The UAE remained top among GCC countries in the 2019 Social Progress Index. In fact, SPI considers 51 indicators. Some of these indicators include education, health, personal rights, inclusiveness, nutrition, shelter and safety.
According to Social Progress Imperative – a US-based non-profit organization- the UAE was ranked 61st for social progress that was higher than Russia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Oman, India, and China. However, last year, the UAE was ranked 45th that was 16 places higher.
The UAE was compared with several resource-rich countries such as Russia (62nd, 69.71 points), Qatar (64th, 69.37 points), and Kazakhstan (69th, 68.20).
The UAE achieved the highest score in a number of sub-indexes such as access to electricity, undernourishment of population and mobile telephone subscription. The score of the emirates was high in perceived criminality, vulnerable employment, discrimination and violence against minorities, quality of electricity supply, Internet users, access to online governance, and primary school enrollment of children and corruption sub-indexes.
Regionally, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia are after the UAE. Among other important countries, Turkey was ranked 72nd, Egypt 96th, the Philippines 94th, China 89th, India 102nd and Pakistan 125th.
The top 10 positions belong to Scandinavian countries. To be more precise, Norway is the top country ranked first on the 2019 Social Progress Index. The score of Norway was 90.95. That was followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, Germany, Canada and Japan
Michael Green, CEO of Social Progress Imperative, has said that according to the results of the 2019 index, social progress has not been quick and wide enough.
Green believes that the world will not be successful to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals of UN till 2073. He also has said that even the most successful countries such as the US have some areas of weakness. These weaknesses should be decreased and be of great concern.
Since 2014, in terms of Social Progress, the US has not been successful due to its GDP per capita. It is interesting to note that the US is exceptional among leading economies. In 2019, that trend is seen as the US ranks 26th in the world in terms of Social Progress. This year, the US was below countries like Slovenia and Estonia.
Michael E Porter, professor at Bishop William Lawrence University believes that despite the low unemployment rate and the progress of stock market, the US economy is still growing. But, if you look deeper, you will see a very different picture.
In his opinion, the US is facing a social progress recession. In fact, the US has not been successful in providing personal safety and maternal mortality for its people. Also, the US is failing on many principles that have been valuable. The situation is even getting worse than the past.
*The information above is based on Khaleej Times website.