This report is about agriculture and its link to human wellbeing in South Asia. This report presents an in-depth analysis of the experience of five South Asian countries: Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Contributed articles presented at a seminar organized by Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India.

This third report on human development in South Asia presents a comprehensive profile of education in the region, analyses current educational policies and programmes, and presents a five-year plan to achieve universal primary education in the area.

The 2007 report on Human Development in South Asia is the tenth report in the series of annual reports prepared by Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. On this tenth anniversary, this report evaluates the actions that have followed the ten South Asia Human Development Reports produced and their impact on the people in the region. The report presents an in-depth and a comprehensive analysis of the achievements and challenges in human development of the region. In particular, the Report evaluates critically the performance in terms of economy and education for three major South Asian countries: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Overall South Asian perspective is also given on all issues that were the themes of ten previous South Asia Human Development Reports including education, health, employment, agricultural development, poverty alleviation, women's empowerment, governance and human security. This is a crucial report as it encompasses all areas related to human development in South Asia and provides an objective assessment of the challenges that the region continues to confront and some historic achievements in each country that provide some sources of hope. The wealth of data collected for the Report, particularly on trends in economic and social indicators of South Asia over the past ten years, will be valuable for policymakers and academic researchers.

Human Development in South Asia 2009 has been prepared under the direction of Khadija Haq, President of the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. Research was conducted by a team consisting of Nazam Maqbool Cheema, Abeer Masood and Umer Malik. Several South Asian economists contributed to the Report, including Parthapratim Pal (India), and a team of researchers from Centre for Policy Dialogue (Bangladesh) led by Khondaker Golam Moazzem and Kazi Mahmudur Rahman. --Book Jacket.