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Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationship between human development and the capacity challenges to meet SDG 6.3.2 monitoring requirements. This negative relationship increases along the course of the monitoring process, from defining the enabling environment, choosing parameters for the collection of field data, to the analytics and analysis of five commonly used parameters (DO, EC, pH, TP and TN). Our assessment can be used to help practitioners improve technical capacity development activities and to identify and target investment in capacity development for monitoring.

Introduction Economic development is influenced by GDP, educational attainment, production capacity, and health service indicators. The sustainability of human capital and production capacity depends on high-quality healthcare services supported by efficient governance. This study aims to construct a health governance index by analyzing the relationship between health indicators and the Human Development Index (HDI) in Türkiye. Method This study utilizes a logarithmic differencing model to analyze quarterly data from Q1 2002 to Q4 2020. Annual health expenditure data is transformed into quarterly data. The methodology includes assessing data properties, testing for nonlinearity using the BDS (Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman) test, and exploring quantile-based relationships using Quantile-on-Quantile Regression (QQR). To further confirm the results, Quantile Regression (QR) is applied to analyze the differential effects across various quantiles. Variables Key variables include the Medical Service Quality Index (MDSQI), the Medical Service Capacity Index (MDSCI), and the Human Development Index (HDI). The study also considers the Health Economic Performance Capacity (HEPC) as an additional indicator to assess the broader health governance impact. Results The analysis reveals that the majority of data exhibits non-normal distribution characteristics. Significant improvements in the MDSQI and MDSCI positively influence both the HDI and HEPC in Türkiye. The findings suggest that better management of healthcare services correlates with higher human development outcomes. Robustness checks confirm the consistency and reliability of the results. Conclusion Efficient management of healthcare services and capacity significantly impacts HDI and HEPC in Türkiye. Increased healthcare expenditures enhance service quality and capacity, contributing to overall human development. Policy recommendations include investment in preventive healthcare, ensuring equal access, integrating health technology, enhancing human resource training, implementing inclusive health insurance, and securing sustainable funding to improve healthcare quality and ensure comprehensive coverage.

This work pursues two theoretical objectives: first, the instrumental one: to report on a \"Referential Pattern of Universal Values (RPUV)\" that allows simple mathematical formulations on certain basic concepts in Sociology; and second, the finalist : to propose, in the light of these formulations, a new \"Human Development Index (HDI)\" that can replace that of the United Nations and other organizations. This second objective will be based on three precise criticisms: first, because the known indices are limited to the sum of a few indicators, but they do not contemplate the totality of \"needs and values\" required in the RPUV; second, because the said sum does not reflect the internal imbalance between the indicators; and third, because it could be a quotient by incorporating the “export of arms” as a highly undesirable fact for humanity in the denominator . It will be easy therefore to see the fundamental role that the RPUV fulfills.

As a global financial center and one of the world’s first-tier cities, Hong Kong is committed to sustainable development and it expects to become the most sustainable city in Asia. With this in mind, this paper evaluates the level of sustainable development in Hong Kong considering the factors of ecological footprint, biocapacity, and the human development index (HDI) from 1995 to 2016, in order to make policy recommendations for transforming Hong Kong into a more sustainable city. Between 1995 and 2016, a period during which the HDI rose, the per capita ecological footprint of Hong Kong increased from 4.842 gha to 6.223 gha. Moreover, fossil energy consumption had a crucial impact on the city’s ecological footprint, whereas the biocapacity of Hong Kong declined gradually. By contrast, Singapore, a city-state with an area similar to Hong Kong’s, presented the opposite situation—the HDI increased while the ecological footprint decreased. We performed a further comparative analysis and a SWOT analysis of Singapore and Hong Kong to elaborate on how to decouple the large ecological footprint from human society development. Concluding that the focus must be on energy consumption, reduction of the human activities’ negative impacts on marine environment, citizens and government, we provide policy suggestions for transforming toward a “high HDI and low footprint” sustainable development society in Hong Kong.

Background Deaths from diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases are declining, but slowly in developing countries, emphasizing its probable relationship with determinants of social vulnerability. Objectives To analyze the temporal progression of mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases from 1980 to 2019 and the association of the rates with the Municipal Human Development Index and Social Vulnerability Index in Brazil. Methods We estimated the crude and standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases and analyzed the relationship between the obtained data and the Municipal Human Development Index and Social Vulnerability Index. Data on deaths and population were obtained from the DATASUS. The Municipal Human Development Index and the Social Vulnerability Index of each federative unit were extracted from the websites Atlas Brazil and Atlas of Social Vulnerability , respectively. Results The age-standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases showed a downward trend nationwide, which was unequal across the federative units. There was an inversely proportional relationship between the standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases and the Municipal Human Development Index. The downward mortality trend was observed when the indices were greater than 0.70 and 0.75, respectively. The Social Vulnerability Index was directly proportional to the standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases. An upward mortality trend was observed with a Social Vulnerability Index greater than 0.35. Conclusions Social determinants represented by the Municipal Human Development Index and the Social Vulnerability Index were related to mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases across the Brazilian federative units. The units with most development and least social inequalities had the lowest mortality from these causes. The most vulnerable die the most.

