DOHA: A statistical update of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Human Development Index has placed Qatar one rank higher than last year’s report. Of the 179 audited countries, Qatar ranks

34th this time.

Each year since 1990, the New York-based Human Development Report Office has been publishing the human development index (HDI) of the member-countries which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of

human well-being.

The HDI 2007-2008 provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. According to the updated HDI, life expectancy in Qatar has reached 75.3 and probability of survival beyond age 40 is 96.3 percent, which is attributed to improvement in living standards and health conditions in the country. Children who are underweight between age 0-5 are only 6 percent of all children. Availability of pure water in Qatar is 100 percent, the report said.

Reacting to the report, Sheikh Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani, Acting President, Qatar Statistics Authority said: “QSA will further coordinate with UNDP, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the World Bank, for the next year’s Human development Report to reflect the status of

development in Qatar”.

On climate change, the report says Qatar accounts for 0.2 percent of global emissions — an average of 79.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person. These emission levels are above those of Arab States. Qatar has signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As a Party to the Protocol, Qatar is not bound by specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

Qatar has ranked 84 out of 93 countries in the gender empowerment measure (GEM). The GEM reveals whether women take an active part in economic and political life. It tracks the share of women’s representation in elected bodies, senior female officials and managers; and of female professional and technical workers; and the gender disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence. Differing from the gender-related development index (GDI), the GEM exposes inequality in opportunities in selected areas.

The Peninsula