Blog Topic #7

The United Nations produces the Human Development Index (HDI) through its Human Development Program. Each year it produces a Human Development report that lists the countries of the world in relation to several indices. It is also interesting to note that all of the countries ranked as Low Human Development are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. I found this information very interesting to look at, and it made me realize how lucky we are to be living in the United States. I pondered why these Sub-Saharan countries were so different than the United States, and the information provided by the HDI revealed the answer. The HDI report uses variables such as life expectancy at birth in years, adult literacy rate, combined primary, secondary tertiary gross enrolment ratio, and GDP per capita to rate countries of the world as High Human Development, Medium Human Development, and as Low Human Development.

The United States was on the list of High Human Development. The life expectancy in the U.S. is 78 years, the combined primary, secondary, tertiary gross enrolment ratio is 92.4, and the GDP per capita is 43,968. On the other hand, the country of Rwanda in Sub-Saharan Africa has very different numbers. The life expectancy in Rwanda is only 45.8 years, the combined primary, secondary tertiary gross enrolment ratio is 52.2, the GDP per capita is 819, and perhaps the most surprising statistic, is that only 64.9% of adults, aged 15 and older, are literate. I also looked at the country of Sierra Leone. According to the Human Development Index, Sierra Leone is the lowest ranked country in the entire world in terms of development. Their life expectancy is only 42.1 years, the combined primary, secondary tertiary gross enrolment ratio is 44.6, the GDP per capita is 630, and the adult literacy rate is only 37.1%. These numbers are very surprising and sad. As citizens of the United States of America, we take things like reading for granted, while citizens of countries such as Rwanda, and Sierra Leone are not literate, do not make much of a living, and may only live to be 40-45 years of age.

The geographic pattern of Human Development is very clear. Obviously, all of the countries that fall under Low Human Development are in Sub-Saharan Africa, while countries that fall under High Human development can be found in the Western hemisphere, and also in Europe. According to the HDI, Iceland is the highest country in terms of development. Other countries that fall under High Development are Canada, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Poland. I personally believe that Sub-Saharan Africa falls under Low Development because not much is known about this region. For example, Professor Helmer asked the students in our 10:10 geography class about Sub-Saharan Africa. Not many people knew much about this region. Sub-Saharan Africa is not taught in elementary geography class, and African culture is shyed away from in high schools. Overall, not many people know about Sub-Saharan Africa. I beleive that this region is lowely developed because of this. Technology, healthcare, and politics are not nearly as strong in this region as they are in the western hemisphere. Consequently, this is why people in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, do not live as long, or make as much money. The Human Development Index is very useful and informative, but is sad to see these numbers. It is unfortunate that these countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are lowly developed while other countries are highly developed and almost over developed. Hopefully, one day in the near future, we as a society can change this.