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Applied mathematics in Engineering, Management and Technology 2 (4) 2014:559-569
www.amiemt-journal.com
Comparative evaluation of the Human Development Index in
Iran and OPEC Countries
1
Faegheh Mohagheghzadeh *, 2Shokoufeh Ghasemi, 3 Parichehr Nasiri,4Fatemeh Mohagheghzadeh
1.2, , Department of Management, College of Human Sciences, Buinzahra branch, Islamic Azad University, Buinzahra, Iran
3,4, Department of Economics, , College of Human Sciences, Buinzahra branch, Islamic Azad University, Buinzahra, Iran
*E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract:
Growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been considered as one of
economic growth and development indexes, but since this index is not a good
measure to determine citizens’ welfare, economists considered an index which
includes economic parameters as well as social and human parameters. The best of
these indexes is human development index. This index is in fact some kind of
proportionality table in which countries are compared by factors such as life
expectancy, literacy ratio, health, food and the real per capita income. Human
development index is one of the important development indexes and has many
applications in national and international levels. Its most important application is
identifying the economic, social and cultural contexts which needs support and care
in policy making, and finally providing necessary arrangements for improving
economic and social situation.
In the studies we concluded that Iran has the 7th place among OPEC countries in
human development index. Although human development in Iran has remarkable growth in last 32 years and life
expectancy, education and the per capita income have grown, considering the great ratio of development in other countries,
there was no remarkable increase in the rank.
Keywords: GDP,OPEC, Development Indexes
1. INTRODUCTION
Inadequate per capita income and economic growth indexes in assessing citizens’ welfare has attracted some
economists to focus on indexes which include social and human variables in addition to economic variables.
One of the most important of these indexes is “Human Development Index (HDI)”.
This index emphasizes on more extended aspects of development rather than using per capita income. In
addition to offering a measure to assess citizens’ welfare, this index estimates the effect of economic policies on
the quality of citizens’ lives. The index classifies the countries according to the quality of citizens’ lives, and
not only on the basis of traditional statistics for per capita income. The measure of calculation for this index is
the average of three indexes of “life expectancy”, “educational attainment”, and “per capita income changed
according power of purchase parity”. Human development is putting human beings in the center of
development. Indeed, human development is the development of humans’ capabilities and extension of the
opportunities. The assumption of this concept relies on the attitude that by enabling all humans, everybody in
the society will have equal opportunity to improve, and so maintaining ideals and human values and liberty will
be possible.
In this study, first the concept of human development index has been introduced, then the members of OPEC
and their oil production have been studied, and at last a comparative study of human development in Iran and
OPEC members has been driven.
2. CONCEPT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
1- Life expectancy index:
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As it was mentioned before, one of the most important indexes used in determining human development index
is the life expectancy which is the expectance of a person to stay alive in the condition of the fixed mortality
pattern in his era.
2- Society literacy level index:
The second affecting factor in HDI is the level of literacy which is calculated by the average study years in 25
years old people and the expected study years (with the same weight). So, literacy index is achieved by the
weighted average of mean index of study years and index of expected study years.
3- Gross domestic production (GDP) per capita index (according to power of purchase parity):
The last standard used in estimating HDI is the suitability standard of living which is calculated by domestic
gross production (GDP) per capita in terms of purchase power parity. Apparently, people’s mean power of
purchase necessarily does not indicate the suitability of the life but proper power of purchase is one of the
conditions of a suitable life.
3. OPEC COUNTRIES
At present, OPEC members are:
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, abbreviated as OPEC, is an oil cartel which consists of Algeria,
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Angola and Venezuela.
OPEC international site is in Vienna in Austria since 1966. OPEC has been established between September 10th
and 14th 1960 in Baghdad by representatives from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as
participants.
Oil reservoirs of OPEC member countries:
1- Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has one fifth of the world’s proved oil reservoirs i.e., 267 billion barrels, and probably it will
remain as the greatest oil producer up to near future. Oil exporting income is 90 to 95 percent of the exports of
this country and 70 to 80 percent of the government’s income, and 40 percent of national gross production.
2- Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran is the greatest oil producer of OPEC after Saudi Arabia, and according to the report by Oil and Gas
magazine in 2009, the proved oil reservoirs of Iran cover 10 percent of oil reservoirs of the world i.e., 136.2
billion barrels. Iran’s economy is extensively dependent on oil export income. It is about 85 percent of
exporting income and 40 to 50 percent of government’s budget.
