The following story was flagged on my Google Alert for Morocco. Intrigued, I immediately clicked on the the link, only to find that Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) had, ahem, apparently pulled the story, perhaps out of embarrassment at Morocco's low ranking. Thanks to the miracle of Google, however, the story is also available here.
Morocco ranks 123rd in UNDP HDI, report
Rabat, Nov. 15 - Morocco ranked 123rd out of 177 countries in Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2006 Report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Human Development.
Morocco is 8th at the level of Africa and 4th among Maghreb countries, revealed, here Tuesday, the report that was officially presented at a conference by UNDP representative, Mourad Wahba.
Each year since 1990 the UNDP report publishes a Human Development Index that looks beyond GDP at a broader definition of well-being.
The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity -PPP- and income).
Morocco lags behind Seychelles (47th rank), Libya (64th), Tunisia (87th), Algeria (102th), Cape Verde (106th), Egypt (111th) and South Africa (121st).
However, the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), launched last year by king Mohammed VI to fight poverty and social exclusion, forecasts a clear improvement of Morocco’s ranking in the years to come, reads a summary of the UNDP report. Norway tops the HDI while Niger brings up the rear.
Last modification 11/16/2006 09:17 AM.
©MAP-All right reserve
The full report is online.