Sierra Leone, along with Niger and Afghanistan have scored the worst points in the Human Development Index thereby making the country one of the worst places to live in, according to UN report released yesterday.
The report further stated that the sub-Saharan African states affected by war and HIV/Aids were ranked as the least attractive places to live.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) index was compiled using 2007 data on GDP per capita, education, and life expectancy, and it showed marked differences between the developed and developing world.
“Despite significant improvements over time, progress has been uneven,” UNDP said in a statement.
Life expectancy in Niger was 50, about 30 years shorter than Norway, according to the index. For every dollar earned per person in Niger, $85 was earned in Norway.
“Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and this was even before the impact of the global economic crisis was felt.”
Half the people in the poorest 24 countries were illiterate, compared to 20% in nations classed as having medium levels of human development, the index showed.
Japanese people live longer than others, to 82.7 years on average, with life expectancy in war-ravaged Afghanistan just 43.6 years.
Information collected prior to the global economic crisis showed people in Norway, and Iceland had the best living standards.
Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per capita at $85,383 in a tiny principality that is home to 35,000 people, 15 banks and more than 100 wealth management companies.
People were poorest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where average income per person was $298 per year.
This year’s HDI, which refers to 2007, highlights the very large gaps in well-being and life chances that continue to divide our increasingly interconnected world. The HDI for Sierra Leone is 0.365, which gives the country a rank of 180th out of 182 countries with data (Table 1).
Table 1: Sierra Leone’s human development index 2007
HDI value Life expectancy at birth (years) Adult literacy rate (% ages 15 and above) Combined gross enrolment ratio (%) GDP per capita(PPP US$)
180. Sierra Leone (0.365) 170. Sierra Leone (47.3) 144. Sierra Leone (38.1) 165. Sierra Leone (44.6) 175. Sierra Leone (679)
By looking at some of the most fundamental aspects of people’s lives and opportunities the HDI provides a much more complete picture of a country’s development than other indicators, such as GDP per capita. Figure 2 illustrates that countries on the same level of HDI can have very different levels of income or that countries with similar levels of income can have very different HDIs.
The HDI measures the average progress of a country in human development. The Human Poverty Index (HPI-1), focuses on the proportion of people below certain threshold levels in each of the dimensions of the human development index – living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living. By looking beyond income deprivation, the HPI-1 represents a multi-dimensional alternative to the $1.25 a day (PPP US$) poverty measure.
The HPI-1 value of 47.7% for Sierra Leone, ranks 128th among 135 countries for which the index has been calculated.
The HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate.
And a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people not using an improved water source and the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight for their age. Table 2 shows the values for these variables for Sierra Leone and compares them to other countries.
Table 2: Selected indicators of human poverty for Sierra Leone
Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) Probability of not surviving to age 40 (%) Adult illiteracy rate (%ages 15 and above) People not using an improved water source (%) Children underweight for age (% aged under 5)
128. Sierra Leone (47.7) 133. Sierra Leone (31.0) 144. Sierra Leone (61.9) 138. Sierra Leone (47) 114. Sierra Leone (30)
The HDI measures average achievements in a country, but it does not incorporate the degree of gender imbalance in these achievements.
The gender-related development index (GDI), introduced in Human Development Report 1995, measures achievements in the same dimensions using the same indicators as the HDI but captures inequalities in achievement between women and men.
It is simply the HDI adjusted downward for gender inequality. The greater the gender disparity in basic human development, the lower is a country’s GDI relative to its HDI.
Sierra Leone’s GDI value, 0.354 should be compared to its HDI value of 0.365. Its GDI value is 97.0% of its HDI value. Out of the 155 countries with both HDI and GDI values, 137 countries have a better ratio than Sierra Leone’s.
Table 3 shows how Sierra Leone’s ratio of GDI to HDI compares to other countries, and also shows its values for selected underlying indicators in the calculation of the GDI.
Every year, millions of people cross national or international borders seeking better living standards. Most migrants, internal and international, reap gains in the form of higher incomes, better access to education and health, and improved prospects for their children.
Most of the world’s 195 million international migrants have moved from one developing country to another or between developed countries.
Sierra Leone has an emigration rate of 2.0%. The major continent of destination for migrants from Sierra Leone is Africa with 40.9% of emigrants living there.
Remittances, which are usually sent to immediate family members who have stayed behind, are among the most direct benefits from migration; their benefits spread broadly into local economies.
They also serve as foreign exchange earnings for the origin countries of migrants.
However, remittances are unequally distributed. Of the total US$370 billion remitted in 2007, more than half went to countries in the medium human development category against less than one per cent to low human development countries.
In 2007, US$148 million in remittances were sent to Sierra Leone. Average remittances per person were US$25, compared with the average for Sub-Saharan Africa of US$26.
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