Human development in El Salvador

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently released its 2016 report titled "Human Development for Everyone."   The report looks at human development across the globe in the context of the UNDP's "human development index" (HDI).    The HDI is a “a composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development— a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living.” According to the most recent index, Norway, Australia and Switzerland take the podium for the highest human development.

In releasing the report in El Salvador, the UNDP stated:

The report "located El Salvador among the countries of medium human development with an HDI of 0.68, which has increased from 1990 by 28.5%.   It is located at position 117 of 188 countries. 

When you consider inequalities, the HDI value for El Salvador declines some 22.2%, which is less than the reduction observed in Latin American and the Caribbean.   The report calculated a gap in human developement between men and womes in the country, men achieved an HDI of 0.691 while women had 0.662. 

"We are convinced that in El Salvador, achieving human development for everyone is possible, with the adoption of national policies that prioritize attention on those who have been left behind," assured the resident representative of the UNDP in El Salvador, Christian Salazar Volkmann.

El Salvador's rank of 117 places it slightly ahead of its neighbors Honduras (130), Guatemala (125) and Nicaragua (124), but behind Costa Rica (66) and Panama (60).  The historical HDI displayed in the report shows that El Salvador made solid advances in the 15 years or so after the civil war ended, but much of the progress has slowed since 2010.   Today, the growing gap between rich and poor puts a brake on the country's ability to improve the level of human development.