Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (サキコ・フクダ・パー、福田 咲子) (born 1950)[1] is a development economist, a Professor of International Affairs at the New School for Social Research in New York, and the Vice Chair of the UN Committee for Development Policy.[2][3] She has gained recognition for her work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),[4][5] her writing on human rights and development, and for founding the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. She was the principal author of the UN Human Development Reports (1995-2004).[2]
After working as a loan officer with the World Bank from 1974 to 1979, Fukuda-Parr served as a technical adviser in agricultural economics at the United Nations Development Programme from 1979 to 1985. She followed this up with stints as a Deputy Resident Adviser in Burundi (1985-1987), Principal Economist and Deputy Director at the Regional Bureau for Africa (1986-1991), and Chief of the West Africa Division (1992-1994). In 1995 she was appointed as Director of the Human Development Report Office (1995-2006), where she was responsible for authoring and publishing the UN Human Development Reports.
Fukuda-Parr has both written and edited works on human development, poverty, and economics. In addition to her contributions to the Annual Human Development Reports, some of her authored and edited publications include Rethinking Technical Cooperation: Reforms for Capacity Building in Africa,[8]Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems[9] and The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development.[10] She has also participated in several journal projects and written book chapters concerning capacity development and human rights. In 2000, she founded the Journal of Human Development (published annually). She has also co-edited Readings in Human Development: Concepts, Measures and Policies for a Development Paradigm,[11] and held a position on the Feminist Economics editorial board.
In her writings, FukudaParr highlights social disparities on an international scale. Inequalities, according to her, exist in education, resource distribution, gender rights, and income. Her role in the Millennium Development Goals, among other initiatives, is making a difference in the wars on poverty and inequality. Toward this end, she will continue to fight for an outcome that embodies true human rights on every level.[12]
In The Adventure of Peace, Fukuda-Parr’s chapter, "Poverty and Inequality – Challenges in the Era of Globalisation,"[13] describes the central challenge intrinsically dividing society: the direction of globalization. She urges nations to redirect globalization so that it benefits all countries and all peoples, to promote democratization as a force for greater social justice and to address poverty as part of the agenda for collective security.[14] Critical issues (such as HIV/AIDS, migration, links between development and conflict, cultural diversity, and global governance) can be more appropriately tackled with global solidarity and an “inclusive form” of globalization.
Personal life
Fukuda-Parr was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father's position with the Japanese Ministry of Finance moved the family from Tokyo to London to Washington, D.C. and, finally, to Manila. She is married to Francis Parr. They have two children, Nicholas and Henry. She currently resides in the upper west side of Manhattan.
Recognition
She is a joint winner of the 2019 Grawemeyer Award, alongside Terra Lawson-Remer and Susan Randolph for "Ideas for Improving World Order".[15] She is also the winner of the American Political Science Association’s 2016 Best Book in Human Rights Scholarship.[16]
Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko; Chen, Lincoln; Seidensticker, Ellen (2003). Human insecurity in a global world. Cambridge, Mass: Global Equity Initiative, Asia Center Harvard University Distributed by Harvard University Press. ISBN9780674014541.
Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko (2005), "Poverty and inequality: challenges in the era of globalisation", in Ask, Sten; Mark-Jungkvist, Anna (eds.), The adventure of peace: Dag Hammarskjöld and the future of the UN, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 220–239, ISBN9781403974310
Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko (2009), "Human rights and human development", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume II: Society, institutions and development, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 76–99, ISBN9780199239979.
^Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko (2005), "Poverty and inequality: challenges in the era of globalisation", in Ask, Sten; Mark-Jungkvist, Anna (eds.), The adventure of peace: Dag Hammarskjöld and the future of the UN, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 220–239, ISBN9781403974310
