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Sierra Leone is ranked seventh among the 10 most underdeveloped countries in Africa with a human development index of 0.452, according to the 2022 United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI).
Over the years, the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) has become the most widely used and universally agreed tool for gauging countries’ developing status.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, “the HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.”
Some of the key indicators tracked by the HDI are: life expectancy rate, adult literacy rate, gross national income per capita, access to the internet, etc. Business Insider Africa understands that these indicators are all compiled into a number between 0.00 and 1.00.
Countries that score very low on these indicators (0-0.55) are classified as having low human development ratio. The ones that score between 0.55 to 0.70 are classified as medium human development countries while those with scores of between 0.70 and 0.80 are said to have high human development ratio. Meanwhile, countries with high human development ratios score between 0.80-1.0.
It’s important to stress that this is not intended as a name and shame, but rather as a call to action on the need to do more towards improving human development across the continent.
Below are Africa’s least-developed countries:
1. Niger: Has a human development index of 0.394.
2. Central African Republic: Has a human development index of 0.397.
3. Chad: Has a human development index of 0.398.
4. South Sudan: Has a human development index of 0.433.
5. Burundi: Has a human development index of 0.433.
6. Mali: Has a human development index of 0.434.
7. Sierra-Leone: Has a human development index of 0.452.
8. Burkina-Faso: Has a human development index of 0.452.
9. Mozambique: Has a human development index of 0.456.
10. Eritrea: Has a human development index of 0.459
