The Iranian National Day of Development
Picture someone hugging you and kissing you, and while you are enjoying the affection, he kicks you on your leg. How will you feel? You might get shocked, maintain distance, and try to figure out what's wrong!! first, you might think it has been an accident because it is totally illogical for someone to kiss and kick you at the same time. So, if he wants to hug you again you will give him a second chance. Once more a kick but this time harder… Now you feel different! The kicker should have a reason to explain what he did!
Although there is a variety of definitions for “development”; all have a common concept which is about quantitative and qualitative improvement in a nation’s life. Development is about how people live. Any investment in a country like correcting the law or providing infrastructure must be at the service of the people living in that country (let’s say society). Iranian history demonstrates that there have been periods in this country when governments have been trying to say how much they give value and respect to their people, but at the same time, they have been kicking them! On the other hand, the variety of social groups in society has provided the opportunity for the government to love some and kick others. But this has been one of the important cognitive mistakes! Development is a multidimensional concept that is used to explain the condition of a whole society which includes organs like the human body. Different social groups and citizens are never apart from each other and society is a live mechanism. The inappropriate approach of the government towards different aspects of development and different social groups never leads to development because it sacrifices “trust”.
development is a collective effort and a result of the trust between society and government. If any part of society or political system does not support developmental actions; not only development will not occur but also the same contradiction of kiss and kick emerges. After a few kicks, you will not believe those kisses anymore and this is the beginning of the demolition.
This year for the third year, “Pooyesh Fekri Tosee” has published a yearly report of the composite index of development (CID). When we speak of development, we need to apply a historical approach and figure out where we got a kiss and where we were kicked! We need an index to not only depict the current condition of countries but also how they have reached this condition. We need numbers and indexes to measure and discuss development. In order to create a realistic and holistic image of countries’ development, we have tried to collect data from global indexes and combined them by applying scientifically-approved methodology. We hope this new index could help us to have a more transparent understanding of what is going on in Iran and other countries as well.
The current version of CID has collected data from international indexes in 2022 and presented a new country ranking. In this ranking, Iran has scored 117 among 154 countries which in comparison to the previous year had dropped 12 ranks. In this report, we have discussed the puzzle of development in Iran in detail. Denmark, Finland, and Norway are the countries at the top of the ranking, and Afghanistan, Chad, and Yemen have received the lowest ranks.
In general, the world has developed in 2022 but this development is mostly due to the individual aspect of development (mostly standard of living) as the overall performance of the world in the political, social, and environmental aspects of development has dropped in 2022. Although Europe and North America are leading; some Latin American countries such as Chili are growing fast and surprisingly an Asian Country, South Korea has officially joined the well-developed countries group in the CID ranking.
Considering The Middle East, Iraq has achieved remarkably better scores and ranking in comparison to its performance in 2021. In the Asian context, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Saudi Arabia have performed well. On the other hand, Turkey has been underperforming in 2022.
Check the website of Pooyesh-Fekri-Tosee and the “Development Book 1401” for updates and details.