The HDI is viewed as a sufficiently inclusive methodology since it combines income and physical and educational capacities, and to some extent expresses one of the basics of human development, which is that economic activity enshrined in the GDP is just a means and not an end for development.

However, it is important to stress that human development is much broader than the HDI reveals. The HDI does not, nor can it, succeed in capturing the concept in all its complexity and richness. It is limited to providing an image of people's basic living conditions, drawing the public's attention to disparities and allowing informed intervention in the development processes and policy formulation. (UNDP, 2000: 96).

The GHDRs have been building more specific and disaggregated indices that add other dimensions of human choices not covered by the HDI. The various measuring instruments are summarised in Table 1.1

GDI - Gender-related Development Index
The GDI was introduced in the 1995 Human Development Report. This index uses the same variables as the HDI, but adjusted in each country in relation to the differences in life expectancy, educational level and income between men and women. The greater the disparity in human development, the lower will be a country's GDI when compared with its HDI (UNDP, 1997: 124).

GEM - Gender EMpowerement Measure

The Gender Empowerment Measure, also introduced in 1995, measures inequality 2 It differs slightly from the estimate based on official and updated data published by INE. See Chapter 2 between the sexes as regards participation in key economic and political areas. The GEM uses variables constructed explicitly to measure the relative acquisition of power by men and women in the spheres of political and economic activity. In particular, this measure takes into consideration the percentage of women in parliament, and among administrators, directors and professional and technical staff, as well as women's income compared to men's. Unlike the GDI, the GEM exposes disparities in terms of opportunities in selected areas.

HPI - Human Poverty Index
The HPI was introduced in the 1997 GHDR. It is a composite measure, stressing several characteristics of deprivation, in order to reach an overall judgement about the level of poverty in any given community. This diversifies away from the conventional definition of poverty based only on consumption.

The HPI concentrates on deprivation in three essential areas of human life, already reflected in the HDI - longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living, with slight variation. The first deprivation concerns survival - vulnerability to death at a relatively early age (40 or less in developing countries, and 60 in the case of industrialised countries). The second concerns knowledge - being excluded from the world of reading and writing. The third concerns a decent standard of living in terms of overall economic provisioning (incidence of poverty, percentage of people without access to drinking water, and without access to health and sanitation services), and the percentage of children under five who are under weight.

The instruments for measuring human development have not remained stationary; they have been under going continual transformation and refinement to bring them into line with the needs of the moment.