2010.

The Launch will be followed by a number of technical meetings hosted by UNDP Iran during the month of November.

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