Human Development Report 2010

Nepal is one of the ten nations making the swiftest development gains, according to the United Nation's Human Development Index report released on 4^th November 2010.
The report names Nepal as the third after China and Oman, among a list of ten nations making fastest development gains in terms of the Human Development Index in last four decades.
'Nepal's impressive progress in health and education can be traced to major public policy efforts,' the report said.
Free primary education for all children was legislated in 1971 and extended to secondary education in 2007.
'The gap between Nepal's life expectancy and the world average has narrowed by 87 percent over the past 40 years,' the report concluded.
However, the report says the economic development has been poor. Nepal continues to be among the poorest nations, with a yawning gap in the education sector between villages and the cities.
The report put Nepal's poverty rate at 65 percent according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which assesses the nature and intensity of poverty at the individual level in health, education outcomes and standard of living.
According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income of 447 US dollars per annum.
Nepal stands at 138 in a list of 169 countries listed in the UN human development index. India ranks 122 among 138 countries for which the gender inequality measure has been calculated. Pakistan is at 116, and Bangladesh is a notch higher at 112.
The UN has been making the index public annually since 1990.
Among the 169 nations whose development was surveyed, Norway came in first on the annual Human Development Index and Zimbabwe was listed last. The United States was fourth.
There were five Asian countries on the top 10 list of countries showing the most improvement: China (No. 2), Nepal (No. 3), Indonesia (No. 4), Laos (No. 6) and South Korea (No. 8).
Arab countries made up the other five on the list: Oman, now heavily investing its energy earnings into public education and health, was No. 1, followed by Saudi Arabia (No. 5), Tunisia (No. 7), Algeria (No. 9) and Morocco (No. 10).
Life expectancy in Arab countries overall increased from 51 years in 1970 to almost 70 today, the greatest gain of any region. Infant mortality rates in the Arab world plunged from 98 deaths per 1,000 live births to 38, below the current world average of 44. School enrollment in Arab countries nearly doubled over 40 years, from 34 percent in 1970 to 64 percent today.
Latin America and the Caribbean also performed well, with many countries now approaching the United States and European nations in life expectancy and years of schooling, the report found.
Four decades ago, barely half of the region's school-age children were attending classes; today the figure exceeds four-fifths, with some countries at nearly 100 percent enrollment. Average life expectancy in the region rose from 60 to 74 years, and to 79 in Costa Rica, Chile and Cuba.
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union lagged behind because of the impact of AIDS, wars, and economic crises.
Life expectancy actually declined over the past 40 years in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
The sub-Sahara African nations of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe ranked even lower on the main index than they did in 1970.
This year's report marks the 20th anniversary of the use of the Human Development Index.