Arctic Social Indicators - a follow-up to the Arctic Human Development Report

• Other Authors: Nymand Larsen, Joan, Schweitzer, Peter, Fondahl, Gail
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Nordic Council of Ministers 2010
• Subjects: SDWG; Arctic human development; AHDR; Akureyri; Arctic; Arctic Council; Arctic Human Development Report; Human health; Iceland; International Polar Year
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11374/39

The Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR), published in 2004, offers a comprehensive overview of the state of human development in the Arctic at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As such, it constitutes a unique and indispensable resource. It addresses Arctic demography, political, economic and legal systems, and key issues in the North such as resource governance, community viability, human health and well-being, education, gender issues, and circumpolar international relations and geopolitics. The Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) project responded to the AHDR, in aiming to develop a set of indicators to track changes in human development in the Arctic, for domains that reflect prominent aspects of human development in the Arctic. Initiated by the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland, the ASI project in its first phase (2006-2009) was an International Polar Year project and was endorsed by the Arctic Council. It grew organically from the AHDR. The ASI project chose six domains in which to develop indicators for monitoring human development – the three domains identified by the AHDR (fate control, cultural integrity, contact with nature), and the three domains constituting the UN Human Development Index (life expectancy, literacy and standard of living), adapted for the Arctic context (to health/ population, education and material well-being). This suite of domains provides an approach that is broad and inclusive while remaining manageable. Arctic Council's Sustainable Development Working Group