The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its Human Development Report today, highlighting changes in the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings for Portuguese-speaking countries in 2023. Among these countries, only Cape Verde saw a decline in its ranking, moving from 131st to 135th place.
In a ranking led by Iceland, Portugal has advanced to 40th position from 42nd in the previous report. Following Portugal in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) is Brazil, which has moved up from 89th to 84th position.
Equatorial Guinea maintained its 133rd position, while Cape Verde fell from 131st to 135th. São Tomé and Príncipe stayed at 141st, and Timor-Leste improved significantly from 155th to 142nd place.
Other Portuguese-speaking nations showed advancements in their HDI rankings, including Angola, which rose from 150th to 148th, Guinea-Bissau which moved from 179th to 174th, and Mozambique which climbed one spot from 183rd to 182nd.
Portugal remains the only Portuguese-speaking country classified under “Very High Human Development,” while Brazil holds a position under “High Human Development.” Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, and Timor-Leste are categorized as having “Medium Human Development.”
Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique are the CPLP members classified under “Low Human Development,” with South Sudan closing the list at 193rd position. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the lowest HDI globally.
The report, titled “A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Era of Artificial Intelligence,” evaluates progress across various indicators within the Human Development Index, which encompasses achievements in health, education, and income levels.
The document indicates a global stagnation in HDI across all regions, despite the potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reignite development. Rather than a steady recovery from the exceptional crises of 2020-2021, the report shows “surprisingly weak” progress.
Excluding the pandemic-driven crisis years, “the projected global human development growth this year is the smallest since 1990,” according to the report, which also points to an increase in inequalities between wealthier and poorer nations.
For the fourth consecutive year, inequality between countries with Low and Very High HDI continues to grow, reversing a long-term trend of narrowing disparities.
“In this turbulent global scenario, we urgently need to explore new ways to drive development,” stated Achim Steiner, Global Head of the UNDP. He highlighted the potential of AI: “While AI is not a magic solution, the choices we make can rekindle human development and create new paths and possibilities.”
The availability of AI development data in a country depends on various factors, such as data availability, which varies significantly across countries and regions.
The report notes that Sub-Saharan Africa is making progress on data availability and infrastructure, but significant gaps remain. These disparities arise from varying government commitments to open data, data management capabilities, and access to technology.
As of March 2024, the United States hosted about half of the world’s data centers, reflecting the concentration of such infrastructure.
“While cloud computing has somewhat decoupled the physical location of data centers from data usage, only 5% of AI talent in Africa has access to the computational power necessary for complex AI tasks,” the report notes.
However, the democratization of AI is already in progress, with around one in five respondents reporting that they already use Artificial Intelligence, according to the document.
