Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Some Progress Charted
in UN Development Report
Improvements in incomes, health, and
education have been made over the last four decades
Every year, in November, the United Nations releases a report on the state of development in the world. It often makes for grim reading as it catalogues the failure of societies in many nations to care for their most vulnerable members.
The 2010 report has its fair share of horror stories but there are some hopeful trends to be savoured.
Positive Achievements
Writing for The New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar notes that during the last 40 years, “Over all, average life expectancy around the globe jumped to 70 years in 2010, up from 59 in 1970. School enrollment through high school reached 70 percent of eligible pupils, up from 55 percent, and average per capita income doubled to more than $10,000 in the 135 countries for which numbers were available.”
Of course, some areas have done better than others; life expectancy has increased by an average of 18 years in Arab countries. However, improvement has been stubbornly slow in Africa below the Sahara with only eight average added years of life.
International Rankings
The development report ranks countries in their desirability as a place in which to live. The standings are determined through complex mathematical calculations that assign values to such elements as: life expectancy, income, access to health care, clean water, and food, levels of education, and quality of housing, among many others.
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With a life expectancy of 81.0 years and average annual income of $58,810, the 2010 report places Norway (capital Oslo is pictured) at the top of the league table; a position the Scandinavian country has held for all but two years since 2001.
Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Ireland fill out the top five positions. Canada slipped four places from 2009 and sits in eighth. Tavia Grant in The Globe and Mail (November 5, 2010) writes that “It’s worth noting that Canada sat atop the development index eight times in the 1990s. Its slippage stems from a weaker performance in adult schooling and income.”
Unbalanced Advances in some Countries
Nobody can have missed the astonishing economic growth in China over the last couple of decades, but its benefits have been spread unevenly.
Agence-
“China’s per capita income increased 21-
“On the other hand,” writes Neil MacFarquar, “Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria managed to do both, broadening access to health and education, and improving average income, though disparities remained.”
The Most Improved Nation is Oman
Oman is the country that made the most progress in human development over the last four decades. The Persian Gulf state of three million people has seen impressive income growth; as Tavia Grant writes this has turned “Oman from an ‘undeveloped’ country in 1970 to a developed nation today – thanks partly to oil and gas discoveries.”
Until 1970, the country was run by a conservative Sultan who opposed education and such modern conveniences as roads and telephones. He was thrown out by his son, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, a man with a more enlightened view.
Under his guidance, albeit without any semblance of democracy, Oman has gone from having three elementary schools in 1970 to providing primary education to all citizens and secondary to 90 percent. In the same period, infant mortality has dropped from 10 percent to one percent.
Some Countries have Slipped Backwards
Unfortunately, the usual suspects have failed miserably. As Patrick Worsnip, of Reuters relates (November 4, 2010) “The report says only three countries have a lower human development index than in 1970 — Congo, torn by conflict since the 1990s, Zambia, hit by falls in the price of copper, its main export, and Zimbabwe, where inflation reached 500 billion per cent two years ago.”
Zimbabwe’s terrible performance is illustrated in this sad image of a malnourished
child taken by Venetia Joubert Sarah Oosterveld in 2009. The disastrous state of
the country can be blamed almost exclusively on the appalling leadership of one of
the world’s most corrupt and brutal dictators, Robert Mugabe.
In 1975, the average Zimbabwean could expect to live 54.9 years; today, life expectancy
has dropped to 47 years. The population has become largely illiterate and starvation
stalks a country that was once completely self-
And, as the New York Times points out, Zimbabwe, “now has the lowest per capita income
of the countries and territories for which the United Nations has data, two-
Sources
“Human Development Report Shows Great Gains, and Some Slides.” Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, November 4, 2010.
“Oman Makes Biggest Strides in Quality-
“Norway the Best Place to Live: UN.” AFP, November 4, 2010.
“Norway Best Country to Live in; Canada No. 8.” Patrick Worsnip, Vancouver Sun, November 4, 2010.
© Canada and the World, November 2010
All rights reserved
LIFE EXPECTANCY
AT BIRTH
Top ten:
Japan -
Hong Kong -
Switzerland -
Iceland -
Australia -
France -
Italy -
Spain -
Sweden -
Israel -
Canada -
Bottom ten:
Nigeria -
Mozambique -
Sierra Leone -
Angola -
Congo, DRC -
Central African Republic -
Zambia -
Zimbabwe -
Lesotho -
Afghanistan -
“Britain has been relegated to a paltry 26th in an international study of the most desirable places to live.
“In the past two decades it has slipped 16 places and severely lags behind most of western Europe, Australasia, and three Asian nations.”
Jane Wharton, Daily Express, November 5, 2010
PER CAPITA GROSS NATIONAL INCOME
The figure in brackets is the UN ranking in terms of a desirable place in which to live.
Top ten:
Liechtenstein -
Qatar -
Norway -
United Arab Emirates -
Kuwait -
Luxembourg -
Brunei -
Singapore -
United States -
Hong Kong -
Canada -
Bottom ten:
Mozambique -
Togo -
Sierra Leone -
Central African Republic $758 (159)
Niger -
Guinea-
Burundi -
Liberia -
Congo, DRC -
Zimbabwe -
According to Canadian Press, (November 4, 2010) “Canada is freezing its foreign-
Ottawa currently spends about $5 billion a year on international aid.
Meanwhile, the Conservative government is planning on spending $16 billion to acquire
and maintain 65 F-