Vietnam remains high human development country: UNDP Resident Representative

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has remained a high human development country through the difficult years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and human development continues to be a focus of the country’s development strategy, UNDP Resident Representative Ramla Khalidi said, as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced its new report on late March 13.

The 2023/24 Human Development Report (HDR), titled “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world”, shows that Vietnam's Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2022 is 0.726, positioning it at 107 out of the 193 countries and territories.

Between 1990 and 2022, the nation's HDI value changed from 0.492 to 0.726, an improvement of nearly 50%. In the 1990s when UNDP introduced the HDI, Vietnam was at the relatively lower end of the ranking, but now it is in the middle of the ranking, having made consistent progress over the past 30 years.

Vietnam ranks 91 out of the 166 countries in the Gender Inequality Index, which considers inequality across three dimensions of reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. “Vietnam has done well in some respects, for example access to education and labour force participation, however a persistent gender division of labour reserves more stable, highly paid jobs for men, and women still account for a small share of leadership roles in Government, the National Assembly and in the private sector,” she said.

According to the report, uneven development progress is leaving the poorest behind, exacerbating inequality, and stoking political polarisation on a global scale. The result is a dangerous gridlock that must be urgently tackled through collective action./.