Mozambique: Ninth worst in UN Human Development Index

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Mozambique: Ninth worst in UN Human Development Index

3:06 CAT | 16 Dec 2020

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique is the ninth least developed country in the world at 181 out of 189, despite a marginal increase in the absolute value of the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), according to a recent report. [Read the full Human Development Report 2020 by the UNDP HERE]

The country remains the lowest Portuguese-speaking country on the list.

According to the report, based on data from 2019 – i.e., before the Covid-19 pandemic – Mozambique had an HDI value of 0.456 which compares with 0.452 in 2018, the year in which it also ranked 181st (updated position in the current report. In the previous report [based on data from 2018] the country was in the 180th place, with an HDI of 0.446).

Under Mozambique are Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burundi, South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic and Niger, in this order.

At the tail end of the table, Mozambique is below the average HDI value of the group of low human development countries (0.513), which it is in, and below the average HDI value of sub-Saharan Africa (0.547), according to the United Nations document.

The organisation warned that comparisons of figures and rankings with previously published reports may be misleading due to revisions and updates of data, but points to a steady progress of the country over the past five years.

The report showed an improvement of two positions of Mozambique in the HDI ranking between 2014 and 2019, the period used as a yardstick to measure progress.

On the other hand, the rate of improvement of the index grew on average by 1.44% per year between 2010 and 2019, a rate that tended to slow down from previous decades: 3.07% annualised between 1990 and 2000 and 2.71% from 2000 to 2010.

According to the report released on Tuesday, average life expectancy at birth in Mozambique is 60.9 years (56.1 in 2014), average schooling is 3.5 years (three in 2014) and gross national income per capita is $1,250 ($1,205 in 2014).

The HDI is presented by the United Nations as a composite index measuring average performance in three basic human development areas: a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living.