Do you know what is Human Development? Human Development is a process of expanding people's freedoms so they can choose the lives they wish to lead The economic growth-focused perspective sees the society’s well-being only through resources or through the income the society is able to generate Yet, Human Development puts people at the centre of the discussion So that people could lead the lives they want they need to have adequate capacities and opportunities to make choices EDUCATION COMMUNITY HEALTH ENVIRONMENT LAWS ECONOMY PARTICIPATION CULTURE That is Human Development But how to measure Human Development? In 1990 the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) created the HDI - the Human Development Index - The HDI summarizes a one single number the three of the most important dimensions of Human Development a chance to have a long and healthy life access to knowledge and a decent standard of living While the GDP reflects only the sum of all the wealth that a country produces The HDI examines - besides income - the conditions of health and education as essential parts of measuring the progress of a society In Brazil, measuring Human Development means exploring the reality of all of the over
5,500 municipalities This means that we have to take a closer look at each one of us Brazilians! Because in the municipalities the life happens That’s why the Municipal Human Development Index and the Atlas of Human Development in Brazil were created The MHDI is based on the HDI However, a few adjustments have been made to match the index better into the Brazilian reality The MHDI takes into account the same three dimensions as the HDI A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy at birth Access to knowledge is measured by educational levels of young people
and adults and a decent standard of living is measured by the average annual income per capita As the HDI also the MHDI scale ranges from 0 to 1 The closer to 1, the higher level of human development in that municipality The used data is from the Brazilian demographic censuses that cover the whole country Besides MHDI, the Atlas Brazil 2013 provides information on over 180 socioeconomic indicators to extend the evaluation of municipal development It is possible to see the municipal evolution in the last 20 years in terms of education, health, income, population, demographics, work, housing and
social vulnerability and all brought together in a public, user-friendly and totally free web platform! The Atlas democratizes information and encourages citizens to reflect upon the surrounding reality strengthening local capacities and assisting in formulating and implementing public policies There are over 5000 territories in Brazil ripe with creative innovations and experiences And by knowing better our reality we can find integrated solutions to Human Development challenges in Brazil Atlas of Human Development in Brazil 2013
