…literacy rate at 85.6%; school dropouts down

SEVENTY per cent primary school teachers are trained

By Svetlana Marshall
HUMAN development in Guyana has improved with more and more Guyanese having greater access to education and potable water, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

In its 2019 Human Development Report, which was launched in Colombia on Monday under the theme, “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: Inequalities in human development in the 21st century,” the UNDP revealed that the value of Guyana’s Human Development Index (HDI) has increased to 0.670.

“Guyana’s HDI value for 2018 is 0.670—which put the country in the medium human development category—positioning it at 123 out of 189 countries and territories,” the 2019 Human Development Report states. As it is, Guyana’s 2018 HDI of 0.670 is above the average of 0.634 for countries in the medium human development group, but below the average of 0.759 for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. “From Latin America and the Caribbean, countries which are close to Guyana in 2018 HDI rank and to some extent in population size are Belize and Suriname, which have HDIs ranked 103 and 98 respectively,” UNDP pointed out.

In 2017, Guyana’s HDI value stood at 0.654. At that time it was ranked 125 out of 189 countries and territories – a position it shared with Cape Verde. The HDI 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. Between 1990 and 2018, Guyana’s HDI value increased from 0.537 to 0.670, an increase of 24.8 per cent.

In its report, the UNDP also took note of the fact that between 1990 and 2018, Guyana’s life expectancy at birth increased by 6.5 years, while its Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by about 263.1 percent between 1990 and 2018.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Gender Development Index (GDI) value is 0.973, due to the fact that the country’s 2018 female HDI value is 0.656, in contrast with 0.674 for males. “The GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health (measured by female and male life expectancy at birth); education (measured by female and male expected years of schooling for children and mean years for adults aged 25 years and older); and command over economic resources (measured by female and male estimated GNI per capita),” the UNDP explained.

In the case of the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which reflects gender-based inequalities in three dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity– Guyana, in 2018, recorded a value of 0.492, ranking 118 out of 162 countries. “In Guyana, 31.9 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 70.9 percent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education compared to 55.5 percent of their male counterparts. For every 100,000 live births, 229.0 women die of pregnancy-related causes; and the adolescent birth rate is 74.4 births per 1,000 women of ages 15-19. Female participation in the labour market is 41.2 per cent compared to 73.6 for men. In comparison, Belize and Suriname are ranked at 91 and 112 respectively on this index,” the UNDP pointed out.

A closer look at the data which resulted in the overall HDI value of 0.670 revealed that 4.2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on the health sector. Life expectancy at birth for females is 73 years and 66.8 years in the case of males. Notably, HIV prevalence among persons between the ages of 15 and 49 is 1.7 per cent, while the infant mortality rate is 26 per 1,000 live births. The report states too that the under-five mortality rate is 31.3 per 1,000 live births.

In the area of education, the report states that government’s expenditure in this sector accounts for 6.3 per cent of the country’s GDP. According to the report, country’s literacy rate among persons 15 years and older is 85.6 per cent. The dropout rate for the primary school cohort is 7.8 per cent. According to statistics, 70 per cent of teachers within the primary education system are trained.

Under the sub-topic Inequality, the UNDP report states that inequality in education accounts for 10.7 per cent, while there is a 25.1 per cent inequality in income. Meanwhile, under the sub-topic – Work, employment and vulnerability, the Human Development Report revealed that the employment to population ration is 50.5 per cent for persons ages 15 years and older. It states too that 10.8 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 in Guyana are engaged in child labour. Additionally, the labour force participation rate is 57.4 per cent for persons 15 years and older in the country. However, 22.6 per cent of the country’s young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. Added to that, youth not in school or employment (ages 15-24) account for 35.2 per cent.

According to its Socio-economic sustainability subsection, 96.0 percent of the country’s population of 747,000 people has access to improved drinking-water resources, while 86 per cent of the population is using improved sanitation facilities. Additionally, 88.8 percent of the rural population has access to electricity.

Releasing the report on Monday, the UNDP said that the demonstrations sweeping across Latin America and the Caribbean signal that, despite decades of economic growth and prosperity, perceptions of unfairness and loss of dignity persist, particularly among the Region’s middle class and historically marginalised.

According to the report, even as the gap in basic living standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people escaping poverty, hunger, and disease, the necessities to thrive have evolved. Inequalities in technology, education, and the climate crisis are among issues that are now taking centre stage.

“Different triggers are bringing people onto the streets — the cost of a train ticket, the price of petrol, demands for political freedoms, the pursuit of fairness and justice. This is the new face of inequality, and as this Human Development Report sets out, inequality is not beyond solutions,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.

The report notes that in Latin America and the Caribbean, the perception of unfairness in the distribution of wealth has increased since 2012, returning to levels of the late 1990s. Inequality in self-reported happiness (or subjective well-being as it is also called), which had remained steady in the Region until 2014, has risen since. The report analyzes inequality in three steps: beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today, proposing a battery of policy options to tackle it.