Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the 2010 report “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development” reaffirms the basic concept of human development as the expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. Turkey’s ranking in the 2010 Human Development Index (HDI), puts the country behind all EU member states as well as other EU candidate countries, and places it below the OECD average. Also in the high human development category, countries like Bulgaria, Latvia, and Romania, all of which have lower per capita gross national income (PPP) levels compared to Turkey, rank higher in the index as a result of better mean years of schooling and life expectancy rates. Similarly, Turkey ranks lowest among the four EU candidate countries (others are Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Iceland) and all OECD countries. According to the 2010 HDI, Norway, Australia and New Zealand leading the world in HDI achievement with Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe at the bottom of the annual rankings. Each year, the HDI and other indices are published as part of the global Human Development Report. Global Human Development Reports frame debates on some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity from climate change to human rights. Human Development Reports are independent reports, commissioned by UNDP. The reports rely on international data agencies with the mandate, resources and expertise to collect international data on specific indicators. The Report is translated into more than a dozen languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually. The 2010 Report was launched in Ankara, along with the rest of the world on 4 November 2010 in the scope of the Human Development Dialogue Seminar Series organized jointly by the UN and World Bank offices in Turkey and the METU Social Sciences Institute Social Policy Programme. The seminar was opened by speeches from the World Bank country Director Ulrich Zachau and Social Policy Programme director Meliha Altunışık. UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Shahid Najam presented the report and independent Human Development Consultant Dr. Seyhan Aydınlıgil provided insight as the discussant at the event.

Short Biographies

Shahid Najam
Shahid Najam assumed his office as the United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative in Ankara on 24 December 2009. Najam, a national of Pakistan, has to his credit; four Masterates including Masters of Law and MSc. Public Policy from London School of Economics and Political Science, London UK and MSc. Rural Development a joint programme of Wye College London. He has a vast experience of more than 33 years (of which more than 15 years with the UN system) in public policy formulation and analysis; development planning and programming; formulation, implementation and monitoring of projects and work plans; resource mobilization and management; and disaster management and relief operations. Some high level positions with the Government of Pakistan held by Najam included Commissioner, Lahore Division and Chief Operating Officer, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade. Shahid Najam has served in various capacities in the UN system, including FAO Representative, Chief Decentralization Support Service and Deputy FAO Representative in Tanzania . His major contribution included formulation and management of large development programmes in the economic and social sectors including 5 years joint FAO-Iran National Medium Term Priority Framework in the agriculture sector; specifically targeted programs for poverty alleviation, income generation and urban and rural development; development of community based and managed "Model villages" in the poverty stricken rural areas and "Model Wards" in the poor urban slums; the design and implementation of the new decentralized governance system in Pakistan involving delegation, devolution and deconcentration of power in favour of the elected representatives at local level; and establishment of Investment Promotion Agency for the province of Punjab in Pakistan.

Ulrich Zachau
Ulrich Zachau, a German national, joined the Bank in 1988. He has since held various staff and management positions at the World Bank, including Operations in Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in Finance, Policy, and Research. From 2003 until January 2007, he has served as Director of Strategy and Operations for the Latin America and Caribbean Vice-Presidency. Since January 2007 he has been Country Director for Turkey. Mr. Zachau holds degrees in mathematics and economics from the University of Munich and a Ph. D. degree in economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Before joining the World Bank, he worked for McKinsey&Co and taught economics at the University of Bonn.

The Social Policy Program of the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Middle East Technical University, UNDP and the World Bank Turkey Offices hosted Dr. Jesko Hentschel (World Bank) and Meltem Aran (Oxford University), whose seminar was entitled "Equality of Opportunity for the Next Generation in Turkey”. The speakers introduced the main findings of a new report by the World Bank on “Turkey: Expanding Opportunities for Next Generations”. They first posed the question on the main reason of why there are people in need today in Turkey, given the improvements in social outcomes over the last few decades. Based on findings of a survey conducted in 2006, Turks strongly agree that the gap between rich and poor should be reduced and indicate that 65 percent of inequality is due to injustice. This hints the effects beyond people’s own efforts; in other words circumstances that people cannot influence. The findings of the report show that one-third of the wealth inequalities are due to the unequal opportunities/circumstances. These inequalities travel across generations. Children’s life chances are significantly found to be impacted by their grandparents’ socio-economic profile. The report also brings forward discrepancies of child development indicators across different opportunity groups and highlights how low opportunity groups rate poorly in these indicators, especially for girls. One of the prior policies is investing in early childhood development. The speakers indicated that this recent report emphasizes how early childhood policies are key in breaking the intergenerational transmission of inequality of opportunities.

Short Biographies

Jesko Hentschel
Jesko Hentschel is currently the Sector Manager for Human Development Economics for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. During his career at the World Bank, Jesko has worked as a coordinator for the Bank's human development program in the Southern Cone of Latin America, Turkey and the Indian Ocean Countries of Africa. He holds graduate degrees in economics and social policy from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), Konstanz University (Germany) and the London School of Economics and Social Science and has published widely on methodological approaches to assessing poverty and anti-poverty policies. Before joining the World Bank, he worked at several United Nations agencies. Jesko has also been affiliated with the University of Potsdam as a lecturer in development studies.

Meltem Aran
Meltem Aran is a human development economist with research focusing on poverty, inequality and overall distributional impact of social policies. Most recently, she has also been working on issues of gender, women's empowerment, intra-household allocation of resources and children’s outcomes in low opportunity settings. Prior to Turkey, she has worked in South Africa and, Indonesia on research projects related to poverty and measuring the impact of public spending and poverty alleviation programs in health, education and social protection. Meltem Aran is currently working towards her doctoral degree in Economics at the University of Oxford. She holds a master's degree in international development from Harvard University and a BA from Brown University in economics and international relations.

The Social Policy Program of the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Middle East Technical University, UNDP and the World Bank Turkey Offices hosted Dr. Francisco Rodriguez (UNDP), whose seminar was entitled "Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development, The 2009 Global Human Development Report”. Dr. Rodriguez focused his presentation on how migration affected different dimensions of well-being. He highlighted the important insights of the topic of migration and explained why borders do matter in well-being. The report finds that levels of gain of internal movers are higher for low-skilled, then high-skilled. The children of movers are found to have a much greater chance of surviving. Higher enrollment rates and lower infant rates are more likely. Dr. Rodriguez concluded that migration is good but also might have adverse effects for those low-skilled movers who do not have basic rights and access to public services. In the long term, liberalizing and simplifying channels of migration is conditional on the demand for migrant workers; but in addition ensuring their basic rights (i.e. non-discrimination, protection against forced labor, equal pay for equal work) is key in order to sustain equity.

Short Biography
Francisco Rodríguez is Senior Policy Advisor and Head of the Research Team of the Human Development Report Office. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and has held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración and Wesleyan University. From 2000 to 2004 he served as Chief Economist to the Venezuelan National Assembly. He has published more than forty research papers in economics and public policy publications including the Journal of Economic Growth, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Economics and Politics and Foreign Affairs.