Pakistan down on Human Development Index by 7 slots
Pakistan fell seven places in the Human Development Index and ranks 161st out of 192 countries in the 2021-2022 HDI, according to the UNDP report released on Thursday.
Last year, Pakistan was ranked 154th out of 189 countries. According to the report, the life expectancy at birth in Pakistan is 66.1 years and the expected school years are 8 years. The country’s gross national income per capita is US$4,624. The report found that various climatic shocks are disrupting the global order and dampening the growth achieved in recent years. She classified the floods in Pakistan as “an example of climate shocks seen around the world”.
Switzerland tops the latest HDI, while Norway and Iceland are in second and third place respectively. Of the nine countries in South Asia – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka – only Pakistan and Afghanistan (ranked 180) are in the low human development category.
Bhutan (127), Bangladesh (129), India (132) and Nepal (143) fall into the medium human development category. And crisis-hit Sri Lanka managed to improve its position by 9 points, reaching 73rd place in the index and moving into the high human development category. Iran is three places behind at 76; Next, the Maldives at number 90. The report, titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World,” found that around 90% of countries experienced “human development reversals” in the year of the survey, indicating an endlessly stationary world. cycle of crisis after crisis causing global disruption.
According to the report, the two main factors responsible for these disruptions are the Covid-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine. The Human Development Index is a measure of a country’s standard of living, health and education. This is the first time in the past 30 years that human development has been reversed for two consecutive years in most countries.
This brought human development back to 2016 levels, a blow to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were to be achieved by 2030. The UN had predicted an HDI value of 0.75 for 2021 – the actual value is 0.732.
The report adds that the world finds itself in a “new complex of uncertainty”. Such uncertainty is created by the two years of Covid-19, which has seen a series of deadly waves of the virus.
Although the world has taken swift action to defeat the virus, the report notes, and has developed vaccines to counter the threats, the uneven distribution of vaccines in a number of low-income countries has created other problems.
Pakistan down on Human Development Index by 7 slots
The closings of schools caused by the pandemic have also had an impact on the mental health of people around the world. The report shows that mental health problems among male minorities in the UK showed the largest increase, with men from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan most affected by the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Commenting on the crises affecting the world, UNDP administrator Achim Steiner says: “We have a narrow window to reboot our systems and ensure a future based on decisive climate action and new opportunities for all.”
