You're reading: Ukraine makes no progress in human development index

Ukraine holds roughly a medium place in the human development index, Deputy Resident Representative at  United Nations Development Programme Ukraine Inita Paulovica said in Kyiv on July 24.

The human development index of Ukraine is 0.734. This is 83rd place
among 187 countries and territories, she said at the presentation of key
provisions of the Human Development Report 2014 “Sustaining Human
Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience”.

She said long and healthy life and education indices did not change
since last year, but the life expectancy, expected years of schooling
and income indices went down.

There have been both positive and negative trends, but the Ukrainian ranking has practically not changed, Paulovica said.

Compared with other countries, the Ukrainian ranking is lower than that of European and Central Asian states, she said.

Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Institute for Demography and
Social Studies Director, Academician Ella Libanova said education was
the only serious development strength of Ukraine.

She noted that the Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied the bottom
positions in the human development index of Ukrainian territories.
Considering the ongoing events in the east, the academician stressed,
“It seems development indices are not just a theory.”

Speaking of factors impacting security of the Ukrainians, Libanova
mentioned high death rates, poverty and a lack of access to main social
services, economic resources and social status.

“The life expectancy is not a question of medicine. The most
important is the failure to meet healthy life standards,” the
academician stressed.

According to Libanova, the main source of vulnerability of the
Ukrainians “is the absolutely unfounded social and economic inequality.”
“There are two parallel worlds in Ukraine,” she said.

Other sources of vulnerability are high degrees of economic monopoly
and the absence of a developed social infrastructure, the academician
continued.

“There will always be crises. The prevention of vulnerability is not
as much about the avoidance of crises as about the readiness to face
such difficulties,” she said, adding that Ukraine should seek joint
social responsibility of the government, businesses and the public.