3- United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates has 97.6 billion barrels of oil i.e., 8.5 percent of the world’s oil reservoirs. Its economy,
like Saudi Arabia and Iran is strongly dependent on oil. 30% of its national gross production is provided by oil.
4- Iraq
Iraq has the 3rd place in proved world oil reservoirs. Iraq’s proved oil reservoir is about 115 billion barrels
meaning that after Saudi Arabia and Canada, it has the greatest reservoir of about 10 percent of the whole world
oil reservoir. Of course many believe that Iraq oil reservoirs are more because Saddam’s government was
unable to determine most of oil reservoirs of the country.
Iraqi national oil company was established in 1964 and by nationalizing of Iraq oil between 1972 and 1975 this
company took the control of Iraq oil in 1987. Until 2003 there was only 1600 oil wells delved in Iraq. Iraq does
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not own high technologies for utilization of the oil. In long term when Iraq achieve these high technologies and
also extended discovered areas, its oil income will increase extraordinarily. In 2006 Iraq oil income was 60% of
its national gross production and 89% of the government’s income. Iraq oil production encountered many
fluctuations. In mid August 2003 it has produced 1 million barrels of oil per day, while in December 1971 it
was producing 3.7 million barrels per a day and in July 1990 (before invasion to Kuwait) it was producing 3.5
million barrels per day. By accepting the United Nations’ statement 986 in late 1996 which allowed Iraq to
increase oil export for purchasing food and drug, its oil production reached 1.2 million barrels a day in 1997,
2.2 million barrels a day in 1998, and 2.5 million barrels between 1999 and 2001. In 2002, the average oil
production of Iraq was 2.04 million barrels a day which was less than 2.45 million barrels a day in 2001. While
in 2004 Iraq was exporting 2 million barrels of oil daily, it reached 1.5 million barrels a day in 2006.
5- Kuwait
Kuwait has 101 billion barrels of proved oil reservoir (of course it includes the share of the neutral zone), which
is 8% of the world proved oil reservoirs. This country’s economy is strongly dependent on oil reservoirs. About
90 to 95 percent of Kuwait’s whole exporting income is from oil. Kuwait oil production is about 2.6 million
barrels a day, the most which is exported to Asian countries such as Japan and then to India, South Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
6. Libya
Libya is one of the greatest oil exporters, especially to Europe. Oil export income of the country is about 95%
of its total current earnings. With increasing of oil price since 1999 Libya’s oil earnings increased to 10.8
billion dollars in 2002 and 12.9 billion dollars in 2003 which is twice as compared by 1998. This increase has
caused the national gross production to grow about 6.5 percent in 2000, between 3.1 and 4.3 in 2001, about 1.2
percent in 2002, and about 2.1 percent in 2003.
7- Venezuela
Venezuela is important for the world since its proved oil reservoir is about 99 billion barrels. After a short
period of growth in Venezuela in the years 2000 and 2001, there was a downturn in the country in 2002 in a
way so in 2002 fell down to 8.9 percent. Oil industry is the linchpin of Venezuela’s economy and oil
contributes more than three quarters of its export, about a half of governments earnings, and third of its national
gross production.
8- Algeria
Algeria is one of the OPEC members which after years of war and turmoil in the country, is now one of the
important oil producers. Proved oil reservoir of the country is 12.3 billion barrels. Oil production of this country
was 1.4 million barrels per day in 2002. But in 2006 it was producing 1.37 million barrels a day, 35 percent of
that has been imported by United States of America and 37 percent imported by European countries.
Algeria made movements toward liberalism, privatization, and of course removing cumbersome regulations to
support its oil sector. By now, the country has encountered serious political, economical, and social problems.
To remove these problems it tries to perform economic reform plan, one of the areas to reform is the oil sector,
in which the country tries to extend its oil sector by foreign help. Of course, because of domestic problems and
turmoil, less foreign investors invest in the country. Another reason is because foreign investors prefer to invest
in oil-rich areas of Persian Gulf, because extraction cost in Persian Gulf is cheap and its oil reservoir is much.
There are three important refineries in Algeria, namely, Skikda (30,000 barrels per a day), Algeria (60,000
barrels per a day) and Haasi Mas’ad (30,000 per a day).
9- Qatar
Qatar is depended on gas rather than oil and has the third place in gas reservoir. Qatar in the first 10 months of
2003 exported 900,000 barrels a day. In 2006, Qatar had the least production among OPEC countries and
produced 815,000 barrels per day. Qatar, like the other states in Persian Gulf suffers from special problems such
as one-production economy, and in other words dependence on oil.
