U.N. Ranking Highlights Africa AIDS

Thu Jul 15, 2:42 PM ET

By PAUL AMES, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium – The U.N.’s annual ranking of the global rich and poor
Thursday showed that AIDS (news – web sites) was pushing African nations
further into misery while the most the world crept toward higher
development.

Of the 177 nations included in the U.N. Development Index, African nations
occupied all but three of the last 30 places. After decades of edging
forward in step with other regions, 13 African nations have seen their
development rating decline since 1990.
“The picture that emerges is increasingly one of two very different groups
of countries: those that have benefited from development and those that have
been left behind,” the report said.
Last on the list for the seventh straight year was Sierra Leone, which is
still struggling to recover from years of civil war. Just above it were the
West African neighbors – Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
According to the report, which is based on 2002 data, a citizen of Sierra
Leone can expect to live to just over 34 years. At the other end of the
ranking, Japanese have an average life expectancy of 81, Swedes 80.
For the fourth year running, Norway topped the overall ranking – which takes
in life expectancy, income and educational attainment. It was followed by
Sweden and Australia.
Of the top 20 nations, only Australia at third, Japan at ninth and New
Zealand at 18th were outside Europe or North America. The United States was
ranked eighth, a fall of one place from last year.
The world’s newest nation, East Timor (news – web sites), was included for
the first time and ranked at 158, the lowest outside Africa. The other
lowest non-African nations were Haiti at 153 and Yemen at 149.
Israel was the highest-ranked Middle Eastern nation at 22, followed by
Bahrain at 40. The Palestinian Territories were ranked 102.
About 30 nations were not included because of insufficient data, including
Afghanistan (news – web sites), Iraq (news – web sites) and Liberia (news –
web sites).
Just two mainland African nations made the top 100 – Libya at 58 and Tunisia
at 92.
The biggest increase from the 2003 list was recorded by Albania, which has
been recovering from an economic crisis in the late 1990s. A 30-place surge
to 65th position hoisted Albania almost 50 places ahead of Europe’s poorest
nation – Moldova which languished in 113th position.
Also upwardly mobile were Armenia, up 18 places to 82, and St. Kitts and
Nevis, one of the world’s smallest countries which climbed 12 spots to 39.
Other former British territories in the Caribbean fared less well. Belize
suffered the biggest drop, 32 places to 99, followed by Dominica which
slipped to 95th place, down 27.
The report found that nearly 1 billion people face some form of
discrimination, and the United Nations (news – web sites) appealed for
governments to do more to respect minority rights.
“Some 900 million people, about one in seven of the world’s population,
belong to groups that believe themselves to be discriminated against or
disadvantaged,” said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N.
Development Program.
Basing its data on research by the University of Maryland, the United
Nations pointed to more than 200 groups “that face political disadvantage or
discrimination based on ethnic, linguistic or religious identities.”

It said 130 million faced direct discrimination as a result of public
policy. “The rest are discriminated against because of social customs in the
country or the lingering effects of historic discrimination,” the report
added.
In data released Wednesday, the United Nations blamed AIDS for pushing down
African development levels. “AIDS is reversing the hard-won gains of recent
decades,” Elizabeth Lwanga, deputy director of the UNDP’s Africa office,
said at the international AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Malloch Brown said AIDS was not the only factor holding Africa back. He
called for Europe and North America to open their markets to African
agricultural exports and said richer nations should invest more in health,
education and transport networks in Africa.