Human Development Index Ranking Research Articles

Determining the cost and cost-effectiveness of childhood cancer treatment in Haiti.

Haiti is a low-income country with one of the lowest human development index rankings in the world. Its childhood cancer services are provided by a single hospital with the only dedicated paediatric oncology department in the country. Our objective was to assess the cost and cost-effectiveness of all types of childhood cancer in Haiti to help prioritise investments and to support national cancer control planning. All costing data were collected from the year 2017 or 2018 hospital records. Costs were classified into 11 cost categories, and the proportion of the overall budget represented by each was calculated and converted from Haitian Gourde to United States dollars. The 5-year survival rate was retrieved from hospital records and used to calculate the cost-effectiveness of disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted, using a healthcare costing perspective. Additional sensitivity analyses were conducted accounting for late-effect morbidity and early mortality and discounting rates of 0%, 3% and 6%. The annual cost of operating a paediatric oncology unit in Haiti treating 74 patients with newly diagnosed cancer was $803,184 overall or $10,854 per patient. The largest cost category was pharmacy, constituting 25% of the overall budget, followed by medical personnel (20%) and administration (12%). The cost per DALY averted in the base-case scenario was $1,128, which is 76% of the gross domestic product per capita, demonstrating that treating children with cancer in Haiti is very cost-effective according to the World Health Organisation Choosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective (WHO-CHOICE) threshold. In the most conservative scenario, the cost per DALY averted was cost-effective by WHO-CHOICE criteria. Our data will add to the growing body of literature illustrating a positive return on investment associated with diagnosing and treating children with cancer in even the most resource-limited environments. We anticipate that these data will aid local stakeholders and policymakers when identifying cancer control priorities and making budgetary decisions.

Impact of Non-Traditional Security Threats on Human Development Index: A Case Study of Pakistan

Non-traditional security threats negatively impact human development in developing countries like Pakistan. This study examines the impact of non-traditional security threats on Pakistan's Human Development Index (HDI) using data from 2016-2020. The study shows that non-traditional security threats, such as terrorism, natural disasters, and cybercrime, significantly reduce Pakistan's HDI. Compared to other countries facing similar non-traditional security threats, such as India and Bangladesh, Pakistan has a lower HDI ranking. Policymakers and practitioners must urgently address non-traditional security threats to promote human development. The study recommends a multi-faceted approach that includes improving security measures, strengthening disaster management systems, and promoting economic development. International cooperation and assistance can play a crucial role in addressing non-traditional security threats and promoting human development. The findings can inform policymakers and practitioners in designing effective policies and strategies to address non-traditional security threats and promote human development.

Favorable cervical cancer mortality-to-incidence ratios of countries with good human development index rankings and high health expenditures

BackgroundCervical cancer is highly preventable. The mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) is a marker that reflects the available screening interventions and clinical outcomes of cancer treatments. The association between the MIR for cervical cancer and cancer screening disparities among countries is an interesting issue but rarely investigated. The present study sought to understand the association between the cervical cancer MIR and the Human Development Index (HDI).MethodsCancer incidence and mortality rates were obtained from the GLOBOCAN database. The MIR was defined as the ratio of the crude mortality rate to the incidence rate. We used linear regression to analyze the correlation of MIRs with the HDI and current health expenditure (CHE) in 61 countries selected based on data quality.ResultsThe results showed lower incidence and mortality rates and MIRs in more developed regions. In terms of regional categories, Africa had the highest incidence and mortality rates and MIRs. The incidence and mortality rates and MIRs were lowest in North America. Furthermore, favorable MIRs were correlated with a good HDI and high CHE as a percentage of gross domestic product (CHE/GDP) (both p < 0.0001).ConclusionsThe MIR variation for cervical cancer is associated with the ranking of the health system and health expenditure, which further supports the role of cancer screening and treatment disparities in clinical outcomes. The promotion of cancer screening programs can reduce the cervical cancer global incidence and mortality rates and MIRs.

