The Gambia government’s efforts to promote human development bore fruits as confirmed in the recently published UNDP Human Development Index.

The Gambia performed better than many others in Africa, including the sub region. The Gambia beats Senegal, Nigeria and Sierra Leone as for the Human Development Index value and performed better than countries such as Bangladesh, CÙte d’Ivoire or the Barbados in the Human Poverty Index.

Since 1990, the UNDP’s Human Development Report has published the human development Index (HDI) looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being od the citizenry of each nation.

The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrollment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income).

The index is not in any sense a comprehensive measure of human development. It does not, for example, include important indicators such as gender or income inequality and more difficult to measure indicators like respect for human rights and political freedoms. What it does provide is a broadened prism for viewing human progress and the complex relationship between income and well-being.

The HDI for The Gambia is 0.502, which gives the country a rank of 155th out of 177 countries with the life expectancy at 58.8 years just behind Ghana (59.1) and Haiti (59.9).

Japan came first on life expectancy at 82.3 years. Senegal is 0.499, which gives the country a rank of 156th just after The Gambia and out of 177 countries. Of the components of the HDI, only income and gross enrollment are somewhat responsive to short term policy changes. For that reason, it is important to examine changes in the human development index over time.

As for the GDP per capita, The Gambia is ranked 144 with 1,921 PPP US$ just before Senegal with comes 145 with 1,792 PPP US$.

This year’s Human Development Index, which refers to 2005, highlights the very large gaps in well-being and life chances that continue to divide our increasingly interconnected world. By looking at some of the most fundamental aspects of people’s lives and opportunities it provides a much more complete picture of a country's development than other indicators, such as GDP per capital.

Human poverty in Gambia: focusing on the most deprived in multiple dimensions of poverty

The HDI measures the average progress of a country in human development. The Human Poverty Index for developing countries (HPI-1) focuses on the proportion of people below a threshold level in the same dimensions of human development as the human development index - living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living. By looking beyond income deprivation, the HPI-1 represents a multi-dimensional alternative to the $1 a day (PPP US$) poverty measure.

In that regards, the Human Poverty Index for Gambia is 40.9 and ranks the country 94th among 108 developing countries for which the index has been calculated. The Gambia is ahead of Senegal which values 42.9 and ranks 97th among 108 developing countries for which the index has been calculated.

The HPI measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate and a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people without access to an improved access to water and the proportion of children under 5 years who are underweight for their age.

Yet The Gambia needs to improve on health service delivery with the probability of not surviving past age 40 rated at 20.9% for the period referred to in the Human Development Index. The report also shows that 18% of the people were to access improved water source.

Building the capabilities of women

The HDI measures average achievements in a country, but it does not incorporate the degree of gender imbalance in these achievements. The Gender-related Development Index (GDI), introduced in Human Development Report 1995, measures achievements in the same dimensions using the same indicators as the HDI but captures inequalities in achievement between women and men. It is simply the HDI adjusted downward for gender inequality. The greater the gender disparity in basic human development, the lower is a country's GDI relative to its HDI.

Gambia's GDI value, 0.496 should be compared to its HDI value of 0.502. Its GDI value is 98.8% of its HDI value. Out of the 156 countries with both HDI and GDI values, only 99 countries have a better ratio than Gambia's. As for adult Literacy, The Gambia ranks 24 just after Fiji and Eritrea. For the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratio, The Gambia comes 133 after Uganda and Timor-Leste.

Fighting climate change

With 0.0% of the world's population, The Gambia accounts for 0.0% of global emissions with an average of 0.2 tons of CO2 per person. These emission levels are below those of Sub-Saharan Africa. High-income OECD countries meanwhile lead the league of "CO2 transgressors". With just 15% of the world’s population, they account for almost half of all emissions. If the entire world emitted like High-income OECD countries -an average of 13.2 tons of CO2 per person, we would be emitting 6 times our sustainable carbon budget.

The Gambia has signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As a non-Annex I Party to the Protocol, Gambia is not bound by specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: The Gambia Human Development Index-UNDP Human Development Report 2007-2008;