2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the Human Development Report (HDR). Since 1990, the HDR has shifted the global development discourse from a near-exclusive focus on economic growth to a more balanced assessment of living standards based on health and education and human freedom as well as income. The HDRs have provided innovative analysis on subjects ranging from gender, culture and the MDGs to clean water access and immigration. This milestone year is an opportunity to both reaffirm and strengthen the original Human development vision and methodology, and to provide new diagnostic tools to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

With every edition of the HDR, UNDP’s Human Development Report Office publishes a series of specially commissioned Human Development Research Papers that collectively provide the innovative analysis and data synthesized in the annual Report.

This second group of HDR 2010 research papers features several human development data and trends research that informs the new Report, along with research on policy impacts and regional studies.

This release includes the Alkire and Santos paper on the new Multidimentional Poverty Index (MPI) which has attracted lots of attention in the press and is being discussed in the Let's Talk HD and in Oxfam blogs.