The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released their Africa Human Development Report 2016 yesterday. Human development in Africa has been on the rise lately, with commendable improvements in African countries. According to the report, five African countries out of a total of 55 countries worldwide, are in the High Human Development group. Twelve African countries out of a total of 39 countries worldwide are found in the Medium Human Development group. And 36 African countries out of 44 countries worldwide are in the Low Human Development group. In the global ranking, African countries hold the bottom 19 places in the 20 lowest rankings. However, there have been tremendous improvements over the years in the Human Development Index (HDI) for several African countries.

What’s the Human Development Index?

As defined by the UNDP, the Human Development Index is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy.

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Source: UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2016

Top 20 African countries with highest percentage change in HDI values, 2000-2014

African countries have significantly improved their HDI over the past years. Out of the top 20 countries with the highest percentage change in HDI values, 17 were among the low human development group. The remaining three are within the medium human development group. This reveals that, despite the high number of African countries within the low human development group, a lot of these countries are taking progressive steps to improve their standards of living.

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The Multidimensional Poverty Index

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), introduced in UNDP’s 2010 HDI, measures poverty by identifying multiple deprivations in the same households in education, health and living standards.

Niger has the highest percentage of their population in severe multinational poverty.

African Countries with the Highest Population Percentage Living in Multidimensional Poverty

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Source:UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2016.

Africa’s HDI by sub-region

This highlights the considerable differences in HDI values among the African sub-region. From the table below, only North Africa and South Africa were above the average African region HDI.

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Source:UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2016.

Africa’s HDI in Comparison with other regions of the world

Africa has the third best improvement in HDI between 1990 and 2014 with a change in HDI value of 1.09 but also has the lowest average levels of human development compared to other regions in the world.

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Source:UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2016.

While there has been significant progress in human development in several African countries, human development still remains unsatisfactory on the continent. This highlights the need for countries to do more in order to improve the standard of living for its citizens, promote gender equality and healthy living.

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