UN report rates Lankan human development well

Sri Lanka has progressively improved in human development over the years and is listed in the top ten of the group of Medium Human Development Countries in the Human Development Report 2010 released on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme.  Sri Lanka’s Human Development Index has progressively increased up to 0.659 in 2010 compared to 0.513 in 1980.

 The country is ranked at the 91st position of the index that is a composite national measure of health, education, and income for 169 countries.

The HDI of South Asia as a region increased from 0.315 in 1980 to 0.516 today, placing Sri Lanka above the regional average.

The 20th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report titled The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development has considered Sri Lanka’s favourable social indicators of literacy and life expectancy to place the country among the Medium Human Development group.

While Sri Lanka shows high levels of gender equality, especially regarding maternal health standards and educational opportunities for women, there are several areas including the labour force participation and parliamentary representation for women, in which Sri Lanka is still lagging, the report noted.

The report shows Norway, Australia New Zealand and the USA leading the world in HDI achievement as ‘Very High Human Development Countries’ while Niger, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe at the bottom of the annual rankings.

In the South Asia region neighbouring India is ranked as 119 in the HDI while Pakistan is listed at 125th position.