Living Standards: The AIDS crisis has reduced average life expectancy in many countries of sub-Sahara Africa to 40 years or less, according to the 2004 Human Development Report, writes Paul Cullen, Development Correspondent.
The epidemic is now the largest single factor for the continuing decline of the region, the report says. This is evident from the fact that the last 19 places on the report's human development index are occupied by African states. Sierra Leone, still recovering from a devastating civil war, is ranked at the bottom of the index for the seventh successive year.
In Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, more than one in five people between the ages of 15 and 49 are infected with HIV/AIDS. In Botswana and Swaziland, the figure is one in three.
"The AIDS crisis cripples states at all levels, because the disease attacks people in their most productive years," says Mr Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of UNDP. "It tears apart the foundations of everything from public administration and healthcare to family structures."
However, economic problems are not confined to Africa. Since the 1990s, an unprecedented number of countries have seen their living standards decline.
In 46 countries, 20 of them in sub-Sahara Africa, citizens are poorer today than they were a decade ago. In previous decades, virtually no country experienced a decline in the ranking.
This year's index is topped once again by Norway, followed by Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. The US is ranked eight and Japan ninth.
This year's report, which is devoted to issues of cultural freedom, says Europe will have to double its intake of immigrants by 2050 just to maintain its population. Immigrants should be permitted to become full members of their adopted countries, while maintaining ties to their countries of origin, the report says.
The challenge for western countries is to craft policies which integrate the objectives of unity and respect for difference and diversity.
With more than 5,000 different ethnic groups living on the planet, claims for recognition by diverse groups comprise one of the most urgent issues affecting international stability today, the report points out. About 900 million people face some form of discrimination because of their ethnic, racial or religious identities.
The report argues that cultural goods are different from other traded goods and should be exempted from international trade agreements.
Cultural diversity in the arts would radically decline if left to market forces alone, to the ultimate detriment of world culture, the authors claim. They point out that 80 per cent of trade in entertainment originates in only 13 countries, led by the US. About 85 per cent of films screened worldwide are produced in the US and the 10 top-grossing films of all time in markets outside the US, led by Titanic, are all US-made.