Andrew Green from Barbados
JAMAICA'S HUMAN Development Index (HDI) measure has been increasing for several years, according to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The 2002 UNDP Human Development Report shows the country with a rating of 0.742 in the year 2000, well up from the 0.688 rating in 1975. The Report was launched in Barbados today.
"You have a situation where Jamaica's per capita income dropped back below 1975 levels," Rosina Wiltshire, UNDP resident representative, told a press conference for local and regional journalists yesterday. "In the Caribbean, although we have seen general progress, there has been stagnation in some respects as well as nations falling back."
But the HDI measures account for more than just income levels, Ms. Wiltshire said. The HDI ranks 173 countries based on a composite score of their life expectancy, education and income per person.
"Jamaica has a higher human development index than Morocco, which has a similar income level," she said. "This is because the focus of policy attention on human development issues makes a significant difference to education and poverty levels."
Jamaica is ranked 86 in the 2002 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report, eight places down from the ranking last year. The main reason for the drop is that several countries which have a higher ranking, were not counted in the rankings last year.
"There have been shifts and other countries have overtaken Jamaica," she said. Antigua, Cuba, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and Dominica were excluded from the HDI last year because of an absence of data on them, and this year have all been included at rankings above Jamaica's.
The Human Development Report regional launch is taking place in Barbados because the country tops the Latin American and Caribbean region in the HDI rankings, she said. It is ranked 31 in the index, placing it in the lead of the nine Latin American and Caribbean countries rated in the high human development category.
Other Caribbean countries featured in the high human development category are St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda. The Latin American countries in this category are Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay
Jamaica is ranked as a medium development country while Haiti is the only country from Latin American and Caribbean ranked in the low human development category.
Norway tops the world with the highest HDI ranking, with Sweden second and Canada third, Ms. Wiltshire said. Belgium is ranked fourth, Australia fifth and the United States sixth.
"What emerges clearly is that human development is not just about money," she said. "It is about policy focus and deepening and widening of democracy are central to the goals of development."
The 2002 Human development report focuses on deepening democracy to reverse the loss of public trust in the democratic process, she said. "Research indicates that the public in Latin America has more confidence in the television than in political parties."
Expanded democracy requires a vibrant civil society with participation both at the national and local levels along with a free and active media, she said. It also requires security forces that are accountable to the public, with the separation of police and military functions.
And there also have to be democratic institutions at the global level as many of the global institutions which are calling for good governance and democracy are themselves not fully democratic, Ms. Wiltshire said. They are controlled by small groups of nations and their decision making processes are closed to the public.
