UNDP: Ethiopia among the “Top Movers” in Human Development
Ethiopia’s recent and impressive economic and social development has won international recognition. In recognition of the efforts of the people and government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has put Ethiopia among the world’s “top movers” in its Human Development Index (HDI). In its 2010 report, “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development”, the UNDP has ranked Ethiopia 11th globally in terms of “improvements in HDI” over the last four decades. Only Oman, China, Nepal, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos PDR, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco fared better than Ethiopia. Ethiopia tops the list of sub-Saharan countries that have made progress in HDI improvements. Only three other sub-Saharan states, Botswana (14th), Benin (18th), and Burkina Faso (25th), are in the top 25 positions of the list of 135 countries. The Report attributes the significant gains these countries have made in their respective HDI scales to a marked expansion of education and health care services. Ethiopia’s performance in the “non-income HDI”, an index that excludes economic performance, is actually even more impressive, being ranked at 8th!
The report defines HDI as a “composite measure of achievement in three basic dimensions of human development, a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living.” By any measure, this demonstrates tremendous achievement by Ethiopia, but the facts do need to be viewed in the right context. The forty-year time frame, from 1970 to 2010, coincides with two sharply contrasting periods in recent Ethiopian history: the period of regression characterized by instability, war and displacement during the military regime between 1974 and 1991, as well as the subsequent period of peace, hope and development from 1991 to the present. So a forty-year retrospective measurement of Ethiopia’s HDI progress actually conceals the improvements the country has demonstrated in the last twenty years, and even more in the last decade when development has really taken off. This success story might come as a surprise to external observers, but not to our partners and to genuine independent analysts. At no time in its previous history had Ethiopia placed development at the centre of its agenda, nor had a government fully committed to economic progress and social development. The report is significant for Ethiopia in more ways than one. First, such an achievement reaffirms the appropriateness of our policies and strategies. It gives us the confidence that we are indeed on the right development path. Second, it provides predictions for a better performance in the future, and can re-energize us to do more with less. Thirdly, such a recognition instils the “can do” spirit in a society which has for millennia considered poverty and underdevelopment the work of God, not government. If we can move this fast with our meagre resources, how much better will we be able to do with even more generous financial and material support from our development partners? The eradication of the great enemies – poverty, illiteracy and disease - within the time frame of the Millennium Development Goals cannot be impossible.The UNDP Report also highlights the ebb and flow of the search for representative measures of human development. The main thrust in the search for a better and more comprehensive alternative to the traditional Gross National Product (GNP) came about twenty years ago when the first HDI was published. While GNP measures performance solely on the basis of income, the HDI embraces other factors, including education and life expectancy. Since then, income, education and public health indicators have become the most important determinants of the HDI, and recognition of “the huge breadth” of human development underlines the need to measure a country’s performance along a diverse set of criteria.
While factoring these elements into the index was once considered an innovation, the quest for a better approach to reflect progress in human development has remained undiminished. When celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first publication of the HDI, the UNDP has come up with a new perspective to human development. The 2010 Report has included some other “experimental” measures of equity: the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index and the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index. These all amount to a stark message to public policy makers across the globe that no country can lay claim to being ‘developed’ without bridging the chasm between the haves and have-nots or the perpetual disparity between men and women. Moreover, additional measures are in the pipeline. In the report's introductory remarks, Helen Clarke, UNDP Executive Director, has hinted at the prospect of incorporating into the HDI some even “more difficult issues, including the increasingly critical area of sustainability, as well as inequality and broader notions of empowerment.” These will certainly provide for an even more complete analysis of development. On the basis of past efforts, and within the new Growth and Transformation Plan, we are confident that Ethiopia is moving on a path which will enable it to continue its place in any such measures of development and progress.