The 2016 Human Development Report is the latest in the series of global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990 as independent, analytically and empirically grounded discussions of major development issues, trends and policies.

Human development has enriched human lives but unfortunately not all to the same extent, and even worse, not every life.

It is thus not by chance but by choice that world leaders in 2015 committed to a development journey that leaves no one out central premise of the 2030 Agenda. Mirroring that universal aspiration, it is timely that the 2016 Human Development Report is devoted to the theme of human development for everyone.

the Report then raises two fundamental questions: who has been left out in progress in human devel- opment and how and why did that happen.

The barriers to universalism include, among others, deprivations and inequalities, discrimination and exclusion, social norms and values, and prejudice and intolerance.

To ensure human development for everyone, the Report asserts that merely identifying the nature of and the reasons for the deprivation of those left out is not enough.

The Report rightly recognizes that national policies need to be complemented by actions at the global level.

The Report complements the 2030 Agenda by sharing the principle of universalism and by concentrating on such fundamental areas as eliminating extreme poverty, ending hunger and highlighting the core issue of sustainability.