Introduction - UNDP The Gambia

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The Gambia’s HDI value, according to the global Human Development Reports, has improved over
time from 0.215 in 1994 to 0.452 in 2004 and 0.470 in 2005. A calculation of the HDI for 2005
using locally available data for 2004 produced an HDI value of 0.496 (see appendix 2). Similarly,
the HDI ranking has improved from 166 in 1994 to 155 in both 2004 and 2005. However, the
country is still within the category of “Low Human Development Countries” and has not been able
to move from the basic threshold of human development. An analysis of each of the three
components of the HDI sheds more light on this phenomenon.
Longevity or Life Expectancy
The average life expectancy rate (2000-2005) stands at 54.1. The factors which are essentially
responsible for low life expectancy at birth, and which impede the attainment of the MDGs for the
health sector, mainly comprise malnutrition, prevalence of malaria, poor maternal and reproductive
health facilities, inadequately trained human resources and perpetual shortage of critical drugs due
to limited resource allocations.
Low Level of Literacy and Educational Enrolment
Figures for the literacy rate (15 to 24-year olds) for males and females stood at 58.3 per cent and
37.1 per cent respectively in 1998 (Localised MDG Report 2005). In the area of enrolment for
primary and secondary education, remarkable progress has been achieved, particularly when
compared to performance in countries in the sub-region. In 2003 out of a total net enrolment rate of
60 per cent, 57 per cent were females. In spite of this impressive record and significant
improvements in total school enrolment, the quality of education has deteriorated because of the
combined effects of capacity constraints, environment and low motivation and remuneration.
Standard of Living
Recent economic performance has been below expectation. This has impaired efforts to achieve the
MDG and PRSP targets. The decline in economic performance, coupled with rising inflation in
2003, largely due to a shortage of foreign exchange, seriously eroded the purchasing power of the
consumer and exacerbated the problem of poverty. In fact, deterioration in living standards has
seriously eroded the MDG goal of poverty alleviation.
The 2004 World Bank-supported Public Expenditure Reviews for key sectors; coupled with the
2004 Annual Progress Report on PRSP/SPA II, undertaken by SPACO, established that at the
current pace the attainment of the MDG targets on poverty reduction is no longer feasible. The
macro-economic targets set for the period are behind schedule at the moment. Implementation of
the PRSP has been considerably showed down by many institutional and external constraints.
At the macro-level, the country suffered from low growth and high inflation rates in recent years,
culminating in negative growth in 2002. There was a recovery period for 2003 when the economy
grew by 7 per cent largely on account of major recovery in Agriculture. Overall, the PRSP macroeconomic
targets have not been met, as the economic situation further deteriorated under the
emerging fiscal, monetary and debt pressures.
Opportunities for increasing investments for poverty reduction programmes were drastically
curtailed thereby hitting the poor in a number of ways. Under these circumstances, the MDG target
of reducing to 38 per cent the proportion of people living below the international poverty line of
US$1 a day is severely off track. The annual increment of public IT investments in basic
infrastructure cannot be met as a result of the debt servicing difficulties, coupled with dwindling
external flows. These problems were compounded by declining recurrent domestic spending in
education and health, which also had an adverse impact on the lot of the poor and the vulnerable.
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Building Capacity for the Attainment of the Millennium Development Goals in The Gambia National Human Development Report 2005
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