June 14, 2009: Though beleaguered by civil war for decades, the island nation of Sri Lanka is ahead of Bhutan in Human Development Index (HDI).

  Bhutan ranks 131 and Sri Lanka 104 of the 179 countries ranked in HDI.

But analysts say investments in education and the health sector which began as early as the 1960s has helped Sri Lanka in HDI rankings.

How is HDI measured?

HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development such as life longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living.

According to the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) in Bhutan, as a multi-dimensional measure of human well-being, the HDI goes beyond measuring only material conditions.

Income can change from year to year but longevity and knowledge do not.

“Longevity and knowledge are the results of cumulative investments in the social sectors in which Sri Lanka has an excellent record,” said Pem Chuki Wangdi, a program analyst with UNDP.

Bhutan and HDI?

But Bhutan has been able to close the gap with Sri Lanka significantly, and it is now only behind Maldives and Sri Lanka in South Asia, and ahead of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Bhutan’s positive human development performance can be directly attributed to the excellent socio-economic policies and the public expenditure decisions of the government of Bhutan.

Advances in both the education and health sector have been accompanied by rapid progress in other areas of human development. Most Bhutanese now have access to improved sources of drinking water with 84% and improved sanitation with 89%.

Adult literacy levels have also risen from about 10% in 1970 to 53% in 2005. Rise in income levels measured by GDP per capita have also increased tremendously from USD 51 in 1961 to USD 1,727 in 2007.

“Bhutan’s global HDI ranking has been steadily rising over the years signifying Bhutan’s human development achievements despite the considerable constraints it faces as a small landlocked country with rugged terrain and sparsely distributed population,” said Pem Chuki Wangdi.

The HDI has three component-indices, representing the three dimensions, life expectancy index - life expectancy at birth, education index - adult literacy and combined gross enrolment ratio and gross domestic product index.

Bhutan has improved significantly its GDP index from 0.12 to 0.616 during 1992 to 2006.

During this period, there are gains in life expectancy and education indices too, but these gains are comparatively lower than the gains in GDP index.

“This suggests that Bhutan might like to continue to direct its policies more towards these aspects of human progress,” said Pem Chuki Wangdi.

GNH and HDI

“While this helps to broaden the scope of indicators, it still does not come close enough to measuring their impact on wellbeing, happiness and life satisfaction from a GNH point of view,” said Tshoki Zangmo, a CBS researcher.

She added that the conventional education indicators currently available to assess educational attainments are inadequate.

Conventional education in Bhutan focuses on structures school based outcomes like pass percentages, dropout rates, school infrastructure, pupil-instructor ratio and enrolment rates. 

And with GNH’s 72 measurable indicators grouped under nine principle domains - time use, living standards, good governance, psychological wellbeing, community vitality, culture, health, education, and ecology; Bhutan will be referring to the indexes with a right set of indicators and thus right standards to drive Bhutanese society and adjust policies.

“If we are referring to indexes that are from outside, we believe we will never be able to achieve Gross National Happiness,” said Tshoki Zangmo.

And for the first time these new index will try to assess different types of knowledge and skills that people have acquired in their life course such as history, culture, civic, ecology, and indigenous knowledge and skills which are mostly acquired informally.

Another criticism is on longevity though discussed in HDI does not include the conducive socio-culture and environmental conditions whereby people enjoy a longer lifespan.

“If people in Bhutan are living in impoverished conditions, then the value of longevity could be compromised,” said the researcher.

According to the UNDP in Bhutan, the HDI does not capture the varied and multi-faceted dimensions of human development that are difficult to measure.

“HDI is an aggregate,” said Pem Chuki Wangdi.

She also said its ability to capture variations across regions and groups within a country are limited as the data available tends to be at the national level.

The future of HDI and GNH indicators

  “Keeping in mind the core philosophy of GNH, the GNH index goes beyond HDI to measure development in terms of culture, psychological well being, community vitality and other social safety nets,” said Pem Chuki Wangdi.

On the other hand, HDI will continue to measure achievements along the three HDI indicators. And Bhutan’s HDI ranking will continue to be influenced by how well the country is in terms of human development along the three HDI indicators.