"In the final analysis, human security is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced. Human security is not a concern with weapons--it is a concern with human life and dignity."--Human Development Report 1994
"Human development...brings together the production and distribution of commodities and the expansion and use of human capabilities. It also focuses on choices--on what people should have, be, and do to be able to ensure their own livelihood. Human development is, moreover, concerned not only with basic needs satisfaction but also with human development as a participatory and dynamic process. It applies equally to less developed and highly developed countries."--Human Development Report 1990
"...Human development--our defining mandate--is not only about helping to ensure a decent income level and standard of living for everyone, but also about helping to ensure that every person has the capacity, right, freedom, and choice to take and be part of the decisions that affect a person's life, to select the leaders who make those decisions, and to then hold them to account."--UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan’s remarks on World Democracy Day, 2010.
"Human development focuses on individual and group empowerment, on human rights, structural safeguards, [and] common humanity, to live a life of freedom and dignity. They give all people moral claims on the behavior of individuals and on the design of social arrangements--and are universal, inalienable and indivisible."--Human Development Report 2000
Spring 2011 Interns
Apply to become an intern
UNDP internships aim to complement development-oriented studies with practical experience in various aspects of multilateral technical cooperation and international studies, including law.
Please view our Internships page for more information about internship opportunities for outstanding postgraduates in the Washington, DC office.
128 countries are receiving UNDP support for democratic governance
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103 countries are receiving support from UNDP for anti-corruption efforts
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60 countries are receiving UNDP election assistance
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60 percent of municipalities in Jordan are now using a UNDP-created property tax collection system
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1.2 million people have benefited from UNDP temporary job programs in Haiti
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250,000 people in Armenia have benefited from water, sanitation, microfinance and other UNDP programs
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150,000 people in Liberia received counseling and treatment for HIV & AIDS with UNDP help
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$550 million in interest savings for Jamaica after UNDP helped negotiate with creditors
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6 million square meters of land cleared in Cambodia with UNDP support
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95 percent of UNDP's partners consider the organization a "critical partner" in contributing to the anti-poverty MDGs
UNDP helps register 30 million people for DR Congo vote
Electoral fund of more than US$202 million has 12 donors
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNDP has helped train some 31,000 Electoral Commission and temporary staff and set up 8,163 voter registration centers ahead of the central African country’s second-ever national election, set for Nov. 28 this year
