Human development indices for Greater Manchester

Human development means putting people at the centre of economic and social development. This approach adopted by the United Nations for its Human Development Reports casts a new light on the purposes and outcomes of economic growth compared to conventional measures that are bound by national income accounting methods. This human development report for Greater Manchester is about people and about how human development enlarges their choices. The most critical of these choices are to live a long, healthy and fulfilling life, to be educated and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living Additional choices are access to knowledge, guaranteed human rights, living in dignity and personal self-respect. Equity is at the heart of the idea of human development. And equity has an inter-generational dimension as well. A focus on Greater Manchester is very opposite. Not only is revolution opening up a new political space for rethinking priorities and policies but the characteristics of Greater Manchester also provide a window on the complexities of the human development challenges and possibilities fro British society as a whole. Greater Manchester is a melting pot of communities and cultures, divergent legacies and opportunities and intergenerational as well as inter-area differences. The theme chosen for this human development report is in fact 'Human development over the life course'. Key life stages or transitions are critical for the development and exercise of capabilities and require timely and cost-effective support from both the employment system and the social system- from the state and community, not just families. Rhetoric that all should share equally in adjusting to economic downtowns does not recognise that those who are at the key life stage may find their whole lifetime chances affected. The concern is to identify the different challenges within Greater Manchester for human development at each key life stage and transitions and to consider the implications of poor transitions for human development goals over the life course. Inequalities within each life stage by gender, ethnicity, social class and locality are explored.