Human Development report 2011: Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All

The Human Development Report 2011 focuses on the challenge of sustainable progress coupled with equitable development. The document directs the reader to pathways that allow for the promotion of sustainability and equity at a local and global scale, so that these two factors are mutually reinforcing. Chapter 1 introduces the growing need to couple the issues of sustainability and equity, by re enforcing the joint impact of policies on these two global, interrelated issues. Chapter 2 identifies the patterns and trends in human development, equity and environmental indicators, suggesting that disadvantaged people bear a large portion of the repercussions of environmental degradation. Chapter 3 focuses on the intersections between environment and equity, including impacts on environmental degradation on health, education and other dimensions of well-being. This chapter concludes with the importance of transformations in gender roles and empowerment as tools to improve environmental sustainability and equity, thereby advancing human development. Chapter 4 aims at identifying strategies that address social, economic and environmental challenges by managing and/or bypassing tradeoffs. Chapter 5 highlights the importance of policy changes to incorporate equity as well as issues surrounding the financing of reforms and policy changes. The annex provides Human Development Index (HDI) ranks and change in rank from 2010 to 2011 as well as detailed HDI values for 187 countries.