By Ishmael Dumbuya
As Sierra Leone continues to perform below par in global ranking, this year’s Social Progress Index is no exception.
The 2022 Social Progress Index ranks 169 countries on social progress by combining 60 social and environmental outcome indicators to calculate an overall score for the countries based on health, safety, education, technology, rights, access to knowledge, access to information and communication, inclusiveness and access to advanced education, and also considering the data of 27 additional countries calculating component and dimension scores when enough data are available.
The index offers a rich framework for measuring the multiple dimensions of social progress, benchmarking success, and catalyzing greater human wellbeing.
Out of the 6 tiers, Sierra Leone falls under tier 5 with a percentage score of 50.48, which automatically indicate that the country is not on the right footing when it comes to developments and human rights.
There is a clear correlation between the level of economic development and social progress. The relationship varies significantly; a country’s income group often does not correspond to its level of social progress especially in middle and lower income countries. Countries are grouped from the highest to the lowest social progress into six tiers.
The Social Progress Index offers a revealing picture of the levels of development in different countries that are independent of traditional economic measures. Countries achieve very different overall levels of social progress and widely differing patterns of social progress by dimensions and components.
The index reveals that high income countries tend to achieve higher social progress than low income countries.
Guinea, Congo, Yemen Afghanistan, Burundi etc. are also among the worst performing countries.
