United Nations
Development Programme

The main axis of the human development programme is the promotion of sustainable development, covering not only the issue of economic growth, but also other areas of significance in terms of quality of life, such as education or health.

The key UNDP global publication is the Human Development Report, published annually since 1990. The reports, prepared by a group of independent experts, discuss major global issues of human development concern, such as democracy, cultural liberty, Millenium Development Goals, new technologies, development assistance, trade, etc. The reports also present the Human Development Index, which is used to classify 177 countries in terms of life quality. HDI consists of the following three elements: life expectancy at birth, level of education (measured by adult literacy rate and school enrolment) and GDP per capita (adjusted for local living costs).

UNDP in Poland is also publishing National Human Development Reports NHDR. Most recent reports focused on Poland's labour market and IT society. National reports act as a catalyst of social changes on national scale. They provide ideas on how to reduce poverty areas, boost development in the country and how to translate such ideas into concrete actions. The reports are subject to public debate, hence their development process is "open" in order for the broadest possible part of the society to take part. Apart from the basic objective of identifying changes in human development with the use of the Human Development Index HDI, each such Report is focused on a unique, selected issue which is the leading motive of given Report. The leading motive is described in the manner providing not only an analysis of actual status, but also outlining the directions of suggested changes. So far, throughout the entire world, 135 countries published over 350 national reports, eight of which have been published in Poland. Traditionally, Polish reports have their first presentation at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.

Since 2004, UNDP has been implementing projects co-financed by the EU EQUAL Initiative and a project funded by the Government of the Netherlands, with the objective to foster human development and improve the quality of life in Poland.