SINGAPORE: Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam, will co-chair the 2019 Human Development Report advisory board, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Wednesday (May 22).



Mr Tharman will lead the board alongside Thomas Piketty, Professor at the Paris School of Economics and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and co-director of the World Inequality Lab.





The French economist's 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century - on wealth and inequality in Europe and the US since the 1800s - was a global bestseller.

The advisory board, which also includes government officials and other industry experts, will meet in Paris next week to provide advice and guidance on the report, which is focused on inequality.

Mr Tharman on Thursday said that he was “glad to contribute” to the new Human Development Report with the rest of the international panel.



Glad to contribute to the new Human Devt Report with this international panel, who each bring distinct experiences and insights. To look at inequality through comprehensive lens: “beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today”. https://t.co/dGSbBbokVL — Tharman (@Tharman_S) May 23, 2019



The report, which will be released towards the end of the year, will provide a comprehensive picture of the many forms of inequality that are shaping the 21st century, UNDP said in a statement.



The UN said the report will also focus on understanding the dimensions of inequality that are most important to people’s well-being, as well as provide a comprehensive global analysis of inequality using a new framework that looks “beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today”.

