CAIRO: Arab countries have achieved 66 percent progress on the Human Development Index (HDI) over the past 40 years, a Human Development Report policy specialist said during a press conference marking the report’s 20th anniversary edition.
The report — launched Thursday under the title of “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development,” by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark — shows that over the past 40 years there has been progress around the world in the HDI, which numerically “scores” countries according to their citizens’ life expectancy, education, and standard of living.
“Arab countries have increased their HDI by almost 66 percent,” said Jose Pineda, a Human Development Report policy specialist for the United Nations Development Program, at a press conference in Cairo earlier this week.
“There has been a significant increase across all dimensions; literacy went from 34 percent [in 1970] to 64 percent [in 2010] … life expectancy [is higher], and the gross domestic product (GDP) almost doubled.”
Life expectancy among Arab countries has increased from 51 years in 1970 to almost 70 years today, which is the greatest gain of any region in the world.
Arab countries’ infant mortality rates have decreased from 98 deaths (per 1,000 live births) in 1970 to 38 deaths in 2008; the Arab world’s infant mortality rate is thus lower than the worldwide average of 44 deaths.
The average years of education for the current Arab adult population are 5.7 years, which is less than the world’s average of 7.4 years.
Remarkably, there are five Arab countries ranked in the top 10 (out of 135 countries) to have the highest progress in HDI from 1970 to 2010. These five countries include Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
Out of all of the Arab countries, Oman has made the most progress in human development since 1970. However, Pineda warned not to accept such statistics at face-value, stating that “there is a faster rate of progress when you take into account the initial position of the country, and each country is different.”
Egypt was ranked number 101 (out of 135) in the 2010 HDI, going up two places since 2005.
On the other hand, only three countries in the world have a lower HDI in 2010 than they had in 1970: Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Congo. Pineda stated that “this is mainly due to conflict, economic mismanagement, and the spread of HIV.”
The 2010 Human Development Report examined gains over the last 40 years in health, education and income, as measured by the HDI, for 135 countries, which comprises more than 90 percent of the world’s population.
However, the 2010 report shows that economic growth and human development do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.
“Countries could have achievement in human development, [in education and health], without achieving as much income and economic growth,” said Pineda.
The UNDP has recognized that there is more to human development than what the HDI measures.
“We have revised the concept [of the HDI to make it more] relative [in order] to address the challenges of development,” said Pineda. “With this idea in mind, we want to see how we can move forward in the development agenda.”
In the 2010 Human Development Report, new innovative measures have been added in an attempt to offer new insight. This year’s HDI should not be directly compared to the HDI of previous years, as it utilizes different development indicators and calculations.
The income component of the 2010 HDI has been measured in terms of the Gross National Income, in contrast to being measured in terms of GDP in previous years.
The measurement of the education component has also been changed. Instead of being measured solely in terms of the country’s literacy rate, it now measures two indicators: the level of educational enrollment, and the expected years of schooling.
The HDI is now more refined; it is calculated using mathematical means that give all components of the index an intrinsic value in offering a balanced developmental framework. HDI has previously been calculated using arithmetic means that allowed countries with high incomes to compensate for its low development in health. The new, more sophisticated HDI calculation prevents that overcompensation from occurring by accounting for the interaction among development components.
The HDI 2.0 was also created, which allows more user input into the index. All of the HDI data will be available on the internet within an interface that allows users to change the weights placed on the various components of development; users will thereby be capable of analyzing countries’ progress (or lack thereof) by their own personal belief of what constitutes human development.
“The idea is to move to a truly interactive phase,” said Pineda.
Three new indices were also added to the Human Development Report: the Inequality Adjusted HDI, the Gender Inequality Index, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index.
The Inequality Adjusted HDI takes into account inequalities in a nation’s health, education and income. Arab states suffered a large Inequality Adjusted HDI loss of 28 percent due to a substantial inequality found in all three areas. The Arab states collectively had the highest overall loss in the educational dimension — 43 percent — of any other region on this index due to the unequal distribution of education among Arab countries.
The Gender Inequality Index (GII) captures the gender gaps in reproductive health, the political participation of females, and the level of females in the labor force. Arab states suffered a 70 percent loss on the GII, which is the largest loss in the world.
“[The loss in GII is mainly] due to the relatively low parliamentary representation of women and their [low] labor force participation,” Pineda stated.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index identifies serious overall deprivations in health, education and living standards. There are 39 million people in the Arab region who have been identified as “multi-dimensionally poor,” as they’re poor in all three categories.
After 2010, the UNDP will have two main objectives in mind for human development: policy and research. In terms of public policy, the context of all public policy must be taken into serious consideration. The policy’s principles should be determined first, and those principles should then be integrated into global policy and governance.
“We have looked at the past and identified progress — progress only on limited dimensions,” said Pineda. “[Now] we’re embracing the concept of human development and we want it to encompass all [human development] dimensions.”
