Indonesian human development far below ideal level
Indonesian human development far below ideal level
JAKARTA (JP): Amid the success story of economic development,
human development in Indonesia is still far below the ideal
level, chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics Sugito said
yesterday.
After opening a seminar on human development, Sugito said that
human development in Indonesia is quite slow because the country
focuses its development more on economic growth, stability and
equitable wealth distribution.
"It is difficult for any country to really develop if it
neglects human development," Sugito said. "We should now pursue
human development more rather than economic growth."
Sugito said it is time to pursue human development because it
is mandated by the state guidelines produced by the People's
Consultative Assembly.
"I see the right direction set in our second long-term
development program (to end in 2019). It gives more priority to
human and technology development," Sugito said.
According to the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP)
1995 human development report, Indonesia ranks 104th among 174
countries surveyed in terms of human development achievements.
"We should keep it in mind that the UNDP measure, known as
Human Development Index (HDI), is something new, and there are
still wide debates on it," Sugito said. "And we are not satisfied
with the methodology developed by the UNDP to measure it."
With its human development report, the UNDP is trying to
introduce a new paradigm to measure the performance of a
country's development.
It claims that the new measure covers more than just economic
growth, basic needs, social welfare and human resources
development. It also covers aspects on enlarging people's
choices.
It has three main indicators to estimate its HDI, comprising
life expectancy and health, knowledge and skills as well as
opportunity to implement knowledge and skills.
Since the HDI was introduced in 1990, indicators to measure
human development have been extended to include human freedom and
gender empowerment measures.
Indonesia's Central Bureau for Statistics is developing an
Indonesian version of HDI to measure the country's human
development.
Like the UNDP's, Indonesia's HDI also has three indicators --
life expectancy, adult literacy rate and average years of
schooling. It also measures purchasing power parity. It does not
include human freedom or gender empowerment indexes in its HDI
calculation.
With its preliminary efforts to formulate Indonesia's HDI, the
Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that human development in
the country is still below par.
According to 1993 data, the HDI for Indonesia's 27 provinces
averaged below 60 from the ideal figure of 100. Of the 27
provinces, Jakarta ranked first with the highest HDI of 57,
followed by Riau, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and North
Sulawesi with 52 each. East Timor's HDI was the lowest with 36.
"Such relatively low HDI for the whole country is closely
related to the low level of the purchasing power parity index in
most provinces," the statistics bureau said in its initial HDI
report.
The highest purchasing power parity index was recorded in
Jakarta at 14.8, far from the ideal number of 100. Other
provinces which recorded a purchasing power parity index of over
14 included West Sumatra, Riau, Yogyakarta, Bali, South
Kalimantan, East Kalimantan as well as South Sulawesi, while
Southeast Sulawesi's was the lowest at 4.1.
Indonesia's schooling index was also relatively low, with only
Jakarta reaching a schooling length index of over 50.
The life expectancy and literacy indexes were relatively high.
Life expectancy indexes in most provinces exceeded 60. Jakarta
and Yogyakarta, for example, had life expectancy indexes of about
70.
The literacy index was the highest among the other indicators
with a number of provinces recording over 90 in literacy indexes.
They included North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South
Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, Jakarta, South Kalimantan, East
Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Maluku. (rid)