Dakar, Dec 27 (APS) - The National Human Development Report (RNDH) made public this Friday reports a positive evolution in the living conditions of the populations in recent years, with a Human Development Index (HDI) rising from 0.37 in 1990 to 0.51 in 2017, i.e. an average growth of 1.2% considered appreciable.

The HDI is a composite statistical index to assess the rate of human development of countries based on three criteria which are GDP per capita, life expectancy at birth and the level of education of children aged seventeen. years and older.

“A positive evolution in the living conditions of the populations has been noted in recent years as evidenced by the Human Development Index (HDI) which rose from 0.37 in 1990 to 0.51 in 2017, i.e. an appreciable average growth of 1.2%'', indicated the Director General of Economic Planning and Policy, Mouhamadou Bamba Diop.

He was reading an extract from the said report, during the validation workshop for the National Report on Human Development (NHDR).

According to him, "the results of the study also indicated that a 1% improvement in labor productivity would lead to a 0.35% increase in the country's HDI".

According to Mouhamadou Bamba Diop, "this performance is partly the result of progress made in terms of health and income. At the same time, multidimensional poverty has decreased over the period".

However, "even if the latest UNDP Human Development Report reports a slight jump of 4 per thousand recorded between 2017 and 2018, it is clear that these results remain insufficient and do not allow Senegal to rise among the countries with a high level of human development", he underlined.

“The bottlenecks are linked, among others, to the poor performance recorded in education which still constitutes a major challenge and continues to slow down the evolution of human development”, he explained.

He asserts that the promotion of gender equity and equality, representing an "essential component" of human development, constitutes "one of Senegal's priorities".

He is of the opinion that "despite the performances achieved in the reduction of gender disparities and the empowerment of women, efforts are still to be made with regard to the major challenges linked, among other things, to the accessibility of factors of production, to gender-based violence (GBV) as well as early marriage and pregnancy".

On this point, Mouhamadou Bamba Diop recommended focusing on “digital-based structural transformation”, which offers “fairly broad perspectives on the need and type of transformation required”.

He also assures that Senegal, "in its march towards emergence, has made improving the well-being of populations a major challenge".

The aim is to widen the range of choices offered to the population, choices which must include possibilities of access to education, to quality health care, to income, to a healthy environment but also to opportunity to fully participate in community decisions.