Written by Lolly M. Camara & Oumie Jobe | From The Observer

The 2014 Global Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has recognised the progress made by The Gambia in human capital development.

The report, on the theme ‘Sustaining progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience’ was launched Thursday at a local hotel in Kololi.

Since its inception, most countries have registered significant human development. It shows that overall global trends are positive and progress is continuing, yet, lives are being lost, and livelihood and development undermined, by natural or human-induced disasters and crisis.

The report disclosed that The Gambia’s Human Development Index (HDI) value increased from 0.300 to 0.441, an increase of 46.9 percent or an average annual increase of about 1.17 percent between 1980 and 2013.

With the HDI value, The Gambia is now ranked 172 out of 187 countries and territories, making progress in each of the indicators: life expectancy, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

“Between 1980 and 2013, Gambia’s life expectancy at birth increased by 12.5 years; mean years of schooling increased by 201 years and expected years of schooling increased by 4.1 years; and Gambia’s GNI per capita increased by about 0.7 percent between 1980 and 2013,” the reported stated.

The UNDP resident coordinator, Ms. Ade Mamonyane Lekoetje, said the theme of this year’s report is particularly important to many of the countries in the world as it discusses multiplicity of vulnerabilities the world is facing and how that affects human development outcomes.

Read more at The Observer