The 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) bears witness to improved results for numerous Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. For instance, Qatar clinched the title of the second highest per capita income in the world, undoubtedly an outstanding performance. Conversely, GCC countries retracted a single position from global ranking number 31 to that of 32 on the back of Kuwait's retreat.

The results appeared at the recently-released human development index (HDI), which runs at the heart of HDR. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issues the report, something that lends special credence to the annual survey.

Not surprisingly, GCC states posted mixed results, with the UAE overtaking Kuwait as the leading Arab nation on the index by virtue of advancing three notches to position number 32 worldwide. Notwithstanding per capita income level, Qatar lost five notches and accordingly occupied 38th rank globally. Nevertheless, Qatar maintained its status of the second best performer among GCC states and the larger Arab world.

Still, Bahrain retained its global ranking of 39, but advanced to the third best performer among Arab countries at large. Surprisingly, Kuwait dropped 16 notches to 47th position worldwide, in turn the worst retreat for any GCC member state. The unwelcomed development partly reflects revisit of Kuwait's score on the education variable, one of three criteria used in calculating HDI.

Three variables

Much to its credit, Saudi Arabia continued improving its ranking on HDI by advancing four positions in the latest report to 55 worldwide. Yet, the report made no ranking of Oman ostensibly reflecting the absence of certain essential data. To be sure, other countries experienced similar fate, a matter explaining drop of reviewed nations from 182 in the 2009 report to 169 in 2010.

HDI boasts three variables, namely life expectancy at birth, education and income on purchasing power parity basis (PPP). HDI stands out among other rankings by virtue of relying on three socio-economic factors rather than solely income.

The report ranks Qatar's gross per capita income on PPP basis at $79,426 (Dh292,128), second only to that of Liechtenstein with $81,011 per capita. As such, Qatar assumed the position of Luxembourg in the earlier report.

For its part, Kuwait stands out in the life expectancy at birth with an average of 77.9 years. As usual, Japan leads the world with average life expectancy of 83.2 years.

In a snapshot, the report ranks the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain in the very high human development category. Unlike the UAE and Kuwait, this is something not common in the case of Bahrain. And as suggested, the matter partly relates to Kuwait's retreat. Appreciably, the report puts the rest of reviewed GCC countries in the high human development category.

Looking forward, GCC states at large stand the chance of improving their global positions on HDI in the years on the back of sustained efforts to improve education and health services. For instance, Saudi authorities allocated 25 per cent and 11 per cent of expenditures in fiscal year 2010 to education and health and social development respectively.

Likewise, Qatar stands the chance of further improving its global ranking due to sustained investments across the board. This is partly visible from the country's budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which put its spending at $32.4 billion compared to $26 billion in fiscal year 2009-10.

Eventually, it pays for GCC authorities to invest a sizeable portion of energy-generated proceeds on education, health and infrastructure projects while aiming at improving their HDI ranking. Certainly, people are any country's real and sustained wealth, which is the core subject of this year's UNDP Human Development Report.

 

The writer is a Member of Parliament in Bahrain.