Ethiopia Makes Slight Progress on Human Dev't Report

Dec 19 , 2020

Ethiopia stagnated in the 173rd position out of 189 countries listed on the 2020 edition of the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Ethiopia remained in the same position it occupied in the 2019 report although the HDI rating has improved slightly to 0.485 from 0.47. The rankings show that Ethiopia showed incremental advances in life-expectancy and education indices. The data also highlight that Gross National Income per capita has climbed higher to just over 2,200 dollars from the previous year's entry of 1,780 dollars. The report emphasises that world leaders need to address the pressure that is being exerted on the environment in order to safeguard stability and progress. It estimates that if things continue the way they are going, parts of the world could face up to 100 more days of extreme weather each year by 2100. The report maintains that tackling inequality, capitalising on innovation, and working with nature are the ideal ways forward. This year, the organisation has also introduced an experimental Human Development Index (HDI) that takes a country's carbon dioxide emissions and material footprints into account.