Human Development Index In-Class Essay

Understanding that humans are the center of human development, I believe looking at life expectancy (health), years of schooling in children and adults (education), and gross income per capita (income) are great indicators to determine how well off a human being is to do desirable things in life and reach that satisfied life desired in human development. This is because these 3 indicators are primary avenues by which a person can succeed in life; a person with a health early life, a solid education, and a sufficient source of income will more likely succeed in life than a person without one of these three characteristics. At the same time however, there is much more that the UNDP can do to improve the HDI to make it more of an accurate measurement. For one, I believe that as far as looking into health goes, they can look beyond child life expectancy and into other realms of health. This may include total life expectancy because the longer a person lives, the more he or she is able to get out of life. Another may be prevalence of disease, cancer, or other illness, as these impair people from living the lives they want. It is especially important to discuss disease in the context of human development in developing countries because disease accounts for the lives of many, preventing human development. In terms of education, other than looking number of years of education, UNDP could potentially look into the types of education, distinguishing between high school, college, postgraduate, and other types of education; the level of education determines the likelihood of getting a source of income that will lead to a successful life (the higher the education the more likely a person is to succeed). In terms of income, the UNDP could look into the sources of income, rather than only looking at income as whole. Looking at the sources of income will allow UNDP to measure the sustainability of a given income, providing insight to whether a person will continue to develop or decline from a loss of an income source.