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Global Policy Forum - Social and Economic Policy Canada Ranked First Again by UN
Montreal Gazette
but Cautioned Against Complacency
June 29, 2000Canada is once again ranked at the top of a United Nations index for doing well on an average measurement of life expectancy, adult literacy, education and income distribution. Canada has topped the human development index for seven years in a row, doing better than many other developed countries. But analysts said that the index could be misleading, and human rights organizations have objected to the top score for Canada.
The UN Development Program, or UNDP, which developed the index released Thursday, has other concerns about the way the index has been used. It cautioned Canadians not to be complacent because Canada is falling behind in other critical areas such as human rights, poverty and functional literacy.
Kate Raworth, an economist at UNDP, pointed out that statistics can be abused. She said the index measures successes in various areas but fails sometimes to point out specific problems. "We never say you are the best country in the world to live in," she said in an interview, distancing the UN from Canada's well-publicized boast. "You have to do something about human rights, or the education system."
The report criticizes Ontario, for example, for funding public schools for Roman Catholics but not for other religious groups such as Jews, Sikhs and Muslims. The report says the Ontario government was arrogant when it rejected demands in February to stop funding public schools for only Catholics.
Ontario's stance was linked to Canada's top ranking in the human development index, as it was taken to mean the education system was not in need of improvement. "But ranking in the HDI promises no such thing," the report says. "Canada's high scores in adult literacy and combined gross enrolments do not disprove religious discrimination in access to public education, and in no way waive the need for Ontario to provide a remedy."
Still, the overall human development index ranks Canada first - followed by Norway, the United States, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan and Britain. The four countries at bottom of the index's 174 countries are Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone. "The index shows an average progress in a country," Raworth said. "We are looking at the overall conditions and the overall successes."
Haworth said the index reflects a "good steady performance and it is all rounded up ... into a high average across the board ... That's how Canada has come out No. 1." "Canada deserves it insofar as the elements of those index," she said. "Every country has problems."
The index on gender empowerment ranked Canada eighth among the top 20 countries in the index. Among the countries ahead of Canada are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Canada is, however, ahead of the United States, ranked 13th, and Japan, 41st. The index says Canadian women occupy 22.7 per cent of parliamentary seats, 37.3 per cent of administrative posts and 52.2 per cent of professional and technical posts. UNDP officials pointed out some other shortcomings aside from the less-than-stellar performance in gender equality. Canada has failed to improve poverty and life expectancy for some indigenous groups, they said.
Canada has an adult literacy rate of 99 per cent, combined primary and secondary school enrolment at 100 per cent and per capita gross domestic product at $23,582 US - which is lower than Norway, the United States, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
The index on human poverty ranks Canada 11th because 9.2 per cent of the population is not expected to survive to 60 years of age. The rate of functional illiteracy stood at 16.6 per cent - despite the 99 per cent literacy rate. Functional illiteracy refers the lack of adequate skills to operate effectively in society, such as the ability to read dosage instructions on a medicine bottle, fill in a job application form or read a subway map.
The human development index shows Canada's life expectancy at birth at 79.1 years, same as fifth-placed Iceland but lower than ninth-placed Japan, at 80 years. UNDP worked out the indexes using statistics provided by governments.
The indexes are part of the Human Development Report 2000, an annual study on how governments are doing in treating their citizens in various fields. The report contains no indexes, however, on human rights and personal freedoms.
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