25 JULY 2014
http://allafrica.com/stories/201407251304.html
Africa: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
Cape Town -- While a number of African countries have recently made some
progress in improving the quality of life of their people, nearly as many
are backsliding, according to the latest United Nations statistics. And
across the board, Africa continues to lag far behind the rest of the world
in its levels of human development.
These are the broad conclusions that can be drawn from the snapshot
provided by comparing country rankings for 2013 to those for the previous
year, as published in the 2014 Human Development Index. The index, a
project of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), measures quality of life by
examining achievements in income, health and education.
The index shows that 11 African countries improved their rankings in 2013
over 2012, while the rankings of eight declined. Nevertheless, only five
African countries appear in the "high human development" category, while 35
of the 43 countries whose development is categorised as "low" are African.
Although Zimbabwe is ranked "low" - at 156th place among 187 countries -
its improvement between 2013 and 2012 was the most dramatic in the world.
Its ranking rose by four places. The UNDP said in a press release that this
was a result of "a significant increase in life expectancy - 1.8 years from
2012 to 2013, almost quadruple the average global increase."
On the other hand, Libya's human development is classified in the "high"
category but its ranking plunged the most - by five places to 55th place.
This was a consequence of conflict contributing to a drop in income, the
UNDP said.
Apart from Zimbabwe, better rankings were also achieved by Zambia, which
rose two places, to 141, and by nine other countries, whose positions rose
one place: the Democratic Republic of Congo (to 186), Lesotho (to 162),
Morocco (129), Mozambique (178), Nigeria (152), Sierra Leone (183), South
Africa (118), Tanzania (159) and Togo (166). However, the index
nevertheless scores the DR Congo, Mozambique and Sierra Leone as among the
world's 10 least developed countries.
Other African nations besides Libya whose rankings slipped were Equatorial
Guinea, by three places to 144th place, Senegal, also by three places (to
163), Cape Verde (two places, to 123), Egypt (two places, to 110) and
Mauritania (two places, to 161). Each of the following countries dropped
one place: Botswana (to 109), Chad (184), Comores (159), Gabon (112),
Guinea (179), Niger (187), Sao Tome and Principe (142) and Seychelles (71).
However, Africa fares better if its rate of progress is assessed over the
13 years since 2000. Although sub-Saharan Africa has the highest levels of
inequality in the world, it notched up the second highest rate of overall
progress in the index between 2000 and 2013, the UNDP said in a press
release.
"Rwanda and Ethiopia achieved the fastest growth, followed by Angola,
Burundi, Mali, Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia," the
agency said.
Taking a global perspective, the UNDP this year placed considerable
emphasis on reducing people's vulnerability to factors outside their
control, and on building up resilience to avert the threats they face.
"High achievements on critical aspects of human development, such as health
and nutrition, can quickly be undermined by a natural disaster or economic
slump," the report said. "Theft and assault can leave people physically and
psychologically impoverished. Corruption and unresponsive state
institutions can leave those in need of assistance without recourse."
It suggested that "real progress" in improving human development depended
not only on improving people's education, health, safety and standards of
living, but also "on how secure these achievements are and whether
conditions are sufficient for sustained human development. An account of
progress in human development is incomplete without exploring and assessing
vulnerability."
Providing an African take on the issue, the director of the agency's
Regional Bureau for Africa, Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, added that "withstanding
crises and protecting the most vulnerable, who are the most affected, are
key to ensuring development progress is sustainable and inclusive."
No African country is in the "very high" development category, and only the
north African and island nations of Libya, Mauritius, the Seychelles,
Tunisia and Algeria fall in the "high" category.
*The 10 countries in the world with the lowest development levels are, from
the bottom, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African
Republic, Chad, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Guinea and
Mozambique.*
Received on Fri Jul 25 2014 - 09:56:05 EDT