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Nov 4, 2010

Belize ranks 78 in the Human Development Report

The Human Development Report is released on a yearly basis; it is a report by the United Nations on the state of the world’s development. The 2010 report was launched today and it warns that the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are the greatest threats to the anti-poverty drive. The report acknowledges, however, there have been some gains among poor countries regardless of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, it concludes that most people are healthier, live longer, are more educated and have more access to goods and services. It signals positive developments in far away countries such as Nepal, where infant mortality has come down and Ethiopia where education has improved. The H.D.R. also publishes the Human Development Index which is a composite measure of three basic dimensions: health, education and income of countries.  We note that Norway continues to top as the country with the best human development and that in fact the top ten countries are European while the top ten countries with terrible poverty indicators are African. Now turning to Belize, we ranked at seventy-eight out of one hundred and sixty-nine countries. The index of Latin America and the Caribbean as a region increased but Belize is below the regional average. We also are ranked below Barbados, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago but ahead of others such as Guyana and Haiti. But there is a disturbing detail and, that is, that an analysis of the past five years shows that Belize is among the top ten countries that suffered the greatest drop in rank along with countries such as Haiti, Chad, Comoros and Iceland. So in the past five years we have regressed in development indicators such as income and economic growth.


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10 Responses for “Belize ranks 78 in the Human Development Report”

  1. Earl Grey says:

    EUROPE robbed AFRICA to become a what they are…………….THAT EXPLAINS THAT……..
    and THE POLITICIANS rob BELIZE keeping her poor.

  2. Cutty Ligiyaba says:

    These statistics about Belize are not surprising since we see, we hear, we feel all the negative

    issues and corruption that is about Belize–to be in the decline or to regress as a nation is a direct

    result of bad management and outright disrespect on the citizens by those in power who seek only

    to fill their coffers.

  3. smd says:

    If we think this is bad wait until these bunch of greedy thieves are through!

  4. RadicalBelizean says:

    Your report is fair. We ranked 78 out of 169 countries and yes it is true we ranked well below Barbados and the Bahamas who placed at No. 42 and 43. Although Mexico and Trinidad are at No. 56 and 59 respectively, we have fall into the same category with as them for High human development. These countries are much richer than us they both have well established tourist and oil industries and like Mexico,Trinidad is not without their fair share of crimes abduction and murders. Belize was five places behind Brazil, we have a hell of a lot of work to do in Human Development to get us up the table and this is a results of not our present government alone. We ranked far better than Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia in fact I think Mexico was the only country who did better than us. Its good to see that we are paying attention to these things.

  5. rod says:

    no surprize this is what happens when yu have an incompetent idiot running the country.

  6. Rizzo says:

    Well we are not too far from being Haiti.

  7. daveyt says:

    Fighting poverty with corruption isn’t working then? Shoots, let’s get more corrupt before the next elections!

  8. RadicalBelizean says:

    Rizzo: Haiti rank at 145 and Belize is no. 78. As I said before we could do better, but we as Belizean citizens we need to do much more to develop ourselves. We have enough Jamaicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Chinese who recognised that for them life is so much better in Belize. What happens is that once they are here they work hard and we lazy Belizeans sit down jealous and complain. Human development start with yourselves, we spend hundreds on material things gold chain, tennis shoes, gas guzzling cars, designer jeans etc and not on the important things for example a solid roof over our head, proper health care and education. The women stop their prospects as soon as they reach 18, 19 years old they think of getting pregnant. Come on, there is no accident, I believe family planning is free besides before you know it the men have absconded and some of them do this a few times. So Human Development is the responsibility of all of us. But we prefer to blame others for the mess we make of our lives as its difficult to say I’ve screwed up. We Belizeans have a tough road ahead because while we sit down and moan and grumble the whole world is in economic turmoil. So relatives in the US and abroad use to finance our laid back lifestyle, now they are facing tough times themselves, so we have to start to toil the land. Again there is improvement to be made by politicians (irrespective of red or blue) but Belizeans we must do our bit too.

  9. Cutty Ligiyaba says:

    RadicalBelizean–I will copy your article because I could’nt say it better myself. THANK YOU

    Haiti rank at 145 and Belize is no. 78. As I said before we could do better, but we as Belizean

    citizens we need to do much more to develop ourselves. We have enough Jamaicans,

    Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Chinese who recognised

    that for them life is so much better in Belize. What happens is that once they are here they work

    hard and we lazy Belizeans sit down jealous and complain. Human development start with

    yourselves, we spend hundreds on material things gold chain, tennis shoes, gas guzzling cars,

    designer jeans etc and not on the important things for example a solid roof over our head,

    proper health care and education. The women stop their prospects as soon as they reach 18,

    19 years old they think of getting pregnant. Come on, there is no accident, I believe family

    planning is free besides before you know it the men have absconded and some of them do this

    a few times. So Human Development is the responsibility of all of us. But we prefer to blame

    others for the mess we make of our lives as its difficult to say I’ve screwed up. We Belizeans

    have a tough road ahead because while we sit down and moan and grumble the whole world

    is in economic turmoil. So relatives in the US and abroad use to finance our laid back lifestyle,

    now they are facing tough times themselves, so we have to start to toil the land. Again there is

    improvement to be made by politicians (irrespective of red or blue) but Belizeans we must do

    our bit too. Thanks again RadicalBelizean–Remember it is the leaders that cause the situation

    to be even grimier—GET THEM BELIZEANS

  10. Edna Jones says:

    Belize is poor because the politicians rob the country of its riches. People run for office in Belize to become rich not to serve the Belizean people.

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