Philippine gains noted in well-being measure
November 11, 2011 at 17:23
THE PHILIPPINES advanced in this year’s edition of the United Nation’s Human Development Report but it remains in the bottom half of an annual ranking that measures a country’s well-being.
With the table re-ranked to reflect the inclusion of more countries, the Philippines was listed 112th out of 187, a one-notch improvement. Last year, it ranked 97th out of 169 countries.
The Philippines scored 0.644 in the Human Development Index (HDI) with educational indicators improving, up from last year’s 0.638 and putting it again in the “medium human development” group comprising 47 countries.
Norway again topped the overall list with a score of 0.943, at the head of 47 countries tagged as having “very high human development.”
The UN Development Program (UNDP) defines the HDI as a “summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.”
A long and healthy life was measured by life expectancy while access to knowledge was evaluated using mean years of adult education and expected years of schooling for children of school-entrance age. Standard of living, meanwhile, was assessed using gross national income (GNI) per capita.
In the Philippines, life expectancy was said to be a lower 68.7 years but the expected years and mean years of schooling improved to 11.9 and 8.9, respectively, from 11.5 and 8.7.
A few countries made larger gains than the Philippines: Malaysia, Ukraine, and Turkey — countries in the “high” category — gained three notches to 61st, 76th, and 92nd, respectively. Saudi Arabia went up two notches to 56th. A total of 36 countries had higher ranks this year.
Of the Philippines’ regional peers, Thailand was ranked higher at 103rd with a score of 0.682. Indonesia, meanwhile, was 124th (0.617) and Vietnam 128th (0.593).
Thailand and Vietnam did not improve their rankings but Indonesia went up one notch.
“[The] Philippines’s 2011 HDI of 0.644 is above the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.671 for countries in East Asia and the Pacific,” the UNDP said.
Economist Solita C. Monsod of the University of the Philippines said the improvement was not significant.
“Here’s a simple conclusion. It means that other countries improved. If we look at the indicators, education slightly improved. That’s good. But it didn’t move so much,” she said in a telephone interview.
The UNDP noted that between 1980 and 2011, the Philippines’s life expectancy at birth increased by 5.6 years, mean years of schooling increased by 2.8 years and expected years of schooling increased by 1.6 years. The Philippines’s GNI per capita, meanwhile, increased by 34% between 1980 and 2011.
Between 1980 and 2011, the Philippines’s HDI score increased from 0.550 to 0.644, equivalent to an average annual increase of just 0.5%. This was significantly lower than the average 1.31% for all countries in the “medium” category and 1.46% for East Asia and the Pacific.
A separate index on gender equality gave the Philippines a score of 0.427, ranking it 75th out of 146 countries.
“In the Philippines, 21.5% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 65.9% of adult women have reached a secondary or higher level of education compared to 63.7% of their male counterparts … In comparison Thailand and Indonesia are ranked at 69 and 100 respectively on this index,” the United Nations agency said.
The report’s “Multidimensional Poverty Index”, meanwhile, showed that 13.4% of the population “suffer multiple deprivations while an additional 9.1% are vulnerable to multiple deprivations” as regards education, health and standard of living.
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By: Felipe F. Salvosa with a report from Trishia P. Octaviano
Source: Business World, November 3, 2011
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