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In 2003, the growth of national gross production was about 5% but in 2002 it was about 3.8%. In 2000 Qatar
had a remarkable 11.5% growth which was a result of increasing gas export.
Proved oil reservoir of Qatar is 15.2 billion barrels. Doukhan seaside area is the largest oil area of Qatar. Qatar
has also 6 off-shore oil areas. The country exports almost all of its oil to Asian countries. Japan is the biggest
Qatar oil consumer.
10- Nigeria
Nigeria is the 11th producer and 8th exporter of oil in world. The country is one of the most oil exporters to west
Europe and in 2002 it was the 5th oil exporter to United States of America. Its economy is strongly depended on
oil sector. Oil contributes 90 to 95 percent of its exports. 80% of the government's earnings is provided by oil.
Nigeria’s proved oil reservoir is about 36.2 billion barrels but most of its reservoir has been found in seaside
areas and the reservoirs in off-shore and deeper areas have not been found yet. Nigeria’s average oil production
in 2002 was about 2.118 million barrels a day, but in 2006 it was 2.28 barrels a day. About 95 percent of
Nigeria’s oil production is achieved by joint investments. The biggest joint investment is done by Shell which
produces about 50 percent of Nigeria’s oil production.
The main problem in Nigeria is ethnic and political conflicts in the country like violence, kidnapping, sabotage
and seizure of oil facilities which abandon oil production. Most of oil exports of Nigeria are to American and
European bazaars.
Nigeria has 4 refineries which have problems like failure, fire, weak management, … which reduce their real
production capacity.
11- Angola
According the report of Gas and Oil magazine, proved oil reservoir of Angola is about 9 billion barrels. Angola
is the 3rd great oil producer in Africa. The table below shows the oil production by African countries in terms of
thousand barrels a day:
Oil production of the country has remarkable growth in last decade. The average oil production by Angola in
1997 was 710,000 barrels per day but in 2007 it reached 1.7 billion barrels a day and shows the ability to
increase in the next years. 90% of Angola’s oil export is to China and United States of America. In 2007,
America imported about 496,000 barrels of oil a day from Angola. Angola was the second greatest oil exporter
to China after Saudi Arabia and sixth greatest oil exporter to America in 2007.
12. Ecuador
Ecuador joined OPEC in 1972 but left it 20 years later in objection to production share. Oil earnings contribute
69% of the country’s exports. Proved oil reservoir of Ecuador in January 2008 was 4.5 billion barrels which is
3rd great oil reservoir in South America. The country is 5th great oil producer in South America which produced
512,000 barrels daily in 2007. The country exports 50% of its oil to America and the exports the rest to Latina
America and Asia. In 2007 United States imported 2% of its oil from Ecuador. After Venezuela, Ecuador is the
second greatest oil exporter to United States among South American countries.
4. Human Development Index (HDI) and its estimation Methods
Among proposed indicators and indexes of development, human development index is of greater acceptance
between scholars; particularly it is worth noting that reforms to improve these indicators are driven.
International organizations will be announced this index annually for various countries around the world. It also
has a relative recall among other indicators. Since the economists have been dealt with development issues of
developing countries, economic growth (GDP) as the best indicator of economic development was gained much
popularity. Nevertheless, during the past few decades, countries experience showed that although economic
growth is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition for improving the life of members of society.
There are at least three reasons confirming that the higher income may not necessarily mean a higher income
for most or all of households:
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1- Governments may not spent benefit from economic growth and higher per capita income on improving the
welfare of citizens but also spend the revenue to strengthen their political power and military spending or costly
ambitious projects.
2- Governments may wish to by suppressing the desire to consume, spend the economic resources, which
gained from economic growth, on future investments in order to possibility of increased consumption in next
periods. In this case, present generation has the lower prosperity level.
3- Considering incoming gap, it will be very imaginable, even by increasing the mean income and consumption
of society, that most of growth benefits allocate to those who have better prosperity while poverty group’s
account will be much lower from this enhancement. Insufficiencies of per capita and economic growth criterion
on determination of citizen’s prosperity led some economists to turn their attention to the indicators that in
addition to economic variables including social and human factors. "Human Development Index" which in
abbreviation called HDI is one of the most important indicators.
