Reflexion on Human Development Index in the Context of West African Countries

Nowadays, the question of the concept of human development arises more and more. Whereas until 1990 accent was put on the GDP which reflected more economic aspects of the development of one’s country, this concept evolved much in the direction to take into account the social aspects of human development. It is in this context that the IDH appeared which comes to bring one more compared to the index of GDP by integrating new criteria precisely holding counts of them the life expectancy, on the level of education and life. However that did not prevent for as much with many researchers and actors development to even put still questions about the relevance and the efficacy of this new indicator which is the IDH.

Conceptual definition
* The notion of human development.According to the United Nations Development Program, the main objective of human development is to enlarge the range of the choices offered to the population, which make it possible to make the development more democratic and more participative. These choices suppose possibilities to access to revenues and employment, to education and to health care with a clean environment not presenting a danger. The individu must also have the possibility of taking part fully in the decisions of the community and of enjoying human, economic and political freedoms ".

* The notion of Human Development Index.Launched with the first RMDH in 1990, the IDH[4] is a composite index-number, without unit, ranging between 0 (execrable) and 1 (excel), calculated by the average of three indices quantifying respectively the life expectancy, the rate of alphabetism of the adults and the rate of schooling at the school with the primary education, the secondary and the third cycle, and the level of life according to the corrected real income.

Case study : 2008 World Report on Human Development : Case of West african countries.
The world Report on the human development (RMDH) 2007/2008, was published February 18, 2008 in more than one hundred country, indicating that Iceland is now at the head of the annual Index of the human development (IDH) of the United Nations. Thus, the classification of head was hustled. Iceland exceeds accuracy Norway and takes the first place which it had occupied for six years. According to the report, this change of classification is due to the new estimates as regards life expectancy and to the brought up to date figures of Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
In sub-Saharan Africa, object of our case study, Senegal, like the preque totality of the countries of this area, is classified in the ` category weak development human' by the authors of the report. They are 22 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Senegal points to the 156 place of the Index of human development (IDH), behind countries like Gambia (155e) and far behind Mauritania (137e), or Cape Verde (102e) to quote only these close countries. However, it precedes with the classification of the IDH Guinea (160e), Ivory Coast (166e), Mali (173e) and Guinea Bissau (175e). Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone occupy the tail of the classification of the IDH, with respectively the 176e and 177e places.
According to the world Report on the human development (RMDH), in ten of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa which are included in the category ` weak development human', two children out of five will not reach the 40 years age. A contrario, among the first 20 countries of the classification, there is only in Denmark and the United States that less than 9 children out of 10 will not reach the 60 years age. In addition, the authors of the report stress that in the majority of the countries, including in China, in India and in Brazil, the Indicator of the human development increased these 30 last years, but certain countries moved back in the classification.

III. The limits of IDH
Let us note that comparatively with the GDP, the IDH was not the subject of it less of very many criticisms. The first relates to the availability, the quality and the comparability of the data (Chamie 1994, Srinivasan 1994). For example, 40% of the countries (on 171 on the whole) do not have any data on the rate primary Net of schooling (Wolf & Naudet 2000). In this case the data necessary to construction of the IDH are estimated; in other cases, when the data are available but of bad quality. This question of the data calls into question the reliability of the IDH.
The procedure of transformation of the variables also was the subject of criticisms, in particular with regard to GDP/hab. In the first version of the IDH, GDP/hab according to a formula pseudo logarithmic curve was transformed complexes (Atkinson) correspondent with a function closely connected per piece such as starting from a certain level of income, the increase in GDP did not modify any more that in a negligible way the score of the component standard of living of the GDP, and the differences between the countries exceeding 6000 $ per capita were practically cancelled. Sagar & Najam criticize this transformation by taking the example of Switzerland and of Mexico such as they appear in the Report on the human development of 1997: whereas GDP/hab of Switzerland east nine times higher than that of Mexico, the transformation leads to almost identical values (GDP/hab of Switzerland is higher only 3% than that of Mexico... (Sagar & Najam 1998). The authors propose a uniform application of the transformation logarithmic curve to avoid such results, which was in fact introduced into the calculation of the IDH since 1999.
The manner of incorporating the three components of the IDH raises also question. It acts of a simple arithmetic mean. However, additivity supposes that the three criteria are perfectly substitutable, and that a weakness in one can be compensated by a level raised in another, which is reductionistic compared to the design given of the human development (Booysen 2002, Desai 1991). Some suggest the use of an log-additive form to avoid this problem (Desai 1991); for others, it would be necessary to multiply the variables and not to add them, which would make it possible to better take into account the cases where a variable is quite lower than both others (Sagar & Najam 1998).
In addition, of the authors also limits with regard to the comparability over time of the levels of the IDH underline. Each year, of new countries are taken into account, which changes the classification - without counting the methodological modifications. Admittedly, at the time of each publication, a retrospective classification of the countries is given for years 4. This change modified the classification of the countries, allowing in particular those which have of GDP/hab. raised but an educational or medical policy poorer to go up to gain several places (United States, oil monarchies, etc). It is difficult not to wonder about the political pressures which preceded this revision...
Finally, the IDH also attracts criticisms on dimensions which it does not take into account. Thus, the indicator does not contain measurement of the inequalities will intra national and inter personal. Ideally, each three dimension should comprise such information (Hicks 1997). Other authors plead to take into account environmental dimensions and of durable development in the IDH (Morse 2003, Neumayer 2001). Behind these quarrels of expert are often dissimulated institutional ratios of force between the various world agencies, with the traditional cleavage which one finds at the European level between the specialists in socio-economic (Eurostat) and specialists in the environment (European Agency of the Environment).

Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that the IDH brought an important qualitative jump in the appreciation of the level of development of a country, comparatively to the GDP.
We think however that the calculation of the IDH contains limits whose corrections always do not reflect realities.
This is why we think that the reflexion will have to be continued to provide to humanity tools being able better to reflect the lived daily ones of the individuals who are more in relation to their aspiration with the development and who cannot be reflected yet by the measuring instruments of the currently existing development.
For these reasons, we thus say that the IDH does not reflect really the quality of mean length of life of the population of a country and that other criteria or indices should be integrated for better emphasizing local realities.
The topic is indeed important for a manager because the management of project has the role to help people to face the problems with which they are confronted by the conception, the elaboration, the implementation , the monitoring and evaluation of programs of development ready to bring answers to the encountered problems. And these programs can be viable and produce positive and durable impacts only if they are directed towards the durable development holding of account the real living conditions of the beneficiaries populations. That is all the more true as many programs of development failed because they did not take into account or neglected the social aspects of the development in more of the achievement of the same specific objectives which theirs are assigned.
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Published by LCM, edition february 2008.

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