Spatial Human Development Index in China: Measurement and Interpretation Based on Bayesian Estimation

The development of urban agglomerations dominated by the service industry is an important driving force for further sustainable economic growth of China. Spatial analysis marked by population density and regional integration is an essential perspective for studying the human development index (HDI) in China. Based on Bayesian estimation, this paper examines the influence of a spatial factor on HDI by using a spatial hierarchical factor model within the framework of Sen Capability Approach theory, overcoming the neglect of spatial factors and their equal weight in traditional measurement of HDI. On this basis, the HDI including the spatial factor was measured based on the panel data from 2000 to 2018. The results reveal that (1) provinces with high population densities and regional integration have higher rankings and low uncertainties of HDI, which can be attributed to the improvement of education weights; (2) HDI has a certain spatial spillover effect, and the spatial association increases year by year; (3) robust test by using nighttime lighting as an alternative indicator of GDP supports that the spatial correlation is positively related to HDI ranking. The policy recommendations of this paper are to remove the obstacles for cross-regional population mobility and adjust the direction and structure of public expenditure.

A TREND ANALYSIS ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION RESILIENCE CAPABILITY: THE CASE OF MALAYSIA

Digital transformation happens perpetually, albeit with macro and micro-level disruptions. Countries must possess strategic capabilities to counter disruptions caused by economic, technological, and health crises, enabling and halting digital transformation initiatives. The capability of countries to be digitally resilient is crucial in sustaining digital transformation. This research examined the digital resilience capabilities of nine selected countries with the Covid-19 pandemic as the disruption context. Using the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) secondary data, the research conducted a trend analysis on the digital resilience capabilities of nine countries (as denoted through the Human Development Index ranking 2021) over the period 2017 to 2021. With Malaysia being the focal point of the analysis, the result showed that Malaysia’s high digital resilience capabilities had enabled sustained digital transformation. With a significant investmentin knowledge, technology, and future-readiness, Malaysia has maintained its digital transformation initiatives across the pandemic’s onslaught. A sustained level of macro and micro initiatives is necessary to keep digital transformation afloat. At a high level, this research has identified how Malaysia’s concerted policies have enabled its digital transformation.

Trends in pharmaceutical opioid consumption in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2010-2019.

Pharmaceutical opioid consumption has been increasing worldwide, but disparities in access to these medications exist. Few countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region have well defined pain management policies. This study presents trends in the consumption of pharmaceutical opioids in the 22 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from 2010 to 2019, with comparative intra- and extra-regional analyses; the correlation between pharmaceutical opioid consumption and human development index rankings; and pharmaceutical opioids use in the region. We calculated the defined daily doses for statistical purposes (S-DDD) per million inhabitants per day of pharmaceutical opioids from 2010 to 2019, and used the mixed effects models to assess changes in consumption. We used regression analyses to establish the strength of associations between human development index level and consumption in the region and elsewhere. Pharmaceutical opioid use has fluctuated in the region since 2010, with a mean sum of S-DDD of 2547 for 2010-2019. Consumption is relatively low in the region irrespective of the human development index. The highest-consuming country reported 369 S-DDD in 2019 and the lowest reported 1 S-DDD. The most used pharmaceutical opioids in the region were fentanyl, morphine, pethidine, oxycodone, and codeine. Consumption could be considered inadequate in several countries of the region. Supporting these countries to improve collection and reporting of consumption data, and providing humanitarian assistance to enhance access to pain relief, should be a priority for the international community.

Building a case for incorporating sport as an indicator in human development index.

United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution 73/24 on 3rd December 2018, to recognize sport as an enabler of sustainable development. To examine whether sport really plays an enabling role, the medals ranking of countries on the basis of medals obtained (per million population) in Summer Olympics during the five Olympics games over the first two decades of 21st century has been chosen as an indicator of sports achievement of a country and has been compared with their Human Development Index (HDI) ranking during that particular year of Olympics. The aim of this research was to examine the correlation between sports achievement and HDI. This research uses the Summer Olympic Rank as per medals obtained per million population (for the years 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016) of various countries as the Indicator of their sports achievement and compares them with their HDI Rank during these specific years. The researchers tested the hypothesis that the higher the sports achievement, the higher the HDI of a country and vice-versa. The analysis shows a very high positive correlation between the Olympic medal ranking and the HDI ranking, revealing that the countries with higher sports achievement have higher HDI. Hence, the conclusion is, if a sport is include in HDI as an indicator of the Human Development Index, sport could become an important vehicle for the improvement of HDI, especially in low and middle-income countries where the sports achievement is low and the HDI is also low.

Promoting Physical Activity Among Children and Adolescents With Disabilities: The Translation of Policy to Practice Internationally.

