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Human Development

Insight into Human Development Futures

 

Kofi Annan - Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize

"Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development."

"For too long the development debate has ignored the fact that poverty tends to be characterized not only by material insufficiency but also by denial of rights. What is needed is a rights-based approach to development. Ensuring essential political, economic and social entitlements and human dignity for all people provides the rationale for policy. These are not a luxury affordable only to the rich and powerful but an indispensable component of national development efforts."
 

Dalia Mogahed - President and CEO of Mogahed Consulting

“Human development, not secularization, is what's key to women's empowerment in the transforming Middle East."
 

Amartya Sen - Indian economist and a Nobel laureate.

“The human development approach is a major advance in the difficult exercise of understanding the successes and deprivations of human lives, and in appreciating the importance of reflection and dialogue, and through that advancing fairness and justice in the world."
 

Boutros Boutros-Ghali - Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1992 to December 1996.

“The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights. That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole."
 

Helen Clark - Administrator, United Nations Development Programme

“…economic growth alone does not automatically translate into human development progress."
 

Mahbub-ul-Haq - was a game theorist, economist, and professor of Microeconomics at the University of Karachi.

“Across the globe, people are uniting in a common struggle: to participate freely in the events and processes that shape their lives."
 

Sanjay Pradhan - Vice president of the World Bank Institute

"The challenge of development: abject poverty surrounded by corruption."

"We need to radically open up development, so knowledge flows in multiple directions [and] aid becomes transparent, accountable and effective."
 

Gro Harlem Brundtland - former Prime Minister of Norway and a current Special Envoy with the United Nations.

“You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition."
 

Khalid Malik - an international civil servant and Special Advisor to UNDP Africa

"A close look at the diverse pathways that successful developing countries have pursued enriches the menu of policy options for all countries and regions."
 

Dr Oliver Curry - Evolutionary theorist of the London School of Economics

“While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other."
 

Albert Einstein - Theoretical Physicist

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual."
 

Ken Robinson - Author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.

“You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is be like a farmer, create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish."
 

Ian Tattersall - Paleoanthropologist and a curator emeritus with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

“Because we have evolved, it's natural to imagine we will continue to do so, but I think that's wrong. Everything we know about evolutionary change suggests that genetic innovations are only likely to become fixed in small, isolated populations."
 

Paul J. Crutzen - Nobel prize winning atmospheric chemist

“Imagine our descendants in the year 2200 or 2500. They might liken us to aliens who have treated the Earth as if it were a mere stopover for refuelling, or even worse, characterize us as barbarians who would ransack their own home. Living up to the Anthropocene means building a culture that grows with Earth’s biological wealth instead of depleting it. Remember, in this new era, nature is us."
 

Tobin Lopes - Associate director of global energy management programs at the University of Colorado Denver.

“I think the ability to adapt very quickly is singular to humanity. Species progress and evolve to enhance their chances, but it's done over a very long period of time."

"Instinct guides a lot of what we do early in our lives, but the capacity to learn different behaviors as a result of different environments makes humanity capable of survival."
 

Stuart Pimm - Expert on biodiversity at Duke University

“The big thing that people overlook when speculating about human evolution is that the raw matter for evolution is variation," "We are going to lose that variability very quickly, and the reason is not quite a genetic argument, but it's close. At the moment we humans speak something on the order of 6,500 languages. If we look at the number of languages we will likely pass on to our children, that number is 600."
 

Ashley Montagu - was a British-American anthropologist and humanist, who popularized topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.

“By virtue of being born to humanity, every human being has a right to the development and fulfilment of his potentialities as a human being."
 

 

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