Description:
A presentation by the authors of
The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008–2009.
Although human development reports have been produced in more than 150 countries, there has never been one on the United States until now. Using the capabilities framework of Amartya Sen (who contributed the book's
foreword) and based on the human development index methodology of UNDP's annual Human Development Reports, this independent project has produced a first-ever American Human Development Report.
The book, published by Columbia University Press, provides human development rankings for the 50 U.S. states, 436 congressional districts, and five major ethnic and racial groups, as well as an extensive assessment of the relative position of the U.S. as compared with our "peer nations" of the OECD in key dimensions of well-being.
The
American Human Development Project is an independent, nonprofit initiative of the Social Science Research Council, funded by Oxfam America, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, with additional funding from the Annenberg Foundation.