Many countries have implemented fiscal decentralization reform in recent decades, which has had a profound impact on their national development. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between fiscal decentralization and national development. To achieve this goal, we validated our proposition with panel data of 50 countries covering the period of 1991–2020 and used IV estimation to correct any potential endogeneity, with the Geographic Fragmentation Index as an instrumental variable. We used the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the level of national development, as it is a composite index that includes the three dimensions of economy, education, and health. The results show that there is a significant hump-shaped relationship between fiscal decentralization and the HDI. This result was robust when it was tested on an alternative sample covering the period of 2010–2021. The policy implication determined here is that governments should choose a moderate degree of fiscal decentralization in order to promote national development. We also discuss how to determine such a moderate degree of fiscal decentralization.

This paper builds on the extensive literature of the rank reversal issue in multicriteria decision making (MCDM) techniques. It is a continuation of the study of Sayed et al. (Soc Indic Res 123(1):1–27, 2015) that exhibited this problem in the human development index (HDI) framework. The proposed methodology, the Goal Programming Benefit-of-the-Doubt (GP-BOD), aims to overcome this problem and obtain consistent and stable rankings. For investigating the credibility of the proposed method in solving this issue, it has been applied to the HDI dataset in 2012. The resulted HDI rankings are compared with those evaluated from eleven overlapping sub-groups that are internationally categorized based on geographic regions and income levels. The results show a solution to the ranking contradictions problem. Among other merits, the results prove two additional features of the proposed GP-BOD model. First, the resulted countries’ rankings are distinguishable and absolutely tie-free. This enhances the discriminating power of the proposed rank preservation model. Second, the GP-BOD weights are evaluated on a common base to compare all countries on the same scale. Moreover, a lower bound is endogenously imposed on these weights to avoid the problem of zero weights. Finally, the validity of the proposed GP-BOD technique has been thoroughly examined using sensitivity tests. The results show stability in the rankings when different methods of normalization and weighting are applied.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of foreign aid on human capital and examines whether the fertility rate moderates this relationship. Using dynamic panel data from 119 aid recipient countries from 2002 to 2022, the results indicate that foreign aid is positively associated with human capital development measured by Human Development Index (HDI). The findings also show that fertility rates negatively moderate the impact of foreign aid on human capital. This suggests that foreign aid is less effective in improving human capital in countries with high fertility rates, highlighting the importance of incorporating measures that account for fertility rates in aid policies.

This study explores the relationship between oil prices and the Human Development Index (HDI) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It investigates whether oil prices remain the primary driver of economic growth and development in the region. The analysis employs a Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) approach and Cointegrated Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CCEMG) methods, following unit root and stationarity tests. The findings reveal an insignificant correlation between oil prices and HDI in the overall GCC countries. However, significant relationships are observed at the individual country level. These results suggest that policymakers in the region should prioritize economic diversification and focus on sectors such as tourism in Dubai and the specific policies implemented in Saudi Arabia to foster sustainable development.

The article aims to analyze approaches to evaluating secondary education effectiveness across various countries by examining the relationship between public expenditures and students' corresponding learning outcomes, as well as broader societal efficiency indicators. The research explores the correlation between general secondary education funding and international PISA assessment results, alongside the relationship between societal efficiency indicators – such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) – with educational expenditures and investments in research and development (R&D).The findings demonstrate a non-linear relationship between PISA scores in countries that participated in the 2015, 2018, and 2022 assessments and the cumulative nine-year education funding per 15-year-old schoolchild, expressed in USD at PPP. This relationship is best approximated by an inverted parabola with a peak.Using PISA 2022 as a case study, the educational characteristics of leading countries (Vietnam, Singapore, Macau, Japan) and underperforming countries (Qatar, Panama, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand) were analyzed. These countries' educational outcomes fall outside the standard deviation range.Approaches to evaluating the overall efficiency of education systems were also tested, utilizing widely recognized indicators such as the HDI, GDP per capita at PPP, and the share of public expenditures allocated to R&D. A model was developed to analyze the interrelation between the HDI, R&D expenditures, and per-student educational spending in connection with student performance for a group of countries with high R&D investments.The resulting determination coefficient is R² = 69,7% and confirms the statistical significance of this relationship. The model demonstrates that increased R&D spending has a lesser impact on the HDI compared to educational expenditures on secondary education, adjusted for PISA scores. This finding suggests that, even for developed countries, prioritizing human capital general development through educational investment remains more critical than allocating additional resources to the R&D sector.