Twenty five years ago the first Human Development Report in 1990 began with a simple notion: that development is about enlarging people’s choices— focusing broadly on the richness of human lives rather than narrowly on the richness of economies. Work is a major foundation for both the richness of economies and the richness of human lives but has tended to be conceptualized in economic terms rather than in human development terms. The 2015 Human Development Report goes beyond that convention in directly linking work to the richness of human lives.

This Report starts with a fundamental question— how can work enhance human development? The Report takes a broad view of work, going beyond jobs and taking into account such activities as unpaid care work, voluntary work and creative work— all of which contribute to the richness of human lives. The Report also identifies sustainable work, which promotes human development while reducing and eliminating negative side effects and unintended consequences, as a major building block of sustainable development.