Human Development in Different Countries - Essay Example

Human Development Indicators and Their Contribution in Country’s Development In the recent report of human development, indicators that have been used are health or life expectancy, command over resources, education, environment, population trend, innovation, and technology, social integration, international trade flow of services and goods and international migration, and capital flow. However, the purpose of this report is to find out the contribution of three indicators (adult literacy, life expectancy, and GDP per person) in the human development of three countries that fall from high to low category. The 2013 HDI report has identified Norway as the highly human developed country. China is considered as a medium human developed country. Afghanistan is selected as the lower human developed country for this analysis. Human development index is a composite measurement of human development indicators therefore, it is being considered for analysis. There is a clear difference between three countries (highly human developed, medium, and lower human developed). The life expectancy, adult literacy and GDP per person rate of Norway - that is highly developed country – is much higher than Afghanistan and China that is an indication that all three indicators plays a major role in human development of countries. The life expectancy rate of Norway is much higher than China and Afghanistan. Adult literacy rate of Afghanistan is extremely poor due to war activities. GDP growth of China is higher than Norway and Afghanistan, but the GDP rate is lower than Norway. International capital flows and trade flows play a huge role in the development of countries that have been explained by the help of data. Value of imports of highly developed country is lower than exports while imports of lower developed countries are higher than exports. Life expectancy, adults’ literacy rate, and GDP per capita are related to each other, and increased rate of each leads country towards increased human development standards. Life Expectancy Rate and HDI Trend Norway: Norway is the most highly human developed country with the value of 0.995 in 2012. The trend of human development index from 1980 to 2012 is increasing that is clear from the given depiction: (UNDP a) The growth rate of HDI from 1980 to 1990 was 0.59, from 1990 to 2000 was 0.79 that is extremely high, as compared to the prior year, from 2000 to 2010 was 0.32 and from 2010 to 2012, was 0.29. The growth rate of 2000 to 2012 shows slow growth in human development. The life expectancy rate is a component of HDI that plays an important role in the human development of the country. In Norway, life expectancy rate is constantly increasing that is the translucent indication of country’s human development. However, the growth rate of life expectancy rate is decreasing from 2007. Decision of individual’s educations is depends upon life expectancy, it is a reason to increase per capita income and cause to increase economic growth. Therefore, it is a critical contributor in the development of the country. China: China is a medium human developed country with the value of 0.699 in 2012. The chart below is the exploration of HDI trend. (UNDP a) The human development index is increasing, but the average annual growth rate is decreasing from the year of 1980 to 2012. In China, the life expectancy rate is increasing, but the constant decrease in growth rate has been encountered from 2007 to 2012, excluding 2011. Afghanistan: Afghanistan is the lower human developed country with the value of 0.515 in 2012. The chart that explores the HDI trend is being presented as follow: (UNDP a) Afghanistan is an uncertain country for human development. From the year of 1980 to 1990, the human development activities were increasing but in 2000, country faced negative average annual growth. There was an increase in average annual growth rate of HDI by 4.54% during 2000 to 2005, which is extremely high. However, Afghanistan again faced decrease in HDI growth rate by 3.91%. Great decrease was encountered in life expectancy rate during 2000 to 2005. Then after 2005, the life expectancy growth rate has started to increase. Adult Literacy Rate Norway: In 2010, the population with at least secondary education in Norway was 95.2, the gross enrollment ratio of primary schooling from 2002 to 2011 was 99%, and the secondary schooling ratio was 110%. Higher literacy rate is a core of economic development because it is an indication of greater skills that serve the country with a competitive advantage. If people are not literate, they do not have jobs that lead to unemployment, which cause to decrease per capita income, therefore human development rate. China: In China, the literacy rate in during 2005 to 2010 from the age of 15 and older was 94.3%; the population with at least secondary education was 62.7% in 2010 that is far lower than Norway. The gross enrollment ratio of primary schooling from 2002 to 2011 was 111.0%, and the secondary schooling ratio was 81%, which is lower as compared to Norway that is highly developed country. Afghanistan: From a very long time, Afghanistan is surviving from war condition due to which the literacy rate of Afghanistan is extremely low, and far from the other countries of the world. In 2001 literacy rate in Afghanistan was 12%. This rate increased significantly to 30% in 2010. The adult literacy rate was 26% in 2009, and youth literacy was 34% that was the sign of improvement (BBC). Population with at least secondary education in 2010 was 20.3%. The gross enrolment ratio was 