Philippine Human Development Network - Philippine Human Development Reports

Philippine Human Development Reports

The Philippines has published five national human development reports since 1994. These reports have acquired a reputation for factually based, insightful and well written analyses of human development issues in the Philippines. The PHDR is today a highly respected publication not just in the Philippines but also in the community of nations. In October 2000, at the conclusion of the Second General Forum on Human Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when the first annual National Human Development Report Awards Programme was launched, the PHDR 2000 was among the awardees. PHDR 2000 won awards in three categories: Excellencce in the Innovative Use of Human Development Measurement Tools, Excellence in Presentation and Design, and Excellence in Participation and Policy Impact.

The issue of the Philippine Human Development Report in 1994 introduced to Philippine readers the concept of Human Development, explaining its difference from the more traditional measure of development like per capita income and the significance of measures of life expectation and literacy and education in the promotion of human development. For the first time, it computed the Human Development Index (HDI) for each of the country's regions and drew out policy implications of the index for action of national and regional authorities.

Succeeding issues dwelt on specific themes, defining and analyzing these and deriving policy suggestions from them. The 1997 issue highlighted the theme of Gender focusing on the enhancement of women's capabilities and opportunities to make choices. This report noted the significant gains attained by the Philippines in increasing women's access to education and jobs in certain sectors, and participation in elections as voters and candidates. The report of 2000 focused on Education. After documenting what is called an alarming decline in the quality of Philippine education it outlined a general framework for dealing with the problem. The issue, PHDR 2002,focused on the Employment, more specifically on the nature of unemployment in the Philippines, the profile of the unemployed and quality of employment, and recommended ways and means of generating employment opportunities' to enable people to live in prosperity and dignity. The latest issue, released in 2005, explored the various dimensions and major sources of conflict in the country. It analyzed the current dynamics that may assist to resolve or aggravate conditions and related these to the concept of human development and human security in the context of the country's development strategy. Each of these issues also came up with the latest computations of provincial HDI's.