DOHA: Qatar has outperformed in the GCC and the rest of the world in most areas, including income, income equality, employment, health, infrastructure, civil society and governance, when it comes to its current-level of sustainable economic development assessment (SEDA) scores, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting and advisory firm.
Qatar has topped average scores of the GCC and the rest of the world and lags behind in environment and economic stability.
In terms of education, Qatar underperforms relative to the GCC but exceeds the median score of the rest of the world. Compared to the GCC and the rest of the world, Qatar showed strong recent-progress scores in governance, economic stability, health and employment.
“Qatar must focus on reversing the recent backward trend on dimensions such as environment and civil society or risk falling behind other GCC states,” said Douglas Beal, Partner and Managing Director, BCG Middle East, and a coauthor of the report.
“Qatar’s strong and improving recent-progress scores in governance, economic stability, health, and employment serve as a basis to support future progress and advancements. Overall SEDA provides a powerful diagnostic foundation which can be used to help identify policy priorities.”
The findings were revealed by BCG’s latest SEDA study. The fact-based, comprehensive analysis measured the relative well-being of 149 countries, including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and the Saudi Arabia, and their performance in converting wealth to well-being along social and economic indicators.
Results highlight a new global divide and the fact that more than half of the global population lives in countries falling behind in sustainable development. They also challenge the conventional wisdom regarding the expected growth patterns for middle-income countries.
SEDA defines well-being through economics, investments, and sustainability covering 10 key areas, or dimensions and assessment draws on about 50,000 data points. SEDA scores countries in two ways: As a snapshot – the current level of well-being – and as the amount of recent progress gained in well-being during 2006-2013.
Qatar outperforms the average of the GCC and the rest of the world in current-level and recent-progress scores in governance, health and employment. In governance, income, income equality, employment and health dimensions, Qatar is higher and moving ahead compared to the GCC.
In civil society and infrastructure dimensions, Qatar is higher but losing ground. Based on SEDA analysis, Qatar is lower but improving in economic stability and lower and falling further behind in education and environment – when stacked up against the average of the GCC.
Poland has the best record of converting economic growth into gains in well-being, and Singapore and northern European countries are top scorers in terms of current levels of well-being. Germany outstrips the US in converting wealth and growth into well-being.
Rwanda and Ethiopia hold top spots in improvements in well-being, and countries in sub-Saharan Africa – as a group – are making strong advances in health.
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