97% for primary education, and 46% was for secondary education that was far lower than Norway and China. GDP per Person Norway: GDP per person is the total of GDP divided by the number of people. The below chart is the illustration of GDP of Norway: (UNDP b) The GDP of Norway has an increasing trend from 1980 to 2007. However, decline was encountered from 2008 to 2009, but the country was continued to increase in GDP after 2009. That is an immense contributor in country’s human development. GDP per capita is an indicator of the standard of living and higher in developed countries than underdeveloped. China: China has immense growth in GDP per person that can be observed from below placed chart: (UNDP b) China has significant increase in GDP per capita from 1980 to 2011 and continues to increase its GDP. This GDP per person trend is the greater contributor in China’s human development index. However, despite immense increase GDP of China is much lower than Norway. Afghanistan: Data shows an increase in GDP from the year of 2005 to 2011. Great increase in 2009 was encountered and this increase was constantly presenting until 2011. In 2005, the GDP per person was 748, and in 2011, it reached up to 1083. Below is the graphical illustration Of GDP per person: (UNDP b) There is a constant growth in GDP per person except 2008, which was the world’s financial crisis year and had a great impact on the economy in all countries. The GDP trend is constant from 2010 to 2010 and far much lower than China and Norway. GDP of Afghanistan, clearly differentiate it from highly developed and medium developed countries. Role of International Capital Flows and Trade Flows International trade and capital flow plays an immense role in the development of countries and serve as an engine. Capital flow refers to the flow of capital from one to another country without much restriction (Agarwal, and Agarwal, 66-86). International trade flow includes imports and exports of goods and services. Norway: In 2010, the export of the export of merchandise goods is $ 30.7 billion that is 33 % of GDP and imports are $ 77.3 billion that is 19.5 % of GDP and suitable for the development of the country. Exports of services are $ 39.7 billion that is 10 % of GDP and imports are $ 42.8 billion that is 10.8% of GDP. Agricultural share of merchandise exports was 7.8 % in 2010 and imports were 9.4%. Manufactured share of merchandise export 18.6% and imports were 75.1% that are higher than exports and cause to decrease capital inflow. Manufactured export of parts and components was 37 %. On the other hand, imports were 21.5%. This shows imports are lower than exports and it is healthy for the development of the country. The overall exports are higher than imports, which is suitable for development. FDI net inflows are $ 2.8 billion from 2007 to 2011. China: In 2010, the export of merchandise goods is $ 1577.8 billion that is 30 % of GDP and imports are $ 1289.1 billion that is 23.6 % of GDP and suitable for the development of the country. Exports of services are $ 171.2 billion that is 3.1 % of GDP and imports are $ 193.3 billion that is 3.5% of GDP. Agricultural share of merchandise exports was 3.3 % in 2010 and imports were 8.4%. Manufactured share of merchandise export 93.4% and imports were 60.9%. Imports are lower than exports and cause to increase capital inflow. The share of exports was 28.7 %,. Imports were 44.8%. This shows that imports are higher than exports. It is not healthy for the development of the country. FDI net inflows are $ 3.1 billion from 2007 to 2011. Afghanistan: In 2010, the export of merchandise goods is $ 0.4 billion that was 2.5 percent of GDP. Imports of merchandise goods were $ 5.2 billion that was 32.8 percent of GDP and higher from exports. Agricultural share of merchandise exports 50.8 percent and import share is 13.7 percent. Manufactured share of merchandise export is 19.6 percent and import share is 19.1. Parts and components share of manufactured export is 0 %. However, the share of imports is 27.1 %. Here, imports are higher than exports that cause to increase the capital outflow, which is not suitable for country’s development. FDI net inflows are $ 0.4 billion from 2007 to 2011 that is far lower than other two countries. Conclusion The report has presented an analysis of three countries. Human Development Index shows how people live in the country and the development of humans in the country. This indicator is an important way to present how developed the country is in providing quality lifestyle to the people. Norway is the most developed country, followed by China and then Afghanistan is the least developed country. Works Cited Agrawal, Rahul, and Tarunika J. Agrawal. "Global Capital Flows and its Impact on Macroeconomic Variables–Evidence from India." The Macrotheme Review A multidisciplinary journal of global macro trends. 2013. 11 May. 2014. < http://macrotheme.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/6AgrawalMR24pdf.13191340.pdf> BBC. Afghanistan: what has been achieved since 2001?. Dec. 2009. 11 May. 2014. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8377393.stm UNDP a. GDP per capita. 2011. 11 May. 2014. https://data.undp.org/dataset/GDP-per-capita-2005-PPP-/navj-mda7 UNDP b. Human Development Report 2013. 2013. 11 May. 2014. http://91.74.184.33/videoplayer/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf?ich_u_r_i=0359c939f092c70163c2e9771d3ad819&ich_s_t_a_r_t=0&ich_e_n_d=0&ich_k_e_y=1445058911750763072436&ich_t_y_p_e=1&ich_d_i_s_k_i_d=10&ich_u_n_i_t=1 Appendix Figure 1: Norway Figure 2: China Figure 3: Afghanistan Read More