United Nations Human Development Report 1998

Every year since 1990 the United Nations Development Programme publishes a reliable source that provides an alternative perspective on critical issues for human development worldwide. Human development means the enlargement of all human choices, and in this case, it refers to improving consumer choices respecting human life. Every annual report presents agenda-setting data and analysis. The report tries to focus international attention on issues and policy options to meet the challenges of economic, social, political, and cultural development.

The 1998 report investigates the 20th century's growth in consumption. World consumption has expanded at an unprecedented pace over the 20th century, with private and public consumption expenditures reaching $24 trillion in 1998—twice the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950. In 1900, real consumption expenditure was barely $1.5 trillion. The report states that the benefits of this increase in consumption have been badly distributed, leaving a gap between poor and rich countries. Furthermore, ever-expanding consumption puts strains on the environment—emissions and wastes that increase pollution—and growing degradation of natural resources that undermines the capability of future generations to take advantage of them. The report demonstrates that the rising pressures of conspicuous consumption can turn destructive, reinforcing exclusion, poverty, and inequality.

Consumer choices should be turned into a reality for all. Consumption per capita has increased steadily in industrial countries (about 2.3 percent annually) over the past 25 years, spectacularly in East Asia (6.1 percent). Nonetheless, these developing regions are far from catching up to levels of industrial countries. Consumption growth has been slow or stagnant in others. The average African household today consumes 20 percent less than it did 25 years ago. The poorest 20 percent of the global population have been left out of the consumption explosion. Over a billion people are deprived of basic consumption needs, and of the 4.4 billion people in developing countries, nearly three-fifths lack basic sanitation. Almost a third of these people have no access to clean water. A quarter do not have adequate housing. A fifth have no access to modern health services. A fifth of these children do not attend school beyond grade five. A child born in the industrial world adds more to consumption and pollution over his or her lifetime than do 30–50 children born in developing countries, about a fifth of whom do not have enough dietary energy and [Page 444]protein. Nutrition deficiencies are even more widespread. Worldwide, 2 billion people are anemic, including 55 million in industrial countries.