Ethiopia ranks 169th among 177 countries in human development Gadaa.com - March 10, 2008

According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, Ethiopia has ranked 169th, out of 177 countries, with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.406. The HDI is calculated by taking into consideration the life expectancy at birth, the adult literacy rate and the GDP per capita. Iceland tops the list with an HDI of 0.968.

In 1991 Ethiopia's HDI ranking was 141st out of 160 countries; back then, it was the 20th least developed country in the world. In 2007 Ethiopia is the 9th least developed country in the world. Compared to the rest of the world, Ethiopia is less developed now than it was in 1991, when Woyane took power in Finfinne. In other words, the health and economic conditions in Ethiopia changed very slowly (almost at stagnant level) while these conditions improved at a higher rate for the rest of the world. To mention a few countries that were behind Ethiopia in HDI in 1991, but now ahead of Ethiopia: Djibouti, Angola, Sudan, and the Gambia.

For the Woyane regime that consistently boosts by contrasting itself to the past, this must serve as a reminder that benchmarking should be done against the rest of the world at the present, not against the known bad performance of the Derg regime. There is also no doubt that the less than 1% rich has gotten richer in the past 17 years - this is the segment that can build sky-creepers in downtown Finfinne; unfortunately, for the rest of the population (almost 99.9% of them), their health and economic conditions have plummeted down in the last 17 years when compared to the rest of the world.

Other countries in the Horn of Africa have the following HDI rankings:

147) Sudan

148) Kenya

149) Djibouti

157) Eritrea

Get the HDR Report 2007/2008 here.