Nepal's ranking in SPI improves
KATHMANDU:
Nepal ranks second in terms of social advancement in South Asia, indicating the country is better than others in the region when it comes to addressing basic human needs, establishing building blocks that allow citizens to enhance and sustain the quality of lives, and creating conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.
The Social Progress Index (SPI) 2015, prepared by Social Progress Imperative, which is chaired by Harvard Business School Professor Michael E Porter, shows Nepal has obtained a score of 55.33, placing the country only behind Sri Lanka — which received a score of 60.10 — in the South Asian index.
With this score, Nepal ranks 98 among 133 countries surveyed and falls in group of countries with ‘lower middle social progress’. Last year, Nepal obtained a score of 51.58 and was ranked 101 in SPI.
Social Progress Index tries to challenge the existing model of development based on economic development. This school of thought believes only gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income should not be used as benchmarks to determine progress made by a country. And ‘economic growth without social progress results in lack of inclusion, discontent and social unrest’.
“More and more people recognise that GDP alone is not an adequate guide for national development strategies,” says the report published by Social Progress Imperative. “The Social Progress Index brings a new rigour to this effort, not by changing the way GDP is measured but by creating a complementary lens on national performance. And measuring social progress guides us in translating economic gains into advancing social and environmental performance in ways that will unleash even greater long-term economic success.”
The Social Progress Index is made up of 52 social and environmental indicators that capture three areas of social progress: basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing, and opportunity.
It measures social progress ‘strictly using outcomes of success, not how much effort a country makes’. For example, how much a country spends on healthcare is much less important than health and wellness actually achieved by that country, which is what we are measuring.
Nepal has obtained a score of 62.54 in basic human needs sub-index, which looks into four aspects, including nutrition and basic medical care, access to drinking water and sanitation facilities, shelter and personal safety.
Another sub-index, foundations of wellbeing, looks into areas such as access to basic education, health and wellness, ecosystem sustainability, and access to information and communication. Nepal scored 62.71 in this category.
In another sub-index called ‘opportunity’, the country obtained a score of 40.74. This sub-index looks into aspects such as personal rights, personal freedom and choice, tolerance and inclusion, and access to advanced education.
Overall, Nepal has performed better than India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which shows social development is taking place rapidly in the country than in other countries in the region.
Source: THT
