A year after slipping out of the top 10, Canada is back in the annual United Nation’s human development index.
The 2014 report, which reviews a country’s performance in health, education and income, places Canada in eighth place versus 11th last year. In the 1990s, Canada held down first place for most of the decade.
However, when adjusted for elements such as income inequality, inequality in education and inequality in adjusted life expectancy index, Canada falls to 10th.
Canada’s rank falls to 23rd on the gender inequality index. It takes into account elements such as maternal mortality ratio, adolescent birth rate, share of seats in parliament and labour force participation rate. Slovenia, ranked 25th overall, takes top spot on that index.
The report, entitled Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience, concludes that 2.2 billion people around the world are poor or near-poor. More than half of those people live on the equivalent of $1.25 a day.
The report warns that unless government tackle the vulnerabilities of their populations, progress will be “neither equitable nor sustainable.”
Among the report’s recommendations are:
- Putting full employment back atop the global policy agenda
- Providing comprehensive basic social security benefits such as unemployment insurance and pensions
- Collective effort, coordinated action to deal with threats ranging from financial crises to climate change to conflicts
The report was released in Tokyo on Thursday.
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