By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- While the UN Development Program has just reported that Myanmar jumped up six places in development from 2005 to 2010, economist Amartya Sen who UNDP calls the seminal contributor to the first Human Development Reports called that into question on November 4.
When Inner City Press asked Sen about UNDP's portrayal of Myanmar's improvement, Sen said “I am skeptical of those numbers.” Speaking “non UNese, as a citizen of the world,” Sen specifically questioned the accuracy of Myanmar's reporting of its hospital services and school data. Video here, from Minute 12:50.
This comes three days before Myanmar's controversial, military heavy elections on November 7, which the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has called deeply flawed, while calling for a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes in the country.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on the other hand, did not mention to call for a war crimes inquiry in his report to the General Assembly entitled “Human Rights in Myanmar,” and has said he “expected” the Myanmar elections to be free and fair.
UNDP's staffer Jeni Klugman, on the podium with Sen, tried to defend the report, saying that a country like Myanmar might have moved up in the ranking simply because there were other countries near to it. But Sen was questioning if the data UNDP is relying on is accurate.
It does not appear that UNDP verifies or even assesses the accuracy or completeness of the data it uses. On November 1, Inner City Press asked Ms. Klugman if the Cyprus number includes data from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. She wrote the questions down, took Inner City Press' card and said she would respond.
On November 4 when asked, she did not have an answer. Afterward, another UNDP communicator approached to say that UNDP uses the UN definitions. Pressed by a Turkish journalist, he said that the UN does not recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. But how does Cyprus report on this territory? Or are there parts of the world whose data simply are not included in UNDP's report? UNDP should name them. Watch this site.
