By Crimson Tazvinzwa
Zimbabwe’s human development index is in sharp decline compared to the once poorer countries such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, whose economies have since recovered from years of civil wars and droughts.
The United Nations Development Programme 2010 report published recently placed Zimbabwe’s HDI value at 0.140 down from 0.241 in 1980 effectively ranking the country the last out of 169 where similar research has been carried out.
What is the human development index?
The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the quality of life experience people in a given country experience overall in areas such as how long people live, access to education; and how much money individuals make in a year, otherwise known as earnings per ‘capita per year’. The index assesses how people access a long and healthy life, education and a decent standard of living.
The HDI is measured over the medium to long term basis; and according to UNDP between 1980 and 2010 Zimbabwe’s HDI value decreased from 0.241 to 0.140, a decrease of 42 per cent or average annual decrease of about 1.8 per cent.
The Rwanda wonder success story
The 2010 UNDP report suggests that Rwanda’s human development performance has been remarkable with an index of 0.385 up from 0.249 in 1980, significantly surpassing that of Zimbabwe. Rwanda is a country whose history of conflict dates back to 1959 when after the death of the King, the Hutus rose up against the Tutsis killing thousands while some survivors fled into neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Congo.
The Rwanda conflict intensified in 1994 after President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of neighbouring Burundi were killed after their plane was shot down in Kigali. Thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus including women and children were massacred by interharamwe militia as a result.
Despite these sad events Rwanda has since imaged as a vibrant economy whose leadership has enabled normal life to prevail, pushing the country’s HDI to position 152 out of 169 countries surveyed.
Ethiopia whose HDI report only started in 2000 also saw a rise of up to 0.328 in 2010 from 0.250.
As a regional barometer for growth and development, Sub Saharan Africa’s HDI is at 0.385 up from 0.293 in 1980 while the rest of the world achieved 0.624 up from 0.55 thirty years ago. In the western world, the UK’s index for example, rose by more than 11% between 1980 and 2010 bringing it to 0.853.
In general terms, Africa’s low-income countries — such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique — were at their best compared to well off countries like South Africa, The Globalist says quoting Harry G. Broadman a global expert on African investment.
According to Broadman they registered growth of 4.9% in 2009 — a figure that rose to 5.0% in 2010.
Zimbabwe’s painful decline
The UNDP reports says: “Zimbabwe’s 2010 HDI of 0.140 is below the average of 0.389 for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is also below the average of 0.393 for low human development countries.”
Zimbabwe is at the periphery of those countries able to support human development and progress.
The report goes on to say that Zimbabwe’s 2010 “HDI neighbours”, are Niger and Kenya, which had HDIs ranked 167 and 128 respectively. Zimbabwe is also compared to Congo, a medium human development country, the report says.
The question therefore is; why has Zimbabwe‘s economic development stalled?
The UNDP notes that from 1980 to 2010, Zimbabwe’s life expectancy fell by 12 years. The average Zimbabwean now lives for no more than 47 years due to a variety of reasons including HIV AIDS and the collapse of health and welfare institutions in the country. In addition the GNI per capita decreased by 34 per cent during the same period. Today an ordinary Zimbabwean earns US$506.89 per year just over US$26 more than an individual from Haiti.
| ||||||
Life Expectancy at birth | Expected years of schooling | Mean years of schooling | GNI Per capita(PPPUS$) | HDI Value | ||
1980
|
59.0
|
6.5
|
3.4
|
265
|
0.241
| |
1985
|
61.3
|
11.5
|
4.1
|
265
|
0.278
| |
1990
|
60.8
|
10.1
|
4.5
|
277
|
0.284
| |
1995
|
53.1
|
10.0
|
5.5
|
260
|
0.262
| |
2000
|
43.3
|
9.8
|
6.0
|
256
|
0.232
| |
2005
|
41.7
|
9.2
|
6.7
|
189
|
0.159
| |
2010
|
47.0
|
9.2
|
7.2
|
176
|
0.140
| |
This table shows the contribution of each component index to Zimbabwe’s HDI since 1980.
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2010
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was a disaster waiting to happen. In the 2010 ‘Millennium Development Goals Status Report’, Paurina Mpariwa Zimbabwe’s Minister of Labour and Social Services, the country’s fall in GDP growth was compounded by recurrent droughts, coupled with the government’s poor fiscal discipline.
Between 1991 and 1995 growth averaged only 1.5% per annum. The minister said: “The onset of the land reform programme and the decline in the output of the commercial farming sector contributed to further declines in GDP from 0.0% in 1998 to -7.4% in 2000 and subsequently -10.4% in 2003.”
A politically driven policy; the land reform programme saw thousands of white commercial farmers driven off their land giving way to inexperienced and poorly resourced loyalists to President Mugabe’s government. The new beneficiaries lacked the capacity to maintain the intensive, industrialised farming methods of the previous owners.
As a landlocked country Zimbabwe’s economy heavily depended on agricultural outputs which earned much of the needed foreign currency through exports. Once regarded as the ‘bread basket’ of Southern Africa the country even failed to produce enough food to feed the population.
According to minister Mpariwa by 2003 as a result, Zimbabweans living below the poverty line stood at 72% a situation that continues to this day.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery plan remains uncertain today despite the formation of the Government of National Unity by Mugabe’s ruling party Zanu (PF) and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2009. The uneasy relations between the two men have been dogged by irreparable disagreements on how to handle the country's massive debt and food shortages, dashing all hopes of quick solutions to the country’s economic and political crises.
