Morocco in the soft underbelly of the UNDP rankings

Morocco ranks 123 out of 191 on the UN’s Human Development Index for its citizens. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released its annual Human Development Report 2021 on September 8. Morocco lost one place to 123rd out of 191 countries.

In its 2021 report, UNDP takes into account life expectancy, education and quality of life in its Human Development Index (HDI). During the 2020 edition, Morocco was ranked 122nd.

According to UNDP, economic strength is not a sufficient criterion for positive “human development”.

In its ranking, Switzerland leads with a score of 0.962, followed by Norway (2nd), Iceland (3rd), Hong Kong (4th), Australia (5th), Denmark (6th), Sweden (7th), Ireland (8th), Germany (9th) and the Netherlands. (10th). For example, Austria ranks 25th, Turkey ranks 76th, and Iran ranks 76th. Even the world’s top two economies, the US and China, did not make the top spot. The United States ranks 21st and China 76th in the UN rankings. A clear indication that the human development of a country does not depend only on its economic power.

At the bottom of the ranking are Niger (189th), Chad (190th) and South Sudan (191st).

Morocco in the Medium Human Development category

Most unstable countries (civil wars, conflicts, etc.) are ahead of Morocco, such as Libya (104th), Palestine (106th) and Iraq (121st). Current reforms, particularly those aimed at generalizing social security and education, will certainly improve Morocco’s performance in the medium term. Other Maghreb countries also outperform Morocco in the rankings. So we see Algeria at 91st and Tunisia at 97th.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) notes in its report that life expectancy at birth in Morocco will reach 74 years in 2021. With a score of 0.683, Morocco falls into the category of medium human development countries. Overall, an estimated 90% of countries are lagging in their development, according to the UN report.

Crises have had a negative impact on developments.

A number of somewhat unpredictable factors influence and reinforce each other to create an unprecedented upheaval in everyday life. The United Nations stresses the need for radical change to avoid new hardships and injustices.

The UN has pointed out that for the first time since this study was carried out, the majority of countries had to accept the backwardness in their development. Overall, human development has returned to 2016 levels. According to the United Nations, this has reversed much of the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Some countries are gradually recovering, but recovery or recovery is uneven or incomplete and exacerbates inequalities in human development, the report says. Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are particularly affected, the report notes.