3. THE ECONMIC DEVELOPMENT
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)
The latest and most ambitions effort to analyze the comparative situation of socio-economic development in both UDCs and DCs has been undertaken by United Nations Development programme (UNDP) in its annual series of Human Development Reports. These reports were initiated in 1990 and they aim at construction and refinement of a ‘ Human Development Index (HDI). Longevity is measured by life expectancy at birth, (2) Knowledge measured by a weighted average of adult literacy (two __thirds) and mean years of schooling (one__third weight), and (3) Income as measured by adjusted real per capita income (i.e. adjusted for the different purchasing power of each country currency and for the assumption of rapidly diminishing marginal utility of income). Using these three measures of development and applying a formula to 1990data for 160 countries, the HDI ranks all countries into three groups: low HD (0.0 to 0.50), relative, not absolute levels of HD, and its stress is on the’ Ends of development like longevity, knowledge and material choice, rather on the Means what has been the case of GNP per capita. Now we present a table regarding HDI.
TABLE Human Development Index for Twenty Selected Countries, 1990.
| Country | Relative Ranking (lowest to highest) | Human Development Index (HDI) | Adjusted Real Gross Domestic (GDP) | GDP Rank minus HDI Rank |
| Low Human Development | | | | |
| Guinea | 160 | 0.050 | 602 | -41 |
| Chad | 150 | 0.088 | 582 | -1 |
| Bangladesh | 135 | 0.185 | 820 | 15 |
| Tanzania | 126 | 0.268 | 557 | 32 |
| Cameroon | 118 | 0.313 | 1,669 | -30 |
| Vietnarm | 102 | 0.464 | 1,000 | 55 |
| Medium Human Development | | | | |
| Algeria | 95 | 0.582 | 3,088 | -37 |
| Oman | 82 | 0.598 | 4,997 | -45 |
| Sri Lanka | 76 | 0.651 | 2,253 | 44 |
| Saudi Arabia | 67 | 0.687 | 4,944 | -34 |
| Cuba | 61 | 0.732 | 2,500 | 1 |
| Brazil | 59 | 0.739 | 4,851 | -5 |
| United Arab Emirates | 57 | 0.740 | 5,079 | -45 |
| High Human Development | | | | |
| Mexico | 46 | 0.804 | 4,888 | 15 |
| Costa Rica | 42 | 0.842 | 4,413 | 25 |
| South Korea | 34 | 0.871 | 4,901 | 5 |
| United Kingdom | 10 | 0.962 | 5,016 | 11 |
| United States | 6 | 0.976 | 5,074 | 2 |
| Japan | 2 | 0.981 | 5,018 | 1 |
| Canada | 1 | 0.982 | 5,051 | 10 |
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HDI
(1) Although HDI gives a broader perspective on progress toward development, yet
(1) it aims at designing such a political strategy which a political strategy which could focus attention on health and education aspects of development, (2) The three indicators which have been employed by DHI are good, but they are not ideal, (3) The DHI fails to entertain the substantial inequalities within countries, (4) The HDI gives the glimpses of relative rather than absolute development. Therefore, if all the countries improve at the same weighted rate the poorest countries will not get credit for their progress.
Despite these flaws in HDI approach, this commands a good respect as it considers GNP per capita ranking supplemented by social indicators.
STATISTICAL RANKING OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES
| 1. Per capita income levels (highest to lowest) | II. Per capita growth rates (highest to lowest), 1965-87 | III. Income dist. Ratio; bottom 40% to top 20% of pop highest to lowest) | VI. Literacy: percentage of population, 1986 (H to L) | V. Population growth rates (H to L) | VI. Infant mortality rates (L to H) |
| 1. South Korea | 1. South Korea | 1 Bangladesh | 1. South Korea | 1. Zambia | 1. South Korea |
| 2. Brazil | 2. Thailand | 2. South Korea | 2. Thailand | 2. Kenya | 2. Colombia |
| 3. Mexico | 3. India | 3. Pakistan | 3. Mexico | 3. Ghana | 3. Thailand |
| 4. Thailand | 4. Pakistan | 4. India | 4. Colombia | 4. Pakistan | 4. Mexico |
| 5. Colombia | 5. Colombia | 5. Philippine | 5. Philippine | 5. Nigeria | 5. Philippine |
| 6. Peru | 6. Bangladesh | 6. Thailand | 6. Peru | 6. Philippine | 6. Kenya |
| 7. Philippine | 7. Brazil | 7. Colombia | 7. Brazil | 7. Bangladesh | 7. Brazil |
| 8. Zambia | 8. Kenya | 8. Mexico | 8. Zambia | 8. Mexico | 8. Zambia |
| 9. Ghana | 9. Ghana | 9. Ghana | 9. Ghana | 9. Peru | 9. Peru |
| 10. Pakistan | 10. Mexico | 10. Zambia | 10. Kenya | 10. Colombia | 10. Ghana |
| 11. Nigeria | 11.Philippine | 11. Kenya | 11. India | 11. India | 11. India |
| 12. Kenya | 12. Peru | 12. Peru | 12. Nigeria | 12. Brazil | 12. Pakistan |
| 13. India | 13. Zambia | 13. Brazil | 13. Bangladesh | 13. Thailand | 13. Nigeria |
| 14. Bangladesh | 14. Nigeria | 14.--------- | 14. Pakistan | 14. South Korea | 14. Bangladesh |
No comments:
Post a Comment