KATHMANDU: Nepal has up one places in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranking 143 out of 192 countries in the 2021-2022 period, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report.
The report has identified that different climate shocks are affecting world order, pushing back the growth that was achieved in the past few years.
UNDP has published its Human Development Index (HDI) report for 2021-22, noting that for the first time in 32 years that the UN agency has been calculating HDI, the index declined globally for two straight years. The report, titled ‘Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World’, and released on September 8, also stated that more than 90% countries saw a decline in their HDI score in either 2020 or 2021, while over 40% nations declined in both the years.
Switzerland leads the way on the latest HDI, while Norway and Iceland enjoy second and third positions.
Among the South Asian countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka — only Pakistan and Afghanistan (180th position) are in the low human development category, The News reported.
Bhutan (127), Bangladesh (129), India (132) and Pakistan (161) are in the medium human development category, and the crisis-hit Sri Lanka has managed to improve its position by nine points, reaching the 73rd position on the index, finding itself in the high human development category.
Meanwhile, Maldives at the 90th position.
The report has found out that around 90 per cent of countries have seen “reversals in human development” in the year of the survey, pointing to a world stuck in a never-ending cycle of crisis after crisis, causing global disruptions.
The two major factors responsible for these disruptions were the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, The News quoted the report as saying.
The HDI is a measure of countries’ standard of living, health and education.
This is the first time in the last 30 years that human development in a majority of countries has gone in reverse for two consecutive years.
Here are a few things to know about the 2021-22 edition of the report:
(1.) A total of 191 countries were analysed under this exercise, which is carried out annually. As always, the matrices were used to used to prepare the report were life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and gross national income (per capita).
(2.) At 73 and with index value of 0.782, Sri Lanka emerged as the best performer from the Indian sub-continent. The island nation was followed by China (79 and 0.768), Bhutan (127 and 0.666), Bangladesh (129 and 0.661), India, Nepal (143 and 0.602) and Pakistan (161 and 0.544).
(3.) European states were among the best overall performers, with as many as 8 in the top 10 of the list. These are Switzerland (1; 0.962), Norway (2; 0.961), Iceland (3; 0.959), Denmark (6; 0.948), Sweden (7; 0.947), Ireland (8; 0.945), Germany (9; 0.942) and Netherlands (10; 0.941).
(4.) The only two non-European members among the top 10 were Hong Kong and Australia. The former, with an HDI value of 0.952, came fourth, while the latter was fifth with 0.951.