Physical inactivity among children and adolescents with disabilities (CAWD) is a global public health issue. Policy efforts to promote physical activity (PA) among CAWD have increased. This study summarizes the international policy trend for promoting PA among CAWD, with behavioral and policy insights specific to CAWD from country/regional indicators from the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Matrix on Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents to determine policy translation into practice. International and national PA policy documents on CAWD were assessed. Data from the Global Matrix Para Report Cards on the behavioral and government indicators from 14 countries or regions (grouped by human development index) were reviewed and compared. Policy instruments began promoting PA for CAWD in 1989 via the Convention on the Rights of the Child. International policy has been advocating PA specifically for CAWD recently. In 2020, the World Health Organization published specific PA guidelines for CAWD. Data from the 14 Para Report Car found 14 grades on the average behavioral indicator and 12 on the government indicator. A gap between the average behavioral indicator (D-) and the government indicator (C+) was found in the Para Report Card data. Although international policies are consistent in their attention to the needs of CAWD, national/regional policies vary. Coverage ranges from nonexistent to embedded in broader inclusion concepts. A gap in policies to promote PA of CAWD is prevalent and is more prominent in countries or regions with a lower human development index ranking.

Is There Any Relationship Between the Number of COVID-19 Tests by Country with the Income Inequality of Countries? A Comparison with Income Inequality Metrics.

OBJECTIVECoronavirus diseases 2019 test numbers vary from country to country. The present study aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests by country with the income inequality of countries.MATERIAL AND METHODSThe association between the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests and income inequality metrics was evaluated in 197 countries. Income inequality metrics consisted of the gross domestic product per capita, Gini index, the P80/P20 ratio, human development index ranking, and poverty rate. The share of the tests that gave positive results (positive rate) and fatality rates was calculated by countries.ResultsThere was a strong positive correlation between the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests per million people and the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 patients per million people (rho = 0.697, P < .001). A significant correlation was observed between the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests and all income inequality metrics (P < .001). The strongest positive correlation with the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests was between gross domestic product per capita (rho = 0.775), while the strongest negative correlation with the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests was between human development index ranking (rho = −0.836). The multiple regression analysis showed that age (P = .01), gross domestic product per capita (P < .001), and human development index ranking were independent factors affecting the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests per million people (adjusted R 2 = 0.301). The fatality rate was associated with the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests (P = .01).ConclusionIncome inequalities in countries are associated with the number of coronavirus diseases 2019 tests. For this reason, many deaths from coronavirus diseases 2019 may have gone overlooked in countries with poor-income inequality metrics.

Fiscal capacity of local government versus government expenditure, and its impact on eliminating interregional social inequalities in Poland

Social inequalities are a significant challenge in developing countries. Therefore, they should be treated as a leading priority in boosting socio-economic development. Such inequalities are a growing challenge for Poland. It is believed that social inequalities are behind Poland's relatively low position against other European countries in the Human Development Index ranking. Many factors influence social inequalities, one being the system of financing local government units. A critical area for considering social inequalities in the context of financial phenomena is the study of fiscal inequalities resulting from the implemented vertical division of public revenues among individual levels of public authority. The paper presents the results of research on the relationship between the fiscal capacity of local government units in Poland across voivodeships and the expenditure of government institutions, as well as the relationship of these expenses with social inequalities in voivodeships. To this end, six areas of social life were distinguished, for which the degree of inequality of transferred expenditure was determined using the Gini index. The method of the total order of objects was used to assess the impact of government institutions' expenditure on an individual's social situation across voivodeships. The conducted research showed both the weak dependence of government expenditure on individual units' fiscal capacity and its low effectiveness in eliminating inter-voivodeship social inequalities.

Gender inequalities in physical activity among adolescents from 64 Global South countries

