UNDP Presents Global and Regional Human Development Reports

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia presented two fundamental reports of 2016 that address global human development challenges as well as specific developmental issues faced by the societies in the region of Eastern Europe, Turkey and Central Asia.

The event took place on Tuesday, April 11 at the International School of Economics (ISET) of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (16, Zandukeli Str., Tbilisi).

The presentation of the Human Development Reports is organized by the UNDP Georgia in cooperation with the UNDP’s Regional Hub in Istanbul and International School of Economics (ISET) of the Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

Speakers and Presenters:

•Niels Scott, Head of UNDP in Georgia

• Ben Slay, UNDP Senior Regional Economic Advisor

• Nino Javakhadze, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia

• Eric Livny, ISET Director and head of ISET Policy Institute

• Olivier Bürki, Regional Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus

• Kaido Sirel, Head of Operations, Delegation of the European Union to Georgia

• Nino Zambakhidze, Chairman of Georgian Farmers’ Association

• Irina Khantadze, Chairman of Coalition ‘Education for All’

• Shombi Sharp, Deputy Head of UNDP in Georgia

Human Development Reports (HDRs) 2016

The global Human Development Report 2016 Human Development for Everyone, released in March 2017, argues that human development progress continues to leave many people behind, with systemic, often unmeasured, barriers to catching up. The Report suggests that a stronger focus on those excluded and on actions to dismantle these barriers is urgently needed to ensure sustainable human development for all.

The regional Human Development Report Progress at Risk, released in October 2016, explains how many countries in the region of Eastern Europe, Turkey and Central Asia are facing growing threats to their human development accomplishments. It shows how popular concerns about inequalities—in terms of income and wealth, but also equality before the law — seem to be on the rise and identifies key policy reforms and programming areas for more effective responses to the region’s inequality challenges.

The Statistical Annex of the 2016 HDR presents the 2015 Human Development Index (HDI) for 188 countries and UN-recognized territories.

Georgia’s HDI value for 2015 is 0.769, which put the country in the high human development category, positioning it at 70 out of 188 countries and territories.

Between 2000 and 2015, Georgia’s HDI value increased from 0.673 to 0.769, an increase of 14.3 percent.

Between 1990 and 2015, Georgia’s life expectancy at birth increased by 4.7 years, mean years of schooling increased by 0.5 years and expected years of schooling increased by 1.5 years.

Georgia’s GNI per capita increased by about 17.1 percent between 1990 and 2015.

Georgia’s 2015 HDI (0.769) is above the average of 0.746 for countries in the high human development group and above the average of 0.756 for countries in Europe and Central Asia. From Europe and Central Asia, countries which are close to Georgia in 2015 HDI rank and to some extent in population size are Armenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have HDIs ranked 84 and 81 respectively.

Georgia’s HDI for 2015 is 0.769. However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.672, a loss of 12.2 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the HDI dimension indices. Armenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina show losses due to inequalities of 9.3 percent and 13.3 percent respectively. The average loss due to inequality for high HDI countries is 20.0 percent and for Europe and Central Asia it is 12.7 percent. The Human inequality coefficient for Georgia is 12.2 percent.

More information about the Human Development Index for Georgia is available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/GEO