Guyana Sees Progress in Latest UN Human Development Ranking

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With improved life expectancy, income and access to education, Guyana has moved up one spot on the Human Development Index, at 122 out of 189 countries and territories recognised by the United Nations (UN).

This was revealed in the 2020 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Human Development Report, which was recently launched virtually in Sweden, under the theme, “The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene.”

According to the UNDP report, Guyana’s Human Development Index (HDI) for 2019 stood at 0.682. This represents a 24.5 per cent increase for the period 1990 to 2020, putting Guyana in the medium human development category.

“Guyana’s life expectancy at birth increased by 6.6 years, mean years of schooling increased by 1.7 years and expected years of schooling increased by 1.3 years; Guyana’s GNI (Gross National Income) per capita increased by about 272.6 percent between 1990 and 2019,” the report indicated.

The report said that Guyana’s 2019 HDI of 0.682 is above the average of 0.631 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.766 for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2018, Guyana’s HDI rank stood at 0.670.

Despite the developments, Guyana’s HDI value lowers when it is discounted for inequality.

“The HDI falls to 0.556, a loss of 18.5 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the HDI dimension indices,” the report noted. It highlighted too, Guyana’s Gender Development Index (GDI), which is calculated for 167 countries, ranks Guyana’s females at HDI value of 0.662 in contrast with 0.688 for males.

“The GDI measures gender inequalities in three basic dimensions of human development: health (measured by female and male life expectancy at birth); education (measured by female and male expected years of schooling for children and mean years for adults aged 25 years and older); and command over economic resources (measured by female and male estimated GNI per capita),” the UNDP explained.

As it relates to Guyana’s Gender Inequality Index (GII), this takes into account the country’s gender-based inequalities in three dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity. For 2019, Guyana was ranked at 0.462, being placed at 115 out of 162 countries.

“In Guyana, 31.9 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 70.9 percent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education compared to 56.4 per cent of their male counterparts,” the report said.

It also noted that for every 100,000 live births, 169.0 women die from pregnancy-related causes; and the adolescent birth rate is 74.4 births per 1,000 women of ages 15-19.

In relation to the UNDP’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), some 3.4 per cent of Guyana’s population is multidimensionally poor. This translates to some 26,000 people, according to the report. Meanwhile, the report indicated that an additional 5.8 per cent of Guyanese are classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. This accounts for approximately 46,000 people, the report noted.

“The breadth of deprivation (intensity) in Guyana, which is the average deprivation score experienced by people in multidimensional poverty, is 41.8 percent. The MPI, which is the share of the population that is multidimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.014,” the report indicated.

With the emergence of Guyana’s Oil and Gas Sector, it is anticipated that the profits, along with increased investments will have a positive impact on the UNDP’s future findings on Guyana. The country’s standard of living is likely to make significant improvements in the coming years.

The launch of this year’s report focused on the threats facing the environment. During her remarks at the virtual launch, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley stressed the need for the world to make a change, in an effort to significantly reverse the damages that have been done to the environment.

“There have been previous ice ages and mass extinction events in the earth’s recent history, but none has been attributed directly to the activities and behaviors of man…the dinosaurs did not know that the asteroid was upon them, nor would they have had the capacity to save themselves had they known; in 2020 however, we the human race, do not have the luxury of ignorance,” Motley said.

She stressed the need for moral and ethical global leadership in addressing the many environmental challenges that are faced locally.