Pedro Conceição to lead ‘reset’ of UNDP’s Human Development Report

December 11, 2018

New York – UNDP’s iconic Human Development Report will get a reboot over the next year led by a new Director, Pedro Conceição, Administrator Achim Steiner announced today.

“I am pleased to announce that Pedro Conceição will be leading our work to prepare the ‘next generation’ of UNDP Human Development Reports,” said Steiner.  “UNDP is committed to providing cutting-edge thinking and policy advice, and as part of that drive we will be reinvesting in the human development approach to reimagine what global, regional, and national human development reports can provide. Pedro brings an outstanding track record to this leadership position which combines excellence in the field of economics with a global track record in applied development policy.  He has earned respect and admiration from both academics and practitioners, and is considered a ‘peer’ in both communities.”

Championing an entirely new philosophy decades ahead of its time, the first Human Development Report in 1990 imagined a world where income was not the only measure of wellbeing.

Instead, ‘human development’ would measure whether people were able to live the lives they chose, whether they were healthy and educated, had sufficient income, and were free to make choices on how they wanted to live.  

“The Human Development Report is the iconic product of UNDP, spawning hundreds of national and regional human development reports that highlighted critical issues like migration, youth and climate change, and anticipating future events like the Arab Spring,” continued Steiner.  “By investing in new partnerships, advancing our thinking on new metrics of development, and affirming the editorial independence of this report, I am confident this report can break new ground and provide thought leadership while continuing to report on critical and often sensitive issues.”

Since October 2014, Pedro Conceição has been UNDP’s Director of Strategic Policy for the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. Before that, he was Chief Economist and Head of the Strategic Advisory Unit at UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa.

Prior to this, he was Director of the Office of Development Studies (ODS) from March 2007 to November 2009, and Deputy Director of ODS, from October 2001 to February 2007. His work on financing for development and on global public goods was published by Oxford University Press in books he co-edited (The New Public Finance: Responding to Global Challenges, 2006; Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization, 2003).

He has published on inequality, the economics of innovation and technological change, and development in, amongst others journals, the African Development Review, Review of Development Economics, Eastern Economic Journal, Ecological Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. He co-edited several books including: Innovation, Competence Building, and Social Cohesion in Europe- Towards a Learning Society (Edward Elgar, 2002) and Knowledge for Inclusive Development (Quorum Books, 2001).

Prior to coming to UNDP, he served as an Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, teaching and researching on science, technology and innovation policy. He holds degrees in Physics from Instituto Superior Técnico and in Economics from the Technical University of Lisbon and a Ph. D. in Public Policy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with a Fulbright scholarship.

Born in Portugal, Mr. Conceição is married and has two children.

Pedro Conceição succeeds Selim Jahan who retired after over 25 years of service at UNDP.   Mr. Steiner thanks Mr. Jahan for his leadership and integrity during his years with UNDP and his stewardship of the Human Development Report and its team.