United Nations as a most reliable reference believes human is the purpose of development of the various
economic, social, and political indicators. Development is for human, so if there was an economic growth, but
people not benefited from that development, undoubtedly this will be a valuable development (Hijab, 2003, 4345). The meaning of human development is much comprehensive than the contractual concept of economic
development, owing to the fact that economic growth patterns generally are measured with expanding of GDP
rather than improve of the quality of human life (Maleki, 2003, 40). While in the pattern of human
development, four basic elements include Productivity, equity, sustainability and empowerment (Ahmadian,
2001, 41).1
To achieve the human development index, economists use three major indexes that according to their belief
most of the economic realities lie behind them. Health and safety with index of life expectancy rates, science
and knowledge with the index of literacy rate and economic status with the index of per capita income are the
main three variables which constitute the three sides of index of human development. This index ranks the
countries based on the quality of life of citizens and not based solely on traditional varieties of per capita
income. Criteria of calculating this index are the mean value of three indicators including life expectancy,
educational attainments, and income per capita based on purchasing power parity.
Nevertheless, when one is speaking of the index, the basic question is how the index is calculated. As was
mentioned, this index is a composite index that composed of three indicators as follows:
1- Longevity, which is measured is measured by life expectancy at birth. The minimum age for life expectancy
at birth is 25 years and maximum is 85 years.
2- Access to education, which includes the adult literacy (by 2/3 weighting) and Combined gross enrollment
rate in all levels of education (by 1/3 weighting). The maximum of adult literacy rate is 100% and the minimum
rate of zero percent is 100 %. Combined gross enrollment rate at all levels is 100% and minimum of zero
percent.
3- Acceptable standard of living is measured by real GDP per capita.
The highest real per capita GDP is $ 40,000 and at least is $ 100.
These statistics are based on the highest and lowest ranking of countries in the human development report. The
size of each of the indicators mentioned above (which is represented by X1) is obtained by the defining
following equation: (Ogwang, 1994, 2012)
Thus, if the population's life expectancy of the country is 65 years, life expectancy is defined as:
65−25
40
Life expectancy index Xi = 85−25 = 60
Education Index is a composite index, so that the index of adult literacy rates (Ieg) has factor of 2, and the
combined gross enrollment rate at all levels of school has a factor of 1.
Education Index = (2 * adult literacy index + 1 * index of the combined gross enrollment rate at all levels)/3
1
Productivity is the active participation of people in the process of income and employment. Equality is concerned on
equal opportunity to acquire and applying the capabilities. The concept of Sustainability is store and recover of any type
of physical, human, and environmental capital. Empowerment means that development is done by people. (Hossein
Zadeh, Dalir, and Maleki,1385, 4).
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Calculation of Real GDP per capita indicator is more complicated than any other parameters. Since this index is
calculated by a logarithmic formula, thus the importance of increase in GDP per capita will be reduced at higher
values. For example, a $200 increase in GDP per capita of Iran's human development index will increase human
development index more than the Iceland one, which has a higher GDP per capita than Iran with the same
amount of the increment in GDP per capita. GDP per capita Index is calculated as follows:
GDPi is gross domestic product per capita of the desired country.
GDPmin is the minimum amount the per capita GDP that is equal to $100. GDPmax is the maximum amount of
the per capita GDP that is equal to $40,000.
Finally, the human development index is a simple arithmetic average of the three indicators of life expectancy,
education index and the index of per capita income. It should be noted that the human development index is a
number between 0 and 1, which 1 is the best and 0 is the worst case. Used items of the human development
index are following:
1- Human Development Index has been created in order to attract the attention of policy makers, the media,
and NGOs and to divert their attention from the current economic statistics rather than focusing on the human
consequences. It is emphasized that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criterion for assessing a
country's development rather than economic growth.
2- In the case of national policies, this question may be raised, how it is possible to have different human
development between two countries with similar levels of per capita income. This contradiction suggests some
debates in relation to the government's education policies that expressed why the success obtained in a country
is inaccessible in another one.
3- To highlight differences within countries, between provinces or states, in terms of gender, ethnicity, and
other social–economic groups. Highlighting differences within countries in many countries has prompted a
national debate.
Human Development Index in Iran
In recent years, economic and social developments in the country after the imposed war, based on economic,
social and human development, has led to positive changes in human development index in the country. Based
on Human Development criterion, any improvement in economic factors, educational status, and life
expectancy improves the level of human development. Human development index has had 30 years of good
growth. Iran is among the countries with medium human development. Community capacity building, along
with economic policy, reform, and fairly investments are of the important issues that will change the course of
human development.