PurposeThe aims of this study were to (a) describe gender inequalities in physical activity (PA) among adolescents from Global South countries, and (b) investigate the relationship between gender inequalities in PA and contextual factors, such as geographic region, human development index, gender inequality index, and unemployment rates. MethodsWe analyzed cross-sectional data from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey conducted in Global South countries between 2010 and 2020 among 13- to 17-year-old adolescents. Country-context variables were retrieved from secondary data sources (World Health Organization, World Bank, and Human Development Reports). PA was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire querying the number of days in the past week in which participants were physically active for a total of at least 60 min. PA absolute gender inequalities were evaluated by the differences in the prevalence between boys and girls, 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were estimated using the bootstrap method. Relative inequalities were obtained through Poisson regression. Meta-analyses with random effects were used to calculate pooled estimates of absolute and relative inequalities. ResultsBased on 64 Global South countries/surveys, the prevalence of PA was 6.7 percentage points (p.p.) higher in boys than in girls, ranging from 0.5 p.p. in Afghanistan to 15.6 p.p. in Laos (I2= 85.1%). The pooled ratio for all countries showed that boys presented a PA prevalence 1.58 times higher than girls (95%CI: 1.47–1.70) on average. The highest absolute and relative inequalities were observed in high income countries. Countries with higher Human Development Index rankings and lower Gender Inequality Index rankings also presented greater gender differences. ConclusionGiven that girls are overall less active than boys across the globe, the findings of this study reinforce that macro- and micro-level changes should be actively sought if we aim to increase population levels of PA in adolescents and promote equity in PA.

Digestive cancer incidence and mortality among young adults worldwide in 2020: A population-based study.

BACKGROUNDDigestive cancer has traditionally been thought of as a disease that mainly occurs in elderly individuals, and it has been ignored in young adults by both patients and physicians.AIMTo describe the worldwide profile of digestive cancer incidence, mortality and corresponding trends among 20–39-year-olds, with major patterns highlighted by age, sex, development level, and geographical region.METHODSI performed a population-based study to quantify the burden of young adult digestive cancers worldwide. Global, regional, sex, and country-specific data estimates of the number of new cancer cases and cancer-associated deaths that occurred in 2020 were extracted from the GLOBOCAN Cancer Today database. To assess long-term trends in young adult digestive cancer, cancer incidence data and mortality data were obtained from the Cancer in Five Continents Plus database and the World Health Organization mortality database, respectively. The associations between the human development index (HDI) and digestive cancer burden in young adults were evaluated by linear regression analyses.RESULTSIn 2020, there were an estimated 19292789 new cancer cases, resulting in 9958133 deaths worldwide, which equated to an age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of 5.16 and age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) of 3.04, accounting for 12.24% of all new cancer cases and 25.26% of all cancer deaths occurring in young adults. The burden was disproportionally greater among males, with male: female ratios of 1.34 for incidence and 1.58 for mortality. The ASIRs were 2.1, 1.4, and 1.0 per 100000 people per year, whereas the ASMRs were 0.83, 1.1, and 0.62 per 100000 people per year for colorectal, liver, and gastric cancer, respectively. When assessed by geographical region and HDI levels, the cancer profile varied substantially, and a strong positive correlation between the mortality-to-incidence ratio of digestive cancer and HDI ranking was found (R2 = 0.7388, P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONThe most common digestive cancer types are colorectal, liver and gastric cancer. The global digestive cancer burden among young adults is greater among males and exhibits a positive association with socioeconomic status. The digestive cancer burden is heavy in young adults, reinforcing the need for primary and secondary prevention strategies.

Human development in the USA

The article presents a study of human development in the United States. The dynamics of public expenditure on “human resources” is shown. An analysis is made of the changes in the US Human Development Index rankings, showing how they have evolved over the past 30 years. Data are provided on the components of the Index: life expectancy, educational attainment and gross national income per capita. The evolution of the Human Development Index is considered, and a new experimental Index, adjusted for planetary load, is presented. Data on the US labour force structure is given. The key mechanisms created in the US that allow the country to have a very high Human Development Index, are shown. In the case of Russia, the study shows the key role of the state in shaping and developing human potential.

Russia’s image in the modern world: ratings, risks, ways to improve

Today every state is interested in creating and maintaining a positive image of the country because it serves as a means of achieving success. The image of the state determines its international heft, impact in various spheres. A positive image of the country will promote cooperation with various countries, the development of trade and economic relations with them, while a negative image of the country can be used by the opposition to criticize the government and its policies. There are a large number of different factors that have a direct impact on the creation of the image of the state: natural factors; the availability of resources; the culture of the country; the political system; the stability of the economy; scientific achievements; exports of goods and services; etc. The article outlines the stages of the creation of the image of Russia, as well as the directions that are most actively involved in it. The article analyzes the position of Russia in such international ratings as the Doing Business, the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, the Global Innovation Index ranking and the Human Development Index ranking. The article also outlines the principles on which all stages of creating and promoting a country’s image should be based. Special attention is paid to the ways to improve the image of Russia in the world.

