Afghanistan launch of the UNDP Asia Pacific Human Development Report

On Monday July 17 2006 at the Safi Landmark Hotel in Kabul the UNDP’s Asia Pacific Human Development report will be launched in Afghanistan in the presence of invited guests including senior Foreign and Commerce Ministry officials and international figures.

The report entitled “Trade on Human Terms: Transforming Trade for Human Development in Asia and the Pacific” examines recent developments on trade and economic growth and assesses the impact on human development – more specifically, the effects on the region’s poorest countries and on its poorest people.

The report further emphasizes that neither trade nor growth can ever be ends in themselves; but means towards the larger goals of expanded human development and combating poverty and deprivation. The report offers an eight-point agenda to help countries rise to the challenge of a demanding new environment for international trade.

In 2004 UNDP Afghanistan published Afghanistan’s first even National Human Development Report: “Security with a Human Face: Challenges and Responsibilities”. The report came out with a message that “Poverty, unemployment and inequality are bigger threats to the everyday lives of Afghans than traditional security threats.”

A Centre for Human Development will now be established at Kabul University as work begins on the next Human Development Report for Afghanistan. The Centre supports long-term capacity for research, advocacy and teaching on human development and policy research in general.

In the context of Afghanistan, the Asia Pacific Human Development Report is consistent with the Afghan government’s regional cooperation framework – designed to integrate Afghanistan in the growing regional economy through trade, transit, investment, labor exchange and increased reliance on regional resources for development.

The Interim-Afghanistan National Development Strategy also identifies access to regional and international markets, as debated in the regional report, as a means to achieve Afghanistan’s economic growth and political stability.

Building on the success of Afghanistan’s first National Human Development Report for 2004, the United Nations Development Programme and Kabul University have embarked on establishing the Centre for Policy and Human Development at Kabul University.