Nigeria is not one of those African countries recording remarkable improvements in its Human Development Index (HDI), latest report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has indicated.
The agency in its 2013 Human Development Report rather listed Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania as among the African countries that made the greatest strides in HDI improvement since 2000.
Norway, Australia and the United States lead the rankings of the 187 countries and territories in the latest
Human Development Index (HDI), while conflict-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and drought-stricken Niger have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement of national achievement in health, education and income.
The 2013 Human Development Report entitled, ‘The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World’, was launched in Mexico City by UNDP administrator, Helen Clark, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Nigeria in recent years has recorded high growth rates, averaging 7 percent, yet poverty remains high and unemployment is not easing.
“Fourteen countries recorded impressive HDI gains of more than 2 percent annually since 2000—in order of improvement, they are:
Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Angola, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Tanzania, Liberia, Burundi, Mali, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Niger. Most are low-HDI African countries, with many emerging from long periods of armed conflict. Yet all have made significant recent progress in school attendance, life expectancy and per capita income growth”, the report stated.
The report analyses more than 40 developing countries that have made rapid human development gains in recent years through sustained investment in education, health and other social services, and strategic engagement with the world economy.
The 2013 report’s statistical annex also includes two experimental indices, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and the Gender Inequality Index (GII).
According to the report, the rise of the South is radically reshaping the world of the 21st century, with developing nations driving economic growth, lifting hundreds of millions of people from poverty, and propelling billions more into a new global middle class.
The report uses the term ‘the South’ to refer to developing countries and ‘the North’ for developed ones.
It showed African region as having the second highest growth in accompanying Human Development Index (HDI) after South Asia over the past ten years.
“Africa has achieved sustained rates of economic growth at a time of great involvement with emerging economies.”
ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
