Human development up
and gender gap down

Health and education lead to better quality of life

UNDP’s recently published Human Development Index (HDI) shows improvement in economic and social quality of life. This is attributed to an increase in life expectancy at birth, mean years and expected years of schooling; and the increase of gross national income per capita.
“This is the result of the improvement of health care and education systems taking the differences between cities and rural areas into account,” said Rania Al Jazairi, the First Social Affairs Officer at the Social Justice section at ESCWA.

HDI has increased by 3.4 percent since 2005, placing Lebanon in the high human development category – which is above average – according to the UNDP statistical update.

The gender gap in human achievements in health, knowledge, and living standards has decreased according to UNDP. The index has moved from 0.745 to 0.889 over that same period. Gender inequality in reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity leads to a loss of development.
“Economic empowerment of women is still very low, even compared with other Arab countries,” said Al Jazairi.



Reported by Gisele Khalaf