PHL human devt ranking up but growth is slower -UN

(Updated 9: 53, Nov. 7) The Philippines has shown a considerable increase in its Human Development Index (HDI), moving eight places up and ranking 97th out of 169 nations surveyed this year, according to the 2010 Human Development Report of the United Nations. However, the country’s progress slowed down in the last decade. According to the UN report, average annual growth rate slipped from 0.72 in the period 1990-2000 to 0.67 for the period 2000-2010. The 2010 Report, entitled the Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, was launched globally on Thursday by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark, and Nobel economics laureate Amartya Sen. The index measures life expectancy, education, and income levels on a scale of 0 to 1, "where greater is better." For 2010, Norway topped the list with an HDI value of 0.938 followed by Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Ireland. Last year, the Philippines ranked 105 among 182 countries. Remittances bolster human development A significant increase in remittances from abroad is the main factor that pushed the country’s climb up the HDI ladder this year. The HDI measures quality of life with an index that is calculated mainly from the following indicators: life expectancy, functional literacy rate, enrolment rate, and income per capita. Larger remittances added significantly to the country’s GNI for 2010. “Because of remittances from overseas Filipino workers, the country's gross national income (GNI) per capita is higher than its gross domestic product (GDP per capita," the report said. The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Thursday that it expects remittances to climb 8% in 2010, faster than a previous forecast of 6% growth, as more Filipinos take up jobs overseas. Inequalities hamper development Despite the higher ranking, however, the Philippines has not done enough to narrow the gap between rich and poor people, significantly hampering its progress in achieving human development goals. This is shown in the new inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) — one of three “innovative new measurements" introduced to mark the 20th anniversary of the HDR this year. The other two are the Gender Inequality Index and the multidimensional Poverty Index. The new IHDI examines a country’s achievements to reflect disparities in income, health, and education among various economic classes. “The HDI alone, as a composite of national averages, hides disparities within countries, so these adjustments for inequality provide a fuller picture of people’s well-being," said Jeni Klugman, the Director of the HDR office. With inequality factored in, the Philippines’ HDI ranking dropped by 11 rungs to 108th place in the 2010 report. The report shows the country’s IHDI at 0.518, or 18.9 per cent lower than its HDI of 0.638. Weak and slow progress While many Asian countries made rapid strides in improving their citizens’ quality of life, with Nepal at the top and China coming in second, the Philippines did not show significant progress in the past three decades. The HDR 2010 ranked the country’s HDI improvement for the past 20 years at 78 —indicating that almost half of all the 167 countries surveyed in the report made better progress. Statistics also showed that in 1980, the country’s HDI stood at 0.523; in 1990 it was 0.552; and in 2000, it inched up to 0.597. For the past 10 years, the Philippines has remained in the medium human development bracket along with several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) - Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. In the HDI ranking, the Philippines falls below the developed Asean countries of Singapore (27) and Brunei Darussalam (37) — which are classified under the very high human development group — as well as Malaysia (57) and Thailand (92). – Danilova Molintas/SD/YA/TJD, GMANews.TV