1. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s 2014 Human Development Report titled “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience” was released in Tokyo, Japan, on July 24. The Human Development Report, issued every year, makes an in-depth analysis of global human development issues and ranks countries in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI).

o The Human Development Report, which was first issued in 1990, has established the concept of human-centered development by shifting the focus of development from economy to people. This year’s Report under the theme “vulnerability” pointed out that various unstable factors, including economic shocks and natural disasters, are causing vulnerability in many countries and stressed that to eliminate vulnerability, building resilience is necessary.

2. Each country’s Human Development Index is calculated by analyzing a country’s human development level in terms of three dimensions - a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The ROK ranked 15th in the HDI in 2013 (0.891), making the list of top 49 countries with very high level of human development, but dropped down three places from last year (12th (0.909)).

3. In addition, the Report also publishes various indexes important for human development, including Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI), which adjusts the HDI by taking into account inequality in all three dimensions of the HDI, and Gender Inequality Index (GII), which is calculated based on the ratio of female to male in secondary education, the teenage pregnancy rate, employment and the maternal mortality rate, etc. The ROK ranked 35th in the IHDI and 17th in the GII.

o The seven-place drop from last year (28th) in the ROK’s ranking in the IHDI could indicate that inequality has deepened in the country’s society. However, in terms of the GII, which comprehensively analyzes whether women’s employment and political participation are guaranteed institutionally, the significant rise in the ROK’s ranking compared to last year (27th) shows that many improvements have been made in this area.

4. In particular, the latest Report reintroduced the Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which quantifies disparities between men and women in the HDI. The ROK ranked 85th (0.940) in the GDI, which was seen as a very low level compared to its rankings in the HDI, the IHDI and the GII.

o Unlike the GII, the GDI focuses on whether there is a gap between men and women’s achievements in education, life expectancy and income. The ROK’s relatively low ranking in the GDI suggests that much effort is still needed across the whole society to achieve gender equality, befitting the country’s level of economic development. 


                          Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation