Burundi like any other country is part of the global system and has in one way or the other experienced regular demonstrations and a connecting thread is the deep and rising frustration with inequalities.
Achim Steiner Administrator United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) observes in this report that too often, inequality is framed around economics, fed and measured by the notion that making money is the most important thing in life.
Achim notes that understanding how to address today's disquiet requires looking 'Beyond Income, Beyond Averages and Beyond Today,' as this Human Development Report sets out to do'.
However, the protagonist is power in all this: the power of the few; the powerlessness of many; and collective power of the people to demand change.
This 2019 Human Development Report articulates the rise of a new generation of inequalities.
'Just as the gap in basic living standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people in the world escaping poverty, hunger and disease, the abilities people will need to compete in the immediate future have evolved,' Achim says.
'A new gap has opened, such as in tertiary education and access to broadbandâ€"opportunities once considered luxuries that are now considered critical to compete and belong, particularly in a knowledge economy, where an increasing number of young people are educated, connected and stuck with no ladder of choices to move up. At the same time, climate change, gender inequality and violent conflict continue to drive and entrench basic and new inequalities alike.'
'As the Human Development Report sets out, failure to address these systemic challenges will further entrench inequalities and consolidate the power and political dominance of the few, said Achim in the observation.
The 2019 HDR contributes to that debate by presenting the facts on inequalities in human development and proposing ideas to act on them over the course of the 21st century.
In a briefing note to organized into seven sections. The first section presents information on the country coverage and methodology for the 2019 Human Development Report.
The next five sections provide information about key composite indices of human development: the Human Development Index (HDI), the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
The final section covers five dashboards: quality of human development, life-course gender gap, women's empowerment, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic sustainability.
Understanding Human Development Index (HDI)
The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy.
Knowledge level is measured by mean years of schooling among the adult population, which is the average number of years of schooling received in a life-time by people aged 25 years and older; and access to learning and knowledge by expected years of schooling for children of school-entry age, which is the total number of years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates stay the same throughout the child's life.
Standard of living is measured by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita expressed in constant 2011 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion rates.
UNDP in Burundi during the official launch of the National Human Development Report 2019 edition under the theme: 'Social cohesion, demographic dividend and development'.
Burundi's Performance
Burundi's HDI value for 2018 is 0.423â€" which put the country in the low human development categoryâ€" positioning it at 185 out of 189 countries and territories.
Between 1990 and 2018, Burundi's HDI value increased from 0.295 to 0.423, an increase of 43.4 percent.
Details also indicate that between 1990 and 2018, Burundi's life expectancy at birth increased by 13.4 years, mean years of schooling increased by 1.7 years and expected years of schooling increased by 6.9 years.
Burundi's GNI per capita decreased by about 35.0% between 1990 and 2018.
Meanwhile, an assessment on Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the report reminds that the 2010 HDR introduced the MPI, which identifies multiple overlapping deprivations suffered by individuals in 3 dimensions: health, education and standard of living.
In Burundi, 74.3% of the population (8,067 thousand people) are multidimensionally poor while an additional 16.3% are classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty (1,769 thousand people).
The breadth of deprivation (intensity) in Burundi, which is the average deprivation score experienced by people in multidimensional poverty, is 54.3%.
The MPI, which is the share of the population that is multidimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.403. Senegal and Sierra Leone have MPIs of 0.288 and 0.297 respectively.
Some 40 years ago the founding father of human development, Professor Amartya Sen, asked a deceptively simple question: equality of what? He answered with equal simplicity: of the things we care about to build the future we aspire to.
Professor Sen's words could help policy makers take a fresh look; to go beyond growth and markets to understand why people take to the streets in protest, and what leaders can do about it.
UNDP in Burundi during the official launch of the National Human Development Report 2019 edition under the theme: 'Social cohesion, demographic dividend and development'.
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