July 9, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 8,1424

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UNITED NATIONS, July 8: Pakistan’s Human Development Index (HDI) ranking has dropped to 144, a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said here on Tuesday.

Commenting on Pakistan’s economic progress, the head of UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown said that there was not enough data to categorize Pakistan, a critical governance challenge, on many an issue.

Mr Brown said: “South Asia has a special place because of its sheer size. It is the place where 35 per cent of children do not get proper primary education.”

He said: “Aid flows for South Asia are relatively insignificant. It is the quality of decision-making by government officials and the private sector that will make the critical difference.”

According to the report Pakistan has been ranked lower than Nepal (143), Bangladesh (139), India (127), the Maldives (86) and Sri Lanka (99).

Other countries that have performed better than Pakistan include Kyrgyzstan (102), Uzbekistan (101), Iran (106), Tajikistan (113), Namibia (124) and Botswana (125).

Topping the HDI were Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Switzerland.

The human development report sums up the state of the world in achieving a number of goals by 2015.

The report says 54 countries grew poorer during the 1990s and hunger increased in 21 countries. Between 1990 and 2001, there were 57 major armed conflicts in 45 regions, hitting sub-Saharan Africa the hardest.