DOHA: Qatar has again ranked first among the GCC countries in the Human Development Index (HDI) 2014 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Maintaining last year’s position, Qatar ranked 31st among 187 countries.
Saudi Arabia ranked 34, the UAE 40, Bahrain 44, Kuwait 46 and Oman 56. Except Kuwait, which fell two ranks, other GCC countries maintained the rank achieved in the previous year’s index. The peninsulaNorway topped the index while Australia and Switzerland stood second and third, respectively. Niger stood last at 187th in the index. Countries ranked between 1 and 49 in the index are categorised as those with “very high human development.”
The HDI is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s social and economic development. According to the United Nations Development Programme, HDI is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living.
The HDI was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.
According to income-based measures of poverty, 1.2 billion people live on $1.25 or less a day, UNDP said in the press release. However, the latest estimates of the UNDP Multidimensional Poverty Index reveal that almost 1.5 billion people in 91 developing countries are living in poverty with overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards. And although poverty is declining overall, almost 800 million people are at risk of falling back into poverty if setbacks occur.
THE PENINSULA
