Bangladesh ranks 146th in UN HDI report

FE Report The poverty rate in Bangladesh has declined considerably from 49 per cent to 31 per cent, as per Human Development Index (HDI) report of the United Nations, in which the country ranks 146th among world's 187 countries. Bangladesh ranked 129th last year out of world's 169 countries. "But the poverty reduction rate was not the same in vulnerable areas, according to the report 2011," said Stefan Priesner UNDP country director during launching of the report at a city hotel Thursday. This year's report, titled "Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All", was released globally from Copenhagen by UNDP administrators Helen Clark and Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Wednesday last. Bangladesh drew the spotlight as one of the countries making strong progress in ensuring equity for women and maintaining a steady pace in human development over last two decades, according to UNDP's human development report. The country is lagging behind India and Pakistan in the human development ratings, although it did better in some important sectors, such as poverty reduction, gender parity and reduction in child mortality, says the report. The HID report reveals that Bangladesh ranks 6th among the SAARC countries with its position at 146th while India ranks 134, Pakistan 145, Sri Lanka 97, the Maldives 109, Bhutan 141 while Nepal and Afghanistan are behind Bangladesh with the ranks at 157 and 172 respectively. Norway secured top position while African National Democratic Republic of Congo was at the bottom of the list. In his brief address, Stefan Priesner said poverty reduction did not happen everywhere equally. "There are some growth centres where it fell significantly but there are also some pockets like coastal or char areas where poverty is (still) rampant," he said. The report, however, praised Bangladesh for maintaining a good track. This year, however, Bangladesh has shown improvements specially in removing gender discrimination. Death rate of newborns has also decreased. "In these cases, Bangladesh has improved 25 per cent," the report says. "The remarkable progress Bangladesh has made in the Gender Inequity Index shows strong long term commitment to women's empowerment, and is specifically underpinned by accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on maternal mortality." said Neal Walker, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh while speaking at the event. The report said it is expected that Bangladesh would elevate to the medium human development index (HDI) category from the lower one. Bangladesh showed very strong longer term progress on the HDI but there is no room for complacency, said Priesner. The UN country director said Bangladesh needs to address the pressure of environmental degradation, adverse impact of climate change and risks of disaster to improve further. The four key messages of the report are sustainable urbanization, tackling climatic threat, providing clean energy to the poor and addressing environmental degradation issue, he said. Priesner said current rate of urbanization is not sustainable while climatic threat does more harm to poor than the richer part of the society. Clean energy is a pre-requisite for the development of the poor and if environmental degradation is not addressed, many poor who live on natural resources will be affected, he added. The HDI represents a push for a broader definition of well-being and provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income.