Human Development Report 2011 - Vienna Launch Event

Programme:

10:00 Welcome by Hans Winkler
10:10 Opening remarks by Kandeh Yumkella, Irene Giner-Reichl and Wolfgang Lutz
10:30 Presentation of the 2011 report by Khalid Malik
10:45 Interactive panel discussion
11:15 Question & answer session and open floor discussion
11:50 Closing remarks

About the Speakers:

Irene Giner-Reichl, designated Austrian Ambassador to China, has been serving as Director-General for Development Cooperation since January 2005. As Assistant Director-General for UN Affairs and Director of the UNIDO office in New York she prepared UNIDO's participation in the World Summit for Sustainably Development in 2002. Since 1982 she served on numerous diplomatic posts, including as Permanent Representative to the UN Organizations in Vienna.

Khalid Malik, is the Director of the Human Development Report Office at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Previously he was assigned Special Advisor to UNDP Africa, after having completed his assignment as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China in March 2010, a position he held for six years. He has also served as Director of the UNDP Evaluation Office and as UN Representative in
Uzbekistan.

Wolfgang Lutz is Founding Director of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, Leader of the World Population Program (IIASA), Director of the Vienna Institute of Demography (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Professor of Applied Statistics at WU-Vienna. He is a leading demographer who published extensively in Science and Nature and has an interest in global population, education, development and environment interactions.

Hans Winkler, the moderator of this event, is the Director of the Diplomatic Academy Vienna. He is a former Austrian diplomat and Ambassador, and also served as Austrian State Secretary for European and International Affairs (2005-2008) and as Deputy Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs (2002-2005).

Kandeh Yumkella is the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He is Chair of UN-Energy and Co-Chair of the Secretary-General's High-Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All. He also serves as a member of the Rio+20 Principals Group as well as the United Nations Development Group (UNDG). Prior to working for UNIDO, he was the Minister for Trade, Industry and State Enterprises of the Republic of Sierra Leone.


Human Development Report 2011
"Sustainability and equity: a better future for all"

Development progress in the world's poorest countries could be halted or even reversed by mid-century unless bold steps are taken now to slow climate change, prevent further environmental damage, and reduce deep inequalities within and among nations, according to projections in the 2011 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
In June 2012 world leaders will gather at the landmark UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro to seek a new consensus on global actions to safeguard the future of the planet and the right of future generations everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives. This is the great development challenge of the 21st century.

The 2011 Human Development Report offers important new contributions to the global dialogue on this challenge, showing how sustainability is inextricably linked to basic questions of equity - that is, of fairness and social justice and of greater access to a better quality of life. Sustainability is not exclusively an environmental issue, but fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with the awareness that everything we do has consequences for the 7 billion of us here today and for the billions more who will follow.

Forecasts suggest that continuing failure to reduce the grave environmental risks and deepening inequalities threatens to slow decades of sustained progress by the world's poor majority - and even to reverse the global convergence in human development. Our remarkable progress in human development cannot continue without bold global steps to reduce both environmental risks and inequality.

The Report contends that 1.6 billion people still lack access to two or more basic services in health, schooling and modern facilities for energy, water supply and sanitation. New analysis also shows how power imbalances and gender inequalities at the national level are linked to reduced access to clean water and improved sanitation, land degradation and deaths due to indoor and outdoor air pollution, amplifying the effects associated with income disparities.

But there are alternatives to inequality and unsustainability. Investments that improve equity - for example in access to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive healthcare - could advance bothmsustainability and human development. Stronger accountability and democratic processes can also improve outcomes. Successful approaches rely on community management, broadly inclusive institutions and attention to disadvantaged groups.

Beyond the Millennium Development Goals, the world needs a post-2015 development framework that reflects equity and sustainability. This Report shows that approaches that integrate equity into policies and programmes and that empower people to bring about change in the legal and political arenas hold enormous promise.