Introduction

With an impressive economic growth rate averaging around 7.0 percent during 2003–2004 to 2019–2020, India is currently the fifth largest economy in the World. The growth has enabled India to make remarkable progress in absolute poverty reduction and make significant strides in its progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals. However, several crucial sectors of importance from the Human Development perspective, namely, health and education, continue to receive lower than desired level of attention. Over the period 2014–2015 to 2019–2020, the expenditure on education sector marginally improved from 2.8 to 3.1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), but remained well below the desired level of about 6 percent of GDP. The health sector over the same period improved its share from 1.2 to 1.6 percent of GDP, but the allocation in this sector too stayed below the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. The manifestation such under-allocation is reflected through worrying trends across various human development dimensions including close to 35 percent of the children in India suffering from malnutrition. It is also reflected in continuing under performance of India in the global human development index rankings. Equally concerning is India’s below par achievement in terms of gender equality. As per the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India slipped as many as 28 positions and ranked 140 among 153 countries. Among South Asian countries, only Pakistan and Afghanistan had lower achievements than India in bridging the gender gap. The gender gap is contributed among other dimensions by low levels of female labor force participation rates and significant gap between men and women in terms of the income earned. Further, the growing population, growing urbanization and higher consumption needs pose serious concerns regarding the sustainability of the impressive economic growth. The Covid-19 pandemic aggravated the already decelerating economic growth and pushed the GDP growth rate to negative digits. This has also put constraints on fiscal space to shape-up fast and effective recovery. The economic recovery is expected to take time and the impact of pandemic will be felt more acutely on the informal sector. All this will further hamper India’s developmental aspirations.

What we talk about when we talk about information literacy

Information literacy skills are requisite to fulfilling one’s potential and are highly connected to a good quality of life. However, the ways in which information literacy is discussed within the academic canon are largely unexplored, particularly as these conversations take place through different cultural lenses. The ways in which such cultures are grouped often rely on traditional methods of geographic clustering that are increasingly complicated by the disparate internal nature of societies. Using text analysis of a large bibliometric data set, this research is an attempt to examine how scholars around the world discuss information literacy in their publications. The authors pulled 3658 records with the exact term “information literacy” from the Scopus database. This data was analyzed for the most frequently employed words and phrases, and grouped by country. The authors then further grouped the countries by their levels of literacy, Human Development Index ranking, the average number of citations per article, and a metric created by the authors that assessed each country’s progress in regard to the Sustainable Development Goals and population health. The results include a discussion of the differences in the ways that scholars from different cultures discuss information literacy, and a number of data visualizations to highlight differences in the data.

Using Human Development Indices to Identify Indicators to Monitor the Corona Virus Pandemic

Introduction The Corona virus (CoVID-19) pandemic has hit the most developed countries and has thence spread to inflict other countries around the world. It is the first pandemic that appears in countries not linked to poverty and poor hygiene. Aim To study the relationship between human development and the pattern of the pandemic caused by the CoVID-19 and to identify development indicators that can be useful in monitoring the pandemic. Methods Data collected included confirmed cases of CoVID-19 by country, number of cases that recovered and cases that died and population density per million in this particular country. The data for this information was obtained from the online data on the daily reports on CoVID-19 from the different countries. Data for the Human Development index (HDI) and the ranking for each country were obtained from the most recent United Nations Development of Populations (UNDP) report for 2019. We analyzed data for 166 countries for which the HDI was available for the date of cases reported online on 27th March, 2020 at midnight. Findings There were significant differences by ANOVA for the confirmed cases of CoVID19 cases and total cases per one million population between the countries in the 4 tier group of Human Development. HDI was significantly correlated with confirmed cases, case density and cases that died from CoVID-19 (P&lt;0.01) for all countries but the significance decreased by tier group. Country ranking was inversely correlated with confirmed cases of CoVID-19 (r-0.25 at P=0.001), CoVID-19 cases per million (r-0.4 at P=0.000) and cases that died from CoVID-19 (r-0.2 at P=0.03). Recovery was not inked to HDI or country ranking. The upper HDI tier groups (very high, high and medium) showed significant correlations with total cases per one million population P&lt;0.05, but no correlation was found with confirmed cases or cases that died or recovered from CoVID-19 P&gt;0.05. Conclusions Total cases of CoVID-19 per one million population seems to be a better indicator of the pandemic. The pattern of spread is closely linked to industry.