Table (1): Human Development Index and its components in Iran
Year
1980
1990
2000
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Human development
index
0.443
0.54
0.654
0.685
0.706
0.74
0.742
0.742
Life expectancy
Per capita income
Literacy rate
51.1
61.8
69.8
71.3
71.6
71.9
72.2
72.5
72.7
73
73.2
7188
6201
7503
9228
9654
10286
10398
10462
10462
10695
50.6
64
76.3
82.4
Table (1) shows the human development index and its components in Iran during 1980-2012. Human
development index in this period have had a more growth in Iran, and it has increased from 0.443 in 1980 to
0.742 in 2012.
5.Comparative study of human development index in Iran and OPEC members
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It seems that a global comparison is an appropriate starting point for a more comprehensive evaluation of
human and social indices of countries including Iran. Such a comparison in the era of globalization whose
consequences being the economic integration, expansion and permeation of relations and cultural norms, and
weaker political boundaries with what is going on at other borders sounds to be inevitable (Sufi and Majidpour,
2003, 79).
Table (2) shows the the Human Development Index from the last Human Development Report for OPEC
countries. According to Table (2), in 2012Islamic Republic of Iran is ranked seventh among OPEC countries
from the point of view of Human Development Index, which is now 76th in the world rank. Also, between the
components of Human Development Index, with the Income Indicator of 0.69 and the life expectancy of 0.703,
Iran is ranked seventh among OPEC members in 2012.
Table (2): Indicators of Human Development in Iran and other OPEC members
Rank
among
the OPEC
countries
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Country
Qatar
Emirates
Kuwait
Saudi
Arabia
Libya
Venezuela
Iran
Ecuador
Algeria
Iraq
Angola
Nigeria
Human
Development
Index ranking
in 2012
36
41
54
78.5
76.7
74.7
per capita
income
(ppp) in
dollars
87478
42716
52793
57
74.1
22616
0.754
-
0.8
0.782
64
71
76
89
93
131
148
153
75
74.6
73.2
75.8
73.4
69.6
51.5
52.3
13765
11475
10695
7471
7418
3557
4812
2102
0.782
0.754
0.703
0.754
0.717
0.622
0.267
0.286
0.571
0.529
0.334
0.286
0.25
0.727
0.7
0.69
0.637
0.636
0.527
0.572
0.45
0.769
0.748
0.742
0.724
0.713
0.59
0.508
0.471
life
expectanc
y at birth
Life
expectancy
index
education
index
Income
index
Human
Development
Index
0.854
0.836
0.803
-
1
0.894
0.925
0.834
0.818
0.79
According to Table (2), OPEC countries can be classified into two groups in terms of human development
indicators:
1- High human development countries, including two countries: Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
2- Medium human development countries, including 10 countries: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Venezuela,
Iran, Ecuador, Algeria, Iraq, Angola, and Nigeria.
Note that in Table (2), none of the OPEC countries are ranked in low human development indexed countries.
The sketch below illustrates the ranks of human development index in 2012, life expectancy at birth, and per
capita income of the mentioned countries.
Ranking of Human Development
Index
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
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Life Expectancy
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Power of Purchase parity (PPP)
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Table (3) indicates the trend of Human Development Index during 1980-2012 for 12 OPEC countries.
In total, some points can be mentioned about OPEC countries:
1- Comparison of the human development index ranking in different years, especially in OPEC countries
shows that rise of this rank cannot be regarded as an improvement in the citizens’ life quality, because the
human development index is derived from the average of three indicators of life expectancy, educational
attainment, and per capita income based on purchasing power parity, and per capita income itself is a
component of the human development index. Per capita income increases with oil price enhancement, and leads
to higher human development index which results in a more human development index rank without necessarily
major changes in life expectancy and educational attainment. According to report of OPEC, in 2012, Iran which
has been traditionally the second largest OPEC oil producer, dropped to third place. Iraq produced 2.98 million
barrels a day which founded the second place, Saudi Arabia produced 9.772 million barrels per day, and was
known as the biggest oil producer of OPEC.
Oil production of other OPEC members in 2012 is: 1.211 million barrels a day in Algeria, 1.734 million barrels
per day in Angola, 496 thousand barrels per day in Ecuador, 2.798 million barrels per day in Kuwait, 1.399
million barrels a day in Libya, 2.07 million barrels per day in Nigeria, 755 thousand barrels per day in Qatar,
2.624 million barrels a day in UAE, and 2.357 million barrels per day in Venezuela.
