Development index
Fiji improves marginally but drops in ranking
FIJI ranks 104th in the latest Human Development Index (HDI) in the medium human development category, according to a report released recently by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The country was ranked was ranked 99th among the 193 countries in the previous report. Though Fiji’s HDI improved in health and standard of living, it lost HDI value in some inequality indicators.
In the high human development category, Fiji still ranks lower than Palau, Tonga, Maldives and Mauritius.
Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea are in the medium human development category.
Palau ranking 71st in 2022 is the top in the Pacific region after climbing 9 notches in global ranking from 80th position in 2021. Tonga is the second best in the region ranking 98th even after dropping 7 notches in global ranking from 91st position in 2021. The HDI is a summary measure for assessing average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
The 2023/24 Human Development Report (HDR) titled “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarised World,” revealed that Fiji’s HDI value for 2022 has increased marginally to 0.729 from 0.715 in 2021.
Though the country’s HDI value was higher than the South Asian average of 0.641, it is behind the East Asia and the Pacific and global averages of 0.766 and 0.739, respectively.
Fiji’s HDI value improved owing to an increase in health and standard of living dimensions but the education dimension shows relatively no progress.
The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, education by the expected years of schooling for children of school-entering age and mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years, and standard of living by gross national income (GNI) per capita.
Fiji’s life expectancy at birth has increased by 1.2 years since 2021, reaching 68.3 years in 2022. GNI per capita improved to $11234 for 2022 based on 2017’s purchasing power parity term increasing from $9980 in 2021. However, for education, there is a slight decline in expected and mean years of schooling to 13.8 years and 10.4 years respectively for 2022.
How inequality hurts human development in Fiji
The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) adjusts the HDI for inequality in the distribution of three basic dimensions: inequality in life expectancy, inequality in education and inequality in income across the population.
The loss in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI. As the inequality in a country increases, the loss in human development also increases.
Fiji’s loss due to inequality is 13.3 per cent, which lowers the HDI to 0.632 in 2022. However, Fiji’s overall loss to inequality has decreased from 14.1 per cent in 2021, thanks to inequality in life expectancy decreasing from 15.2 per cent in 2021 to 12.5 per cent in 2022.
The inequality in education and income has remained at 8.6 per cent and 18.5 per cent in the same period, respectively.
Gender inequality (GI) is measured in three key dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market.
Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men.
Fiji has a GI index value of 0.332, ranking it 78 out of 166 countries in 2022. The GI in Fiji has increased from 0.329 in 2021 mostly attributed to the large gender gap (-60.8 per cent) in shares of seats in parliament between women and men.
While labour force participation between women (37.3 per cent) and men (77.7 per cent) has remained the same between 2021 and 2022, there has been no significant change in the gender gap in this dimension since 2018. The labour force participation rate of women has declined from 41.3 per cent in 2014.
Switzerland, meanwhile, maintained its top spot in the 2022 index with an HDI value of 0.967. The top 5 spots were occupied by Norway (0.966), Iceland (0.959), Hong Kong (0.956), and Denmark (0.952).
Somalia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic ranked at the bottom of the index with HDI values of 0.380, 0.381 and 0.387 respectively.
Rich nations experience unparalleled human development, while half of the poorest have regressed.
The report also revealed that rich countries were experiencing record-high levels of human development while half of the world’s poorest countries remained below their pre-crisis level of progress.
Uneven development progress is leaving the poorest behind, exacerbating inequality, and stoking political polarisation on a global scale, reads a press release.
Following an unprecedented dip due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic turmoil, the HDI in Asia and the Pacific rebounded to pre-pandemic values in 2022, but this should not be interpreted as a complete recovery.
Inequality within countries continued to be a worrying trend. Sub-Saharan African region’s loss (33.9) per cent in the HDI to inequality is the highest in the world followed by South Asia (30.9 per cent), the Caribbean (20.7 per cent) and the Pacific (16.4 per cent).
According to Achim Steiner, head of UNDP, “the widening human development gap revealed by the report shows that the two-decade trend of steadily reducing inequalities between wealthy and poor nations is now in reverse. Despite our deeply interconnected global societies, we are falling short. We must leverage our interdependence as well as our capacities to address our shared and existential challenges and ensure people’s aspirations are met”.
“This gridlock carries a significant human toll. The failure of collective action to advance action on climate change, digitalisation or poverty and inequality not only hinders human development but also worsens polarisation and further erodes trust in people and institutions worldwide”.