Human Development Index in Bolivia, with a tendency to stagnation

Although from 1999 to 2004 the Human Development Index (IDH) of Bolivia was characterized by going down, and by rising in
In the 2005-2019 period, once the pandemic was over, the numbers do not show an improvement.

In 2020, the United Nations HDI ranking placed the country on the list of developing countries
average human, and in the 2021/2022 management there is rather a tendency to stagnation. In this report, Bolivia ranks 118th, below Cuba (83rd place), and with minimal difference above Venezuela.

The HDI measures indicators such as life expectancy for health, expected years of schooling, average years of schooling for education and Gross National Income per capita for the standard of living, its purpose is
determine the level of development of the countries of the world.

The economist Darío Monasterio highlighted that the country is framed in the same position in the
world ranking and South and Latin America for decades.

For him, all this social-community-productive economic model has not been efficient in being able to take Bolivia out of the last places, in terms of quality of life and well-being of its population.

Likewise, he said that, “suggestively, the worst places were occupy the allied countries in the Socialism of the 21st century since 2006, and that Bolivia has the worst South America life expectancy and together with Venezuela, income lower per capita, which gives a measure of the country’s level of development.

“This means that a supposedly socialist government, of the MAS, has not managed to improve
the level of development of its inhabitants, after more than 17 years of government, which implies a total
failure in their social and economic policies”, he questioned.

According to the reading of the Jubilee Foundation, by 2021, Bolivia had an HDI of 0.692, which places the country as one of the countries with the least human development.

Likewise, the Jubilee Foundation recalled that different international organizations have proposed different methodologies to carry out better diagnoses and target public policies in an effective and comprehensive manner to improve the quality of life, and that within this framework three indicators that measure well-being are analyzed, plus beyond growth
economic: the Prosperity Index; that of Social Progress; and that of Happiness.

In the first, Jubilee observed that between 2007 – 2021, Bolivia had an average rating of 51.9 out of 100. “Since 2007 it has dropped five positions, by 2021 it reached position 106 out of 167 countries, with a score of 52, below the average for Latin America and the Caribbean (57.5), being one of the worst-situated countries in South America, before Venezuela, which
ranks 145”.

Regarding the Social Progress Index, for Jubilee, despite the fact that since 2011 Bolivia improved its rating, from 62.7 to 67.7; in 2021 it fell three positions in the general ranking, ranking 89 out of 168 countries.

In the country, the level of happiness decreased since 2012, occupying, by 2021, the 71st position among 148 countries, according to the World Happiness Report 2022.

multidimensional poverty
Another United Nations report is the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2023,
identifies acute deficiencies in health, education and standard of living, through a dozen indicators: nutrition, infant mortality,
years of schooling, school attendance, access to cooking fuel, sanitation, water
drinking water, electricity and housing, and
asset ownership.

According to Monasterio, in the MPI “we are also in the last places of multidimensional poverty in South America, very
slightly in the average of Latin America, and with a situation in poverty of more than 37%”.

For him, Bolivia regressed in indicators from previous years because the economic model implemented has not provided quality employment, nor sustainable income, and the generation of enterprises capable of generating jobs
has been based mainly on state capitalism, on public employment, and also on
informality, “which does not generate social benefits”.

For his part, Franco Albarracín, a human rights expert at the Bolivian Documentation and Information Center (Cedib), said that once again the country is located in low positions, and he attributes this situation to several factors.

In the first place, he cited economic inequality in the distribution of income and access to services
basic. “The gap between rich and poor has not changed significantly, despite the significant income that Bolivia had from the sale of gas abroad.”

He noted that Bolivia has significant limitations in health services, with a lack of adequate investment, which has an impact on human development. He added that history repeats itself in the field of education.

Regarding the concept of poverty, he alluded that it especially affects indigenous people and peasants in rural areas. And with regard to the rule of law and governance, he said that most studies place Bolivia in the last places in terms of stability, reliability and independence of public administration bodies, factors that hinder foreign investment.

TO KNOW
HDI IN THE PAST
Between 1990 and 2021, the Bolivian HDI value changed from 0.550 to 0.692, a change of 25.8%. After 2020, with the pandemic, until the
2021/2022 report, the increase has not been significant, it has not exceeded 0.692. The country remains on the list of countries with
medium development.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY
In the period 2008–2016, Bolivia was one of the countries that halved its multidimensional poverty index.