By Francis Ntow
Accra, Sept. 13, GNA – Ghana needs to double efforts to improve access to education, long and healthy life, and decent income, which are the indices for measuring its human development.
The country saw no improvement in a year, keeping its Human Development Index (HDI) value of 0.62 for 2020 in 2021, positioning it at 133 out of 191 countries and territories.
This is stated in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development report, which puts Ghana in the medium human development category.
This implies that the West African country with a population of 32.8 million is one of the countries with widespread poverty, low life expectancies, coupled with high birth rates, and poor education while access to healthcare is still a challenge.
Commenting on the report, Angela Lusigi, UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, said it was important for the country to adopt innovative ways to tackle the interconnected and complex challenges that affected human development.
She called for collaborative efforts to address the unequal human progress that had left many behind and said: “Let’s work together to unlock the potential of every Ghanaian to create a sustainable future in the face of uncertainty.”
Dr Lusigi also urged all stakeholders, including the private sector, to support efforts to remove existing structural, cultural and socioeconomic barriers that had blocked progress for young people, women, and people living with disabilities.
The UNDP Rep encouraged the country to put in place measures to spur investment, insurance and innovation, noting that, “it will go a long way in helping people navigate and thrive amid complex uncertainties.”
Mr Patrick Adzovor, Senior Staff Statistician, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), who spoke on poverty, noted that many Ghanaians suffered deprivations in education and health and had poor standard of living.
He said the population of multidimensionally poor had increased from about 13.6 million (44.1 per cent) people in the first quarter of 2022 to 14.4 million (46.7 per cent) in the second quarter of 2022.
He noted that: “Among persons in the labour force (15 years and older) about 380,000 are simultaneously food insecure, multidimensionally poor, and unemployed.”
Mr Adzovor asked the Government to utilise data and recommendations from the Statistical Service, develop and implement policies that would increase investment for social protection and build people’s ability for a prosperous Ghana.
Dr Andrew Agyei-Holmes of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), noted that youth unemployment in the country had increased rapidly, amid reduction in resources and high Government expenditure.
He said the high unemployment had forced many youths into illegal mining (galamsey), and was contributing to the destruction of water bodies and arable lands.
The Research Fellow noted that there were opportunities in the agriculture sector to turn the fortunes of the country around by taking many out of poverty and creating decent employment particularly for the youth towards improving human development.
Dr Agyei-Holmes called for enhanced collaborations between the Government, businesses and research institutions to develop innovative warehouses that would keep foodstuff produced in the country.
He also called for road infrastructure development to ease the carting of farm produce from the rural communities to cities, increase manufacturing activities and encourage the consumption of local alternatives for foreign products.
Human Development Index value is determined by combining a country’s scores with several indicators, mainly life expectancy, literacy rate, and income.
Other indicators include Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, exports and imports, homicide rate, multidimensional poverty index, inequality, and internet availability.
These indicators are compiled into a single number between 0 and 1.0, with 1.0 being the highest possible human development, with HDI below 0.55 marking a low human development.
GNA