The Human Development Report (HDR) is a hallmark report that the UNDP publishes every year for the last 25 years. The importance of Human Development Report can't be over emphasized. The report points out how human development can be ensured for every person in the world, and it enables all countries, including Bangladesh, to shape up their planning strategies. As it is evident throughout the report that in the past 25 years, human development has been progressing gradually, and that is also the case in Bangladesh.
Although some of the countries in the region like India or Sri Lanka have higher per capita income, social indicators show that Bangladesh is doing remarkably well compared to these countries. In addition, Bangladesh is making faster improvement in other human development indices. The average annual growth of HDI (Human Development Index) for Bangladesh in percentage is 1.64, which is higher than, for example, 1.52 per cent of India and 0.82 per cent of Sri Lanka (but Sri Lanka is placed in the 'Higher Human Development' category).
The report shows that Bangladesh is also doing well in the empowerment, economic activities and reproductive health of women. Over 20 per cent of parliamentary seats in our country are held by women, while 42 per cent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education compared to 44.3 per cent of their male counterparts. Female participation in the labour market is 43.1 per cent, and expected years of schooling for girls in Bangladesh is higher than that of boys (10.4 years for girls and 9.9 years for boys). Due to these results, in the overall Gender Inequality Index (GII) Bangladesh is ranked 119 out of 159 countries.
As a testimony to the improvement in human development in Bangladesh, we can look at the fact that Bangladesh moved up on the list of countries by three notches. Out of 188 countries and UN-recognized territories, Bangladesh has been ranked at 139th place, with a Human Development Index (HDI) value of 0.579 compared to the earlier report where it was ranked 142th with HDI value of 0.575. Our position has upscaled in terms of position rank. Bangladesh is grouped under "Medium Human Development" with high HDI ranking position of 139 (Ghana - 139, Nepal - 144, Myanmar - 145, Kenya -146 and Pakistan - 147).
This is significant for the people of Bangladesh as HDI combines data on social indicators such as health, education and income. Bangladesh has established itself in the medium human development group (countries with HDI above 0.50) for the consecutive 13 years since 2003. The overall improvement in human development in Bangladesh since 1990 is remarkable with an elevated progress in the past ten years. To be more specific, the social indicators show that in health, the life expectancy at birth has increased by over 13 years, in education, expected years of schooling increased by almost five years, and in up-scaling the income per capita increased by about 160 per cent.
As it is evident throughout the HDR report of 2016 that in the past 25 years, human development has been progressing gradually, which is also the case in Bangladesh. It has shown remarkable results in human development. It is in this context, that the launching of 2016 HDR is so relevant for Bangladesh. So the General Economics Division (GED) of the Bangladesh Planning Commission launched this Report jointly with UNDP on 05 April, 2017.
Human Resource Development has been identified as a cardinal principle of the 7th Five Year Plan of Bangladesh. Much emphasis has been given for increasing health facilities and access to education. Quality education has also been emphasized in our development blueprint. It is important to emphasize that the 7th Five Year Plan is well aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - the Agenda 2030 as well.
Gender parity at the secondary level is highest in Bangladesh, followed by Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. With respect to share of women in wage employment in the non-agriculture sector, Bangladesh has outperformed India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. Human Development Report 2016 illustrates that Bangladesh is encouraging female participation in the workforce, with the ambition of bringing the share of women in the workforce up from 34 per cent to 82 per cent by 2026. The government has decided to gradually increase budgetary allocation, both under its public investment programme and revenue expenditure, in social spending. The social protection allocation increased from 1.98 per cent of GDP in FY 09 to 2.30 per cent in FY15.
In the field of economic growth, Bangladesh is one of the few countries that has been able to maintain steady average growth rate of 6.5 per cent over last eight years, and most recently reached to 7.11 per cent.
The important successes of Bangladesh in human resources development area are:
* Under-5 Mortality Rate per 1000 live births reduced from 146 in 1990 to 36 in 2015
* Infant Mortality Rate per 1000 live births decreased from 92 in 1990 to 29 in 2015
* Maternal Mortality Ratio per 100,000 live births declined from 472 in 1990 to 170 in 2015
* Proportion of birth attended by skilled health personnel increased from 5.0 per cent in 1990 to 42.1 per cent in 2015
* Net Enrolment Ratio in Primary Education increased from 60.5 per cent in 1990 to 97.94 per cent in 2015
* Bangladesh made substantial achievement in Ratio of girls to boys in tertiary education that increased from 0.37 in 1990 to 0.65 in 2015.
Dr. Shamsul Alam is Member (Senior Secretary), GED, Bangladesh Planning Commission.
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