No African country in top 50 of latest UN global Human Development Report

By

Adisa Amanor Wilks

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to rank among the lowest according to the 2015 global Human Development Report released by the United Nations (UN). Even though the report indicates that some two billion people have moved out of low human development levels in the last 25 years, no African Country made it to the top 50.

More than 800 million people are still classified as working poor, living on under $2.00 a day, with more than 200 million people including 74 million youth remain unemployed.

Twelve African countries countries saw a slight improvement – Botswana, Cape Verde, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Zambia moving to the high or medium category.

Launching the report at a ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Helen Clark said,

“This new global Human Development Report is an urgent call to tackle one of the world’s great development challenges – providing enough decent work and livelihoods for all.”

The 2015 Report, Work for Human Development, is an independent publication of the UNDP. This year’s report calls for equitable and decent work for all, encouraging governments to look beyond jobs to consider the diversity of work, including as unpaid care, voluntary or creative work.

Unsurprisingly, Libya slipped 27 places to 94. The bottom five countries all come from Africa: Niger, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Chad, and Burundi.

The top five countries are: Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark and Netherlands.

On gender inequalities, the report found that “women are less likely to be paid for their work than men, with three out of every four hours of unpaid work carried out by women.”

“In contrast, men account for two of every three hours of paid work. When women are paid, they earn globally on average, 24 percent less than men, and occupy less than a quarter of senior business positions worldwide,” the report added.

The Index is a measure of achievement in key aspects of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge and decent standards of living.

Adisa Amanor Wilks

Adisa is an experienced international journalist and charity communications professional. I dream of when the African narrative will change to reflect the hope and beauty of the people.