UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report-Seychelles amongst countries with high human development |11 November 2006

Seychelles has joined a select group of 63 countries with high human development, and the country is ranked 47th  in the world on the Human Development Index.

This comes in the 2006 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released on Thursday this week.

Seychelles was ranked 51st  in 2005.

Of other countries in the African and Indian Ocean region, only Mauritius (at 63rd ) is ranked in this category.

According to a communiqué from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Seychelles’ rating in the Human Development Report among the countries with high levels of human development is a testimony of the efforts made by the Government of Seychelles over the past 30 years to achieve sustainable and equitable development.

First introduced in 1990, the United Nations Development Report is based on such basic indicators as gross domestic product, access to education, health and housing, literacy, longevity, infant mortality rate, etc.

This year’s report is dedicated to “Power, poverty and the global water crisis”.

According to UNDP, the basis for countries to reducing extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, getting children an education and overcoming gender inequalities depend on how the government responds to the crisis in water.

The communiqué notes that in Seychelles, the government is intensifying its efforts in providing safe drinking water to its population.

“Over the past years, we have seen the installation of three desalination plants and the construction of reservoirs in various districts in the country. The ongoing projects and the ones in the pipeline are aimed at accomplishing the Government’s policy of providing 95% of the population with potable water by the year 2010,” says the communique.