Guyana has been ranked at 97 in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) for 2007-8, ahead of Jamaica at 101 and Haiti at 146 out of a total of 176 countries for whom data was available.
The top ten countries in the HDI are Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Japan and France.
The United States’ ranking is now 12 and the United Kingdom 16. Last year, Guyana was ranked 103 out of 177.
Haiti, which last year was the only Caricom country in the ‘Low Human Develop-ment’ category has moved into the ‘Medium Human Development’ category which covers countries ranked from 71 to 155.
Barbados has the highest HDI ranking in the Caribbean at 31 followed by The Bahamas at 49; St Kitts and Nevis, 54; Antigua and Barbuda, 57; Trinidad and Tobago at 59. They are in the ‘High Human Development’ Category.
The other Caricom countries in the ‘Medium Human Development’ category are Dominica, 71; St Lucia, 72; Belize, 80; Grenada, 82; Suriname 85; and St Vincent and the Grenadines, 93.
Within the Caribbean/ South American region, it should be noted that Cuba has been ranked at 51; Brazil, 70; Venezuela, 74; and the Dominican Republic, 79.
The HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare and it is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing, or an under-developed country. It also measures the impact of economic policies on quality of life.
Guyana’s life expectancy at birth is 65.2 years. No statistic was available for the adult literacy rate which had been questioned in recent years.
Combined gross enrollment for primary, secondary and tertiary was pegged at 85%, comparatively higher than countries with a high HDI ranking.
The country GDP per capita was US$4,548 compared to Jamaica’s, US$4,291 and Haiti’s, US$1,663 and way below Barbados’ GDP per capital, US$17,297; and Trinidad and Tobago’s, US$14,603.
The report noted that statistics presented in previous editions may not be comparable, due to revisions to data or changes in methodology. For this reason it strongly advises against trend analysis based on data from different editions.
This year’s – 2007/2008 Human Development Report, which contains the HDI and Human Development Indica-tors, was launched on Novem-ber 27, 2007 under the theme ‘Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world.’
According to the report climate change is the defining human development challenge of the century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem.
The report noted that in the future, no country – however wealthy or powerful – would be immune to the impact of global warming.
The Human Development Report 2007/2008 shows that climate change is not just a future scenario. Already, increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality.
The HDR said that there was now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable; that there is a window of opportunity for avoiding the most damaging climate change impacts but that window is closing with the world having less than a decade to change course.
Noting that the world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act, the report said that what is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity and collective interest.
The Human Development Report 2007/2008 argues that climate change poses challenges at many levels “to reflect on social justice and human rights across countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision.”