Malaysia: 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'

This paper metaphorically suggests that Malaysia could have been the 5th Asian Tiger if it were able to discover its special hidden talents as the idiom from the Chinese mythology “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” infers. Malaysia’s astounding economic track record (1985-96) underpinned by tamed inflation and high future prospects fell short of expectations in the late 1990s. Malaysia’s autocratic leaders and their instability-inflicting policies augmented uncertainty and undermined any potential recovery efforts in the aftermath of the homegrown Asian crisis of 1997-98. As a result, Malaysia’s promising outlook had abruptly shifted from being a model for the future to Asian myth. Malaysia’s GDP contracted mindboggling -7.4% in 1998 after averaging 9.2% in the period of 1992-96. The unthinkable shrinkage in the steady state output amounted to a loss of about $30 billion, the country’s GDP declined from $101 billion in 1996 to $72.2 billion in 1998. Malaysian people become a lot poorer after the crisis; the per capita income was $4,797 in 1996 as opposed to $3,264 in 1998, a decline of $1,533 in per capita income. Malaysia managed to escape the severe impacts of the near global financial meltdown with a minor dent; unlike the contraction observed in 1998 (-7.4%), Malaysia’s GDP dropped from 6.3% to 4.83% (2007-08) before contracting -1.51% in 2009. Despite the transparent and open economy (ranked 16th place in 2008 GCI) plus fast rise in the Human Development Index ranking (61st out of 190 countries in 2018), Malaysia’s heavy reliance on exports and its elongated addiction to the U.S. dollar made it become more prone to financial, currency, trade, and economic crises. The propagation of contemporaneous crises since the late 1990s have distinctly proved that Malaysia is hardly immune to shocks resulting from the slower economic growth in China and monetary normalizations in Europe and the U.S. which are causing interest rates to rise and exchange rate pressures to increase. Although the remarkable transition of Malaysia into a middle-income country was rather easy fostered by unusually favorable macroeconomic environment, but it seems to have been stuck in the middle-income trap and the next major economic leap to achieve a high-income status will require so much more than cheap labor and “mobilization of resources” based on “perspiration rather than inspiration”. Malaysia is struggling to figure out how to develop comprehensive skills which are essential to support future economic growth. Another problem is that educational institutions in Malaysia are not well aligned with industries to meet their demands; furthermore, a seamless coordination as well as collaboration between them is missing. Accordingly, a decade after the 2008 global financial crisis, Malaysia ranks 44th in pillar 4 (Health and Primary Education) and 41st in pillar 5 (Higher Education and Training). Malaysia also ranks 43rd in pillar 9 (Technological Readiness) due to a lack of lifelong learning programs, weakness in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and unready for disruptive technologies. Without significant improvements in these, Malaysia will remain in the middle-income trap.

Russia in the Central African Republic: Exploitation Under the Guise of Intervention

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a country in conflict and despite UN actions, it remains exceedingly violent, unstable and unable to alleviate the conditions that place it at almost the very lowest 2017 Human Development Index ranking. Recently Russia has stepped up to intervene with provisions and training. Draped in a guise of assistance with UN Security Council approval, Russia is fulfilling its own ends. While arms sales increase Putin’s support in the Russian military-industrial complex domestically, training allows for Russian actors to be placed in country. The arming and training CAR’s government forces as well as rebel factions enables Russia to influence all sectors while leveraging these opposing sides to further develop a powerful Russian stronghold in CAR. Russian personnel in CAR, with additional to troops in nearby Sudan, provide state actors to direct activities for Russia’s benefit in rebel controlled areas with great natural resource value. The 2018 diplomatic agreements specifically allow Russia to access CAR’s natural resources and clearly identify Russia’s economic interests in CAR. The impact of controlling CAR’s resources is enhanced by Russian seaport access in Sudan. Combined, internationally approved Russian arms and personnel for training create the means for Russia to exploit CAR’s conflict. Russia gains influence over both the CAR government and rebels, access resources, and builds strategic and logistical strength in CAR as well as on the Red Sea, all, while dynamically balancing Chinese interests in the African continent.

A Simple Measure of Human Development: The Human Life Indicator.

A Simple Measure of Human Development: The Human Life Indicator.