15 most underdeveloped countries in Africa, based on UN’s Human Development Index

Usually when we think of development, all that comes to mind are skyscrapers, massive industrial layouts, state-of-the-art social amenities and whatnot. While these are indeed important aspects of development, they are not all there is to it. As a matter of fact, most development experts are more interested in human development. And that’s because it is only when human capabilities are fully developed that it would be easier and more sustainable to develop and maintain the physical infrastructures.

Over the years, the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) has become the most widely used and universally agreed tool for gauging countries’ developing status. According to the United Nations Development Programme, “the HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.”

Some of the key indicators tracked by the HDI are: life expectancy rate, adult literacy rate, gross national income per capita, access to the internet, etc. Business Insider Africa understands that these indicators are all compiled into a number between 0.00 and 1.00.

Countries that score very low on these indicators (0-0.55) are classified as having low human development ratio. The ones that score between 0.55 to 0.70 are classified as medium human development countries while those with scores of between 0.70 and 0.80 are said to have high human development ratio. Meanwhile, countries with high human development ratios score between 0.80-1.0.

Earlier on, we wrote about the 10 most developed countries in Africa based on the latest Human Development Index. And now, we are bringing you a list of 15 most underdeveloped countries.

It’s important to stress that this is not intended as a name and shame, but rather as a call to action on the need to do more towards improving human development across the continent.