What’s the link between economic growth and human development?

Last week I attended a fantastic conference that the Lowy Institute organised on innovative approaches to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was a bit of a star studded line up with a terrific array of development practitioners from civil society, government, the UN and the World Bank.

For me the most interesting question was raised in the first panel. The question concerned the links between economic growth and human development. This produced a diverse range of opinions, as you’d expect.

The World Bank’s view was that robust and sustainable economic growth is the primary driver of human development. At the same time, the Bank acknowledged that inequality is the biggest constraint to achieving the MDGs in the region.  That all sounds a bit confused to me so maybe we need to talk some more with them about that.

Others such as Jeni Klugman, who heads up the Human Development Report team at UNDP, noted that Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal and Indonesia are seeing strong progress in human development, primarily in access to essential health and education services. She informed the audience that China and Thailand had very high economic growth rates but very poor education and health improvements. Juni also noted that there are huge gaps in and between countries in Asia-Pacific’s human development

A recent report from the Overseas Development Institute and the UN Millennium Campaign found that some of the poorest countries such as Benin, Ethiopia, Gambia, Malawi and Mali are actually making the best relative progress against the MDG’s and this is being done with relatively small economic growth rates compared to that of the Asian dynamo’s such as China and India.

This is one of the critical discussions that are occurring at international and national level at the moment and it’s vital that policy makers get this right.

I’m going to be discussing this later today at the Lowy Institute in a panel discussion on multilateralism and development and I’ll get a post up with my presentation early next week.

Before I jump in a cab, thanks for reading the blog and the fantastic feedback that I’m receiving is a big motivator to keep getting those posts up. Thanks to a terrific suggestion from one reader we’re also looking at how we can get some video footage up here for the many visual learners out there. Bear with me as technology isn’t always my friend but I’ll keep trying!