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Gambia ranks lower in UNDP human development index
Thursday, 04 November 2010 23:17
By Kemo ChamGambia has been ranked in the world’s lowest human development level.
The UN Human Development Report 2010, released today, placed the country at an unimpressive level of 151 out of 169 countries.
Since 1990, the Human Development Report has published the Human Development Index (HDI) which was introduced as an alternative to
conventional measures of national development, such as level of income and the rate of economic growth. The HDI provides a broader definition of well-being, measuring three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income. Despite its dismal global performance, however, Gambia appears to have done a little better at the regional level.
According to the report, the HDI of Sub-Saharan Africa as a region increased from 0.293 in 1980 to 0.389 today. At 0.390, Gambia is positioned above the regional average.
The survey reveals that education has been a major driving force behind Africa’s development in its 40-year trends analysis. While most countries seem to be making progress, AIDS, conflict and acute poverty are found to be limiting these advances on the continent.
In the three basic indicators used, Gambia scored well in health, 17 out of 43, and 153 out of 169 at the global level.
Africa’s overall impressive performance is underlined by its gain in the education sector. “Sub-Saharan Africa still faces many challenges, but many countries have made significant, and sometimes overlooked, progress, most notably in education, despite severe economic and political adversities,” said Jeni Klugman, the Report’s lead author.
But among the three indicators, Gambia’s worst performance is in education, scoring 31 among a regional group of 43. And as in all other indicators, the country’s performance in education at regional level counts far less compared to its dismal global performance. It scores 157 out of 169 countries.
On the income index, Gambia is placed 23 at regional level and 159 out of 169 at global level.
Despite Zimbabwe’s bottom-of-the-list global score, however, a handful of African countries did well enough to make it to the world’s top level.
As the report’s lead author said: “…over the past decade a number of African countries have accelerated progress, since 2000 five—Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda—are among the Top 10 Movers.”
Coming closer to home, neighboring Senegal did well compared to Gambia. Despite scoring one point below its smaller neighbor in the health index, Senegal did relatively better in both the Income index and Education, scoring 17/43 and 29/43, respectively, compared to Gambia’s scores of 23 and 31, respectively.
The two countries are however in heaven when compared to Guinea Bissau, whose overall global performance placed it at 164 and 38 out of 43 in the region.
The 20th anniversary edition of the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report was launched at a ceremony in New York, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.
Parallel launching ceremonies were held in Nairobi, Kenya, presided over by UN Assistant Secretary-General Tegegnework Gettu, who heads UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa, as well as in Dakar, Senegal, where Babacar Cisse, UNDP Deputy Regional Director for Africa, presided over ceremonies.
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