Yemisi Izuora
The 2019 UNDP Human Development report, has identified that Africa has experienced one of the most significant improvements in human development since 1990 during which life expectancy increased by more than 11 years.
The report revealed that African countries have made significant strides in advancing human development and gaining ground on primary education and health while new generation of inequalities that threaten to undermine further progress open up.
The report was launched on Tuesday under the theme “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st century.” Sates that as the gap in basic living standards is narrowing with unprecedented number of people escaping, hunger and disease, the necessities to thrive have evolved, it added.
For the first time this year, an African country Seychelles has moved into the very high human development group.
Others are rising in the ranks as well.
Four countries namely Botswana Gabon, Mauritius and South Africa are now in high human development group and 12 countries namely Angola Cape Verde, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Zambia and Zimbabwe are in the medium human development category.
Botswana also enjoys the region’s highest in HDI rankings between 2013 and 2018, rising 11 places.
New inequalities are, however, becoming more pronounced, particularly around tertiary education, and seismic effects of technology and the climate crisis, the report stated, stressing that “inequality is not beyond solution.”
According to the report, “African countries find themselves at crossroads, facing the dual challenge of ensuring that those furthest behind make progress while paving the way for those further ahead to keep pace with the emerging requirements of today’s world.”
While poverty rates have declined in across the continent, progress has been uneven, the report revealed, and warned that “if current trends continue nearly 9 of the 10 people in poverty, which is more than 300 million, will be in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2030.”
Despite improved gender parity in education, African women and girls continue to face deeply entrenched challenges to their human development progress, the report noted.
The report finally recommended policies that go beyond income and are anchored in lifespan interventions starting even before birth.