What our Human Development Ranking is telling us

Apr 30, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Recently, I heard a news report on the radio that announced Guyana’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI) published by the United Nations was 127. It seemed to me (I hope I’m wrong) that the report was trying to put a positive spin on this ranking. It mentioned that Guyana placed among the medium development group of countries and that the 127 ranking was out of 188 countries.
This seems to me to be part of a tendency I’ve observed since returning to Guyana, for people to be resigned to the low state of the country as normal and acceptable, despite the rich, God-given endowments that the country has been blessed with. Like anyone else, I would like to see things in a positive light, but I believe in a strong dose of reality to strengthen commitment going forward.
With that in mind, I decided to take a closer look at the latest Human Development Report (HDR) and to share some details. To put things in perspective we may consider how we compare with our CARICOM partners.
It turns out that Guyana’s ranking is the second lowest in CARICOM – only Haiti has a lower ranking (163). All the other CARICOM countries except Belize have rankings under 100, with Barbados being the highest at 54 (they have dropped back drastically having been the highest ranked country in Latin America and the Caribbean at 31, ten years ago). Indeed in most categories making up the index, our company is Haiti. That country may have an unfortunate history to point to as explanation for its position. The question is: what’s our excuse?
What’s more disturbing than Guyana’s low ranking is the fact that it is falling. Ten years ago, Guyana had a ranking of 97 (out of 177 countries). The decline continues with losing two positions between 2014 and 2015. This is a particular reason why we cannot afford to be complacent about our present position.
It is to be noted that the HDI is a composite index made up of indices for a number of economic and social aspects. It is interesting to see how Guyana stacks up in terms of specific categories (see the selection presented in the accompanying table). The HDR shows that Guyana’s ranking in terms of Gross National Income per person was 122. The implication is that since our income ranking is higher than the overall ranking, our social indicators are pulling us down further – our rankings on social areas are worse than our economic ranking.
In terms of specific scores, life expectancy is a good place to start, since this reflects aspects of health and well-being. Guyana’s life expectancy at birth average is 66.5 years. Only Haiti (63.1) has a lower life expectancy average in CARICOM. By comparison, you can expect to live to 74.5 years on average in the other CARICOM countries. The life expectancy averages for Medium Development Countries (the group Guyana falls in) and Developing Countries were 68.6 and 70 years, respectively.
Infant mortality and maternal mortality rates are disturbingly high, especially when compared with our CARICOM partners, and the number of physicians is way below international averages. The homicide rate is also high by international comparison, although it is pretty average in the Caribbean context. Of course, our high suicide rates are a matter of grave concern.
Selected Human Development Indicators

Admittedly, I have presented a selection of indicators which don’t give the whole picture, but there’s enough here for us to be deeply concerned about national conditions. The state of our country is unacceptable and we need a thorough overhaul of our institutional settings in order to set the country on an upward path. This is everybody’s business. The urgency of a comprehensive dialogue on constitutional and institutional reform across the nation is a drum that I shall continue to beat at every opportunity.
Desmond Thomas PhD

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