The human development index of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the year 2022 is 0.779, which ranks it 80th on the list of 193 countries and territories included in the report, and in the category of highly developed countries.
These are the results of the latest human development report presented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP): Human Development Report 2023/2024.
The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the average of long-term progress in three basic dimensions of societal development: life expectancy, education and gross national income per capita.
According to this parameter, countries are ranked in several categories, from those with low to those with very high human development.
The HDI value in Bosnia and Herzegovina increased from 0.656 to 0.779 between 2000 and 2022, which represents an increase of 18.8 percent.
According to the latest Human Development Report, life expectancy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is 75.4, which is 0.9 years more than in 2000. Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina spend an average of 10.54 years in school, or 4.42 years more than in 2000.
Gross national income per capita (GNI – purchasing power parity expressed in US dollars) has increased by about 122.6 percent compared to 2000 and is 16,571 in 2022.
Of the surrounding countries, the best placed is Slovenia, which is in 22nd place, and among the highly developed countries are also Croatia (39), Hungary (47), Montenegro (50), Romania (53) and Serbia (65). A category lower, among the highly developed countries are Bulgaria (70), Albania (74) and North Macedonia (83).
As the country with the highest Human Development Index, Switzerland tops the list, followed by Norway, Iceland and Hong Kong, while Denmark and Sweden share fifth place.
The impact of the decline in human development is particularly prominent in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Afghanistan’s HDI has regressed in ten years, while Ukraine’s HDI has fallen to its lowest level since 2004.
*Increasing political polarization and mistrust block solutions to global challenges*
The 2023/24 Human Development Report, titled “Breaking the Blockade: Redefining Cooperation in a Polarized World,” reveals a worrying trend: the recovery in the Human Development Index (HDI) is partial, incomplete and uneven.
HDI is projected to reach a record high in 2023, after a large decline in 2020 and 2021, however, this progress is very uneven. Rich countries have a record high level of human development, while half of the poorest countries remain below the level of development they were at before the start of the crisis.
Global inequalities are accompanied by a significant concentration of the economy. As noted in this report, nearly 40 percent of global goods trade is concentrated in three or fewer countries, while in 2021 the market capitalization of each of the world’s three largest technology companies exceeded the gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 90 percent of countries. of the world in that year.
“The widening gap in human development revealed in this report shows that the direction of a two-decade trend of steadily decreasing inequality between rich and poor nations has now reversed. Despite our deeply interconnected global societies, we we do not achieve success. We need to use our mutual dependence, as well as the ability to deal with common and existential challenges, and in this way make sure that what people strive for is achieved,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator.
The report suggests that international collective efforts are being thwarted by an ever-present “democratic paradox”: while nine out of 10 people in the world support democracy, over half of respondents globally also express their support for leaders who undermine democracy by disregarding the basic rules of the democratic process, and on what the data analyzed in the report indicate. Half of people surveyed around the world say they have little or no control over their lives, while two-thirds of those surveyed believe they have little influence over their governments’ decisions.
Political polarization and its global consequences are also a growing cause for concern. According to the authors of this report, in addition to feelings of helplessness, it stimulates inward-looking political approaches – which is in stark contrast to the global cooperation needed to respond to urgent problems such as the decarbonisation of our economies, the misuse of digital technologies and conflicts. This is particularly disturbing when considering the record high temperatures during 2023, which emphasizes the urgency of united action in the fight against climate change, as well as the progress of artificial intelligence as a new frontier area of technology, which is rapidly developing, with insufficient or non-existent legal restrictions.
