ABSTRACT

The first Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program, published in 1990, cited the following statistics:

Over 1 billion people, nearly 20 percent of the planet, live in absolute poverty with incomes less than US$1 per day.

One in three children around the world suffers from serious malnutrition and is underweight.

Half the people of the world lack primary health care, such that 3 million children die each year from immunizable diseases and 500,000 women die each year from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

About 1 billion people are illiterate, and well over 100 million children of primary school age are not in school. Female illiteracy is greater than male illiteracy; nearly two-thirds of those enrolled in primary school are males.