September 13: Nepal has improved its Human Development Index (HDI) ranking from 144th to 143rd, although the HDI value has marginally declined from 0.604 to 0.602 points due to continued turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in a report.    
From the lens of gender, Nepal stands at 113th position in global Gender Inequality Index. As per the report, Sri Lanka tops the list of South Asian countries in HDI ranking with its position of 73 in the world followed by Maldives (90), Bhutan (127), Bangladesh (129), India (132), Nepal (143) Pakistan (161) and Afghanistan (180).

Released after a two-year gap on September 12, the 2022 report puts the country in the medium human development category.    
The HDI is a 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.    
According to the UNDP, Nepal made a significant achievement in HDI value between 1990 and 2021, which improved from 0.399 to 0.602, that means an improvement of 50.9 percent in the last three decades. Between 1990 and 2021, Nepal's life expectancy at birth has improved by 13.6 years, mean years of schooling improved by 2.8 years and expected years of schooling improved by 5.4 years. Nepal's GNI per capita improved by about 146.0 percent between 1990 and 2021, the UNDP report said.    
The report however shows Nepal continues to incur substantive loss in human development due to persisting inequalities including gender, caste, geographic regions and other categories. As the inequality in a country increases, the loss in human development also increases. The 2021 female HDI value for Nepal is 0.584 in contrast to 0.621 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.942, placing it into Group 3 which comprises countries with medium equality in HDI achievements between women and men.    
Records show Nepal’s performance during 2019 and 2020 was comparatively low in the areas including maternal mortality, shares of parliamentary seats held by women, and women’s participation in the labour force.    
The Gender Inequality Index measures gender inequalities (the loss in human development due to inequality between female and male achievements) in three key dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market. Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men.    
 “The new Human Development Report indicates Nepal has largely maintained stable position over the past two years despite numerous shocks, including COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters. This is because of the long-term investments over the years. Going forward, we need everyone’s wisdom, experience and more importantly the positive attitude to cope with crisis and making more choices available to the people,” said Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Nepal. -- RSS