Botswana lags in human development

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Tuesday December 11, 2007 00:00

With a GDP per capita of US$12 387, the highest in Africa, as well as being in the medium development category, Botswana is ranked 124 from 177 countries as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). 

According to the report, which is titled 'Fighting Climate Change', although the current ranking is a slight improvement from the previous one of 131, other countries in the region have doe much better, with South Africa now ahead of Botswana at position 121.

The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development which include life expectancy, income and knowledge which is divided into adult literacy and primary, secondary and tertiary enrollment ratio.

Other African countries ranked ahead of Botswana in terms of human development such as Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria have nearly half as much GDP per capita, a development which suggests the country's inadequate improvement in the literacy and life expectancy category.

In poverty ranks, Botswana is positioned at 63rd from 103 developing countries, with factors such as the high probability of a Motswana's inability to reach the age of 40 dragging the country's rankings down.

Although the country has scored success in poverty eradication in the past two decades, the report reveals there is still a lot of ground to be covered in that respect as 55 percent of the population still lives below US$ 2 per day, while 28 percent survives on less than US$1 per day.

The report, which uses supplied data for 2005, also reveals the country's annual economic growth rate has retarded in the past 15 years to around 4.8 percent from 5,9 percent in the period 1975-2005.

Imbalances in the structure of trade for the country were also exposed in the report, with manufactured exports constituting about 86 percent of exports while only a marginal 0.2 percent of the exports are in the high technology category.

On the other hand, countries such as Namibia and South Africa made significant improvements in diversification of their exports.

Other factors looked at in the report include technology diffusion and creation, flow of aid, gender empowerment and human and labour rights.

Iceland is ranked at the top of the human development log while previously strife-torn Sierra Leone is anchored at the bottom.

The list is dived into three sections of development, with the developed countries in the high category while the low is solely composed of sub-Saharan and the medium category is dominated byAsian and Latin American countries.

Among the countries ranked the in the medium development section alongside Botswana Tunisia (91), Gabon (119), South Africa (121), Namibia (125), Lesotho (138,) and Zimbabwe (151).

The report has sounded alarm bells to the global community as it firmly positions climate change as the most pressing moral issue of our generation.

It argues that due to climate change, the world is drifting towards a 'tipping point' that could lock its poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity, ecological threats, and a loss of livelihoods.

Citing recent research findings, the report argues that the potential human cost of climate change have been understated.

It points out that climate shocks such as drought, floods and storms, which will become more frequent and intense with global warming, are already among the most powerful drivers of poverty and inequality.