Estonian Human Development Report

Foreword
The 2008 Estonian Human Development Report, which is now reaching the readers, has been prepared while the Estonian
economy, along with the global economy, is experiencing a sudden downturn. The Estonian government and the
entire population are concerned about how to preserve every family’s ability to cope and how to guarantee the society’s
capacity to handle the economic difficulties and make a recovery.
Last year, when the Estonian Cooperation Assembly that publishes the report chose the “quality of life” as the topic
for this year’s Human Development Report, we were facing cheerful prospects for improvements in Estonian life. However,
we feel that the quality of life is still a very important topic in the new situation, when it has become clear that both
the government and individual families have less money to spend. It is necessary now to weigh very carefully what is
important in life against what can be postponed, and to avoid taking steps that may irrevocably damage our quality of
life, deeply scarring the viability of our population.
The data on which the 2008 Human Development Report is based shows us Estonia in retrospect, capturing the
moment when the wave of economic growth was cresting and the population’s expectations for improvements in their
standard of living were optimistic. However, the risks and weaknesses of Estonia’s development were already visible a year
or two ago. The topics that are familiar from previous reports include the depletion of current resources for economic
development, the problems in education, insufficient cohesion of the society and weakness of civil society. Even more critical
issues are discussed in this year’s overview, especially the problems related to the population’s health, the social problems
that threaten the viability of the society, the spread of consumerist attitudes, as well as social and ethnic tensions.
While addressing these common concerns, however, the authors also provide the readers with a picture of a society that
has developed rapidly and, during the last few years, has almost caught up with “Western standards of living” in terms of
well-being, the availability of information, lifestyles, and the level of satisfaction with life – something that seemed very
distant and even unachievable ten or twenty years ago. The Human Development Report proves that the Estonian society
entering this period of global crisis is neither poor nor helpless. Instead, we have managed to accumulate a relatively
healthy reserve of strength. Increased well-being provides the basis for moving toward a broader understanding of a good
life. Money alone cannot achieve a quality of life that is based on spiritual values, deep human relations, healthy lifestyles,
happy children and a strong commonality; one must invest one’s time, intellect, emotions and will.
The discussions in all six chapters converge around the quality of life as a central concept. The first chapter provides
a traditional treatment of Estonia’s position in the global context, based on the rankings of the annual Human Development
Index; alongside which a closer examination is made of two components that comprise this index – the material
indicators of well-being, as well as the level and quality of education. The second chapter is dedicated to the population’s
health problems. The third chapter deals with people’s satisfaction with life, focusing on the quality of life for children and
the elderly. The fourth discusses the situation of ethnic minorities in Estonia against the background of other European
countries, specifically analyzing the situation of minorities in the labour market and their participation in political life.
The fifth chapter enables us to cast a glance at an entirely new set of problems related to quality of life that have appeared
along with Estonia’s development into an information and consumer society. Here too, the focus is on children and young
people. The final sections of the Human Development Report are dedicated to the correlations between well-being and
economic development – the sixth chapter highlights the relationship between economic development and social policies.
The final summary concludes with exploring the most topical issues – how the economic crisis will impact the quality of
life and what priorities should be considered when making difficult choices.
Its treatment of social problems with academic objectivity and reliance on
numbers and international comparisons has made the Human Development
Report an indispensable handbook for ordinary citizens as well as journalists
and politicians who are interested in the society. It is noteworthy that the
Human Development Report 2007 led to a lively discussion at a special session
of the Riigikogu. Hopefully, the 2008 Estonian Human Development will also
provide a great deal of food for thought and discussion. It is not impossible that
the economic crisis may even help to re-establish the balance between tangible
and intangible values. This is also one of the goals of this year’s Human Development
Report.
Marju Lauristin
Editor-in-chief, HDR 2008
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