From Mail & Guardian

South Africa has been given last place in a study measuring the long-term ­sustainable development of 31 countries, despite three African countries making it into the top 10.

Global banking and investment company Standard Chartered Bank this week launched its Standard Chartered Development Index which that makes use of a number of measures including gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, education, life expectancy, environmental health and the sustainability of the environment to assess the long-term development potential of a country.

South Africa received the lowest score overall, based largely on a fall in life expectancy over the review period 2000-2012 and the long-term sustainability of its environment.

Saudi Arabia was in 30th place and Russia came 29th, based on its human-health rating.

China, which was buoyed somewhat by its GDP scores and its ­investment in education, was brought down by other categories like declining life expectancy and environmental health (which includes air pollution and the availability of fresh water), taking it to 22nd place.

But, it still scored a point higher than South Africa when it came to environmental health.

Best performers
Ghana, Uganda, Korea, Bangladesh and Singapore were the five best performers, followed by Egypt, Nigeria, India, Brazil and Indonesia.

The study did note that most of the top-ranking countries were low-income countries, which means they have potential for rapid GDP growth and greater catch-up potential in environmental health, life expectancy and education, which would influence their rating against more ­developed countries.

The study also found, however, that most advanced economies had grown “slowly, if at all, since 2007.”

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