6.Second rank for Iranian oil in prices rise race within OPEC
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But at the same time, OPEC announced that the average Iranian oil price in 2012 with an increase if 2.8 percent
came to 108.93 dollars, which was ranked second from the point of view of the oil price growth compared to
other OPEC oils.
Table (3): The human development index in Iran and OPEC countries
Year
Country
Qatar
Emirates
Kuwait
Saudi Arabia
Libya
Venezuela
Iran
Ecuador
Algeria
Iraq
Angola
Nigeria
1980
1990
2000
2005
2007
2010
2011
2012
0.729
0.695
0.575
0.629
0.443
0.596
0.461
-
0.743
0.712
0.653
0.635
0.54
0.635
0.562
-
0.801
0.781
0.717
0.662
0.654
0.659
0.625
0.375
-
0.828
0.831
0.784
0.748
0.746
0.694
0.685
0.682
0.68
0.564
0.406
0.434
0.833
0.827
0.787
0.756
0.76
0.712
0.706
0.688
0.691
0.567
0.472
0.448
0.827
0.816
0.786
0.777
0.733
0.744
0.74
0.719
0.71
0.578
0.502
0.462
0.832
0.817
0.788
0.78
0.725
0.746
0.742
0.722
0.711
0.583
0.504
0.467
0.834
0.818
0.79
0.782
0.769
0.748
0.742
0.724
0.713
0.59
0.508
0.471
2- It is worth noting that the emphasis on improving the human development index ranking in a time interval,
especially in oil-producing countries can be very misleading. In fact, what should be regarded and applied in the
policy is the gap between the rankings of per capita income and human development index. A negative gap
between the ranks of per capita income and human development index means that the revenues are not spent
sufficiently for the quality of life of citizens and human development variables (such as education, health,
welfare, and social security), or in other word, the citizens do not see the impact of the enhanced revenues
(especially increased revenues through increased oil prices in oil-producing countries) in their everyday life. Of
course,
the
negative
gap
between per capita income and human development index rankings in most (OPEC) oil producing countries is
clearly observed.
3- Evaluation of the human development index and per capita income rankings, especially in OPEC countries
shows the need to more attention to components of life quality and social welfare. More resources must be
allocated to the issues of education, in both literacy and educational levels, particularly in the area of less than
university educations of Iran in order to move proportional to its economic potential in the Human
Development Index ranks. Although the quantitative increase of the educational coverage rates in primary
school, secondary school and high school is one of the effective policies in this issue, the reduce of academic
failure and dropouts should be seriously paid attention. The main reason for academic failure and dropouts
should
be
primarily
sought
in poverty of families or the low quality of education which causes the students leave the educational system
and face to the children labor market. In addition, along with the improvement in quantity and quality of
education, improvement of the health system and allocation of more resources to this sector contributes to the
promotion of human development index ranking too. Countries have gaps in different sectors, including
between
social
sectors.
Since all variables are measured at the national level, backwardness and deprivation in some areas can lead to a
lower level of national indices.
4- What can be seen in the Human Development Report is attention to criteria such as health, education, and
justice in income distribution in providing the human development index. Looking at the place of Iran among
OPEC countries, one concludes that with a more precise planning, it is possible to achieve higher ranks of
Human Development Index in health, education and economic programs in reducing gaps.
7.Final conclusions and policy recommendations
In this paper, the human development index in Iran and OPEC countries was discussed. Assessments showed
that Iran is ranked the seventh from the point of view of the Human Development Index compared with other
OPEC countries. While the human development index in Iran have had a considerable growth over the past 32
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years, and indicators of life expectancy, education and per capita income have been increasing, but given the
rapid rate of development in other countries, a significant increase has not occurred in the overall ranking.
For the extension of the concept of human development some recommendations can be offered to improve
human development in countries with medium human development index (such as Iran):
- Human Development Index is a convenient and unified meter to compare the country's success in achieving
development goals and it is necessary for the development programs to be designed by taking into account the
factors of this index. Also, the distribution value of this index in the country is also of very importance which
must be taken into account in execution of the human development index programs.
- Achieving high economic growth along with economic stability to eliminate economic poverty and
unemployment.
- Attention to social and political reforms alongside economic reforms
- Attention to the important and effective role of the government in running the development policies and
establishing the public participation backgrounds
- Creation of a comprehensive social security system for the protection of vulnerable groups
- Continuity of education and health costs, especially in rural regions
- More attention to the role of women in development, and protection of their rights and removal of sex
discrimination.
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