On 9 December, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published their report on human development for the year 2019. Armenia was ranked 81st (same as 2018), Azerbaijan 87th (same as 2018) and Georgia 70th (69th in 2018) in this year's report. All three South Caucasus countries were classified amongst the countries with high human development.

The UNDP Human Development index (HDI) combines health, education and income to rank the world’s countries. The overall HDI for Armenia was 0.760 with an overall life expectancy at 74.9 years, 13.2 of expected years of schooling, and an overall Gross National Income (GNI) per capita at 9277 US Dollars. Azerbaijan's overall HDI was 0.754, with an overall life expectancy at 72.9 years, 12.4 of expected years of schooling, and GNI per capita at 15240 US Dollars. As for Georgia, the HDI was 0.786, with an overall life expectancy at 73.6 years, 15.2 of expected years of schooling, and an overall GNI per capita at 9570 US dollars.

Russia (49th) and Turkey (59th) were categorized amongst the countries with very high human development, while Iran (65th) belonged to the same category as the three South Caucasus countries. The best ranked countries were Norway, Switzerland, Ireland and Germany, while the worst ranked were Niger, Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan.

The 2019 Human Development Report (HDR), entitled “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century,” says that just as the gap in basic living standards is narrowing for millions of people, the necessities to thrive have evolved. 

A new generation of inequalities is opening up, around education, and around technology and climate change – two seismic shifts that, unchecked, could trigger a ‘new great divergence’ in society of the kind not seen since the Industrial Revolution, according to the report. 

The Report argues that while the middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia have achieved higher living standards than ever before, climate change and technological disruption could severely slow down their efforts to reduce inequalities.

For instance, nearly 90 percent of the region’s energy comes from fossil fuels, and some 30 percent of land is classified as degraded. And while the region ranks in the middle tercile worldwide on research and development spending, its ratio of highly skilled to low-skilled workers is only half that of OECD countries— a gap that will become harder to close as technology advances in richer countries.

To address these challenges, the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) proposes a battery of policy options, including lifelong investments in human productivity, education and social protection; policy reforms related to international taxation and public spending; systemic steps to close gender gaps in politics, economics and society; and policies crucial to tackling the climate crisis.