16th July, 2004

Five African nations - Sierra Leone, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Burundi - have ranked the lowest of all countries in the world when measured up against the life expectancy, education and income of its residents.

The latest United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Index places Norway as having the highest levels of development followed by Sweden.

Australia comes in third followed by Canada and the Netherlands while the world’s largest economy, the United States, comes in at number eight followed by the second largest economy, Japan, at ninth and and the United Kingdom at 12.

The world’s newest nation, East Timor ranks at 158 out of the 177 countries (and two territories - Hong Kong and the Occupied Palestinian Territories) listed while the Pacific nation of Tonga - also listed for the first time - came in at 63.

Sixteen UN member states were not included because of insufficient data, including Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Liberia.

The report attributed reductions in life expectancy in many African nations, particularly those in the sub-Saharan region, to the AIDS crisis, saying that 13 of the 20 countries which had suffered development setbacks since 1990 were located in this region.

“The AIDS crisis cripples states at all levels, because disease attacks people in their most productive years,” says Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP administrator.

“It tears apart the foundations of everything from public administration and health care to family structures.”

- David Adams