THURSDAY, 3.30PM
SOUTH Africa has been ranked 90th out of 175 countries on this year’s United Nations Human Development Index, which provides a country-by-country measure of achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income.
According to UN Development Programme official David Whaley, “South Africa is very difficult because of the inequities and inequalities.” According to last year’s HDI, South Africa ranked 100th, comprising the average between white South Africans ranked 24th overall and black South Africans ranked at 124. The position is similar this year, with white South Africans falling into the high human development category and blacks into the lower end of the medium human development scale, Whaley said.
Of the 175 countries included in this year’s HDI, Canada, France and Norway top the ranking followed by the United States and the Netherlands. Among developing countries, Hong Kong, Cyprus and Barbados lead, with Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Niger the lowest ranking countries.
In terms of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa had done relatively well because of its per capita income rate, Whaley said. SA ranked third after Seychelles (52) and Mauritius (61) in terms of the HDI.
According to the report’s gender empowerment measure, South Africa’s percentage of women in Parliament (23,7) was higher than the average for other developing countries (12,7) and even industrialised nations (13,6 percent). However, when looking at the percentage of women administators and managers, the position was reversed. Here South African women made up only 17,4% as opposed to the average of 27,4% in industrial countries.
According to the report, South Africa stood out as an example of a country with a political commitment to poverty eradication, a strategy based on public-private partnership and a people-driven process of development. “The political momentum of the struggle against apartheid is now driving the struggle against human poverty,” it said.