Government

What’s holding SA back from social progress

Staff Writer

 ·19 Apr 2015

The Social Progress Imperative’s 2015 Social Progress Index shows that poor levels of personal safety, failure to meet basic needs and intolerance towards immigrants are holding South Africa back, socially.

The index report defines “social progress” as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.

To determine how countries rank in this, the index looked at three main categories (Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity) and country performance in three to five sub-categories.

According to the index, Nordic nations dominate the upper reaches of social progress, led by Norway, which had the highest score of 88.36.

On the other side of the index, African countries largely accounted for the nations with the least social progress, with the Central African Republic ranking last with an index score of 31.42.

Costa Rica (+8.37), Uruguay (+4.95) and Moldova (+4.72) were the biggest gainers on the index, while Saudi Arabia (-18.27), Angola (-17.59) and Iraq (-14.63) were the biggest droppers.

Top 10 countries for social progress

Bottom 10 countries for social progress

According to the index, South Africa ranks 63rd out of 133 countries for social progress – described as “lower-middle social progress – with an index score of 65.64.

This is the second highest score on the African continent, behind Mauritius, ranked 36th, with a score of 73.66.

South Africa’s social progress scorecard shows that it falls down in seeing to basic human needs (ranked 92nd overall), with the poorest showing in personal safety, where it ranks 129th.

This is emphasised by high levels of violent crime, a high homicide rate and 31.9 traffic deaths per 100,000 of the population.

Social Progress score card – South Africa (click to enlarge)

South Africa performs very poorly in this category, with weakness on three of its components: Nutrition and Basic Medical Care and Shelter.

“This reflects the legacy of apartheid, since basic infrastructure was inadequate and public investments were not made necessary for the majority of the population. The data also shows that investments since 1994 have not been sufficient to offset this history,” the report said.

On the up-side, however, South Africa is seen as a great land of opportunity, ranking 37th overall in that segment.

“On the Opportunity dimension, the scorecard shows that South Africa over-performs relative to its economic peers, exhibiting particular strengths in Personal Rights and Personal Freedom and Choice. This reflects the priority given to such issues in the post-apartheid constitutional arrangements,” the report said.

This is accentuated by strong personal rights, personal freedom and choice and in tolerance and inclusion. Tolerance for immigrants marked the country down, however.

“Overall, South Africa ranks 63rd on the Social Progress Index and 62nd on GDP per capita, showing average performance on relative social progress,” the report said.

“South Africa has a variety of social progress deficits, spanning a wide range of issues.”

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