By KEN OPALA

Kenya has suffered a major development setback, dropping to United Nations rankings worse than a decade ago.

All quality of life indicators show that it is among the poorest of nations at position 123 out of the 162 countries cited in the UNDP's Human Development Report 2001. Despite global advances in technology, Kenya is in the family of nations that have suffered "setbacks in the human development index". Its rating this year is lower than it was in 1990, according to the report.

But Kenya's position is a slight improvement over the 1998 ranking, when it was placed 137 out of 174. Still, this year's ranking is dismal compared with relatively highly-placed Lesotho, Ghana, Namibia, Gabon, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Equitorial Guinea and Swaziland – countries perceived to be underdeveloped. Kenya ranks a mere point ahead of the Comoros. It also does better than Cameroon, Nigeria, Madagascar, Djibouti, Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. War-torn Sierra Leone is at the bottom of the list.

Among the factors behind Kenya's decline are the Aids epidemic, poverty, less foreign investment, failure to capitalise on the boom in information technology and a high level of brain drain.

In terms of technological advancement, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Mozambique fall in the bracket of the "marginalised". The US and UK are at the top, Spain and Italy are "potential leaders" and Egypt, Algeria and Zimbabwe are "dynamic adopters".

Kenya has declined in adopting technology when other regions have registered improvements in the past 30 years. East Asia and the Pacific have made rapid progress in most areas – from expanding knowledge to improving survival and raising standards of living, says the report.

Internet technology is reportedly still "raw" in the country. There were only two internet hosts in Kenya for 10,000 people, according to the report, compared with Finland's ratio of two people for every host.

South Africa, the highest placed African country, has 17 hosts for 10,000 users. Only 11 out of 1,000 Kenyans have phones. In South Africa, the figure is 270 for 1,000.

Kenya reportedly lacks a policy on information and communication technologies. Although the Government has lately created a department in the Planning Ministry headed by Dr Juma Oketch, formal structures are yet to be established.

The message underpinning the report is that globalisation boosts development and that technology is a major factor in market competition.

For years, the UNDP stood aloof from the controversy surrounding genetically-motivated foods. But, in the current report, the agency recommends the use of such foods in fighting famine and malnutrition, which threatens millions in poor nations.

While acknowledging the environmental and health risks that need to be addressed, the report stresses the unique potential of GM techniques for creating virus-resistant, drought-tolerant and nutrient-enhanced crops.

However, the agency exhorts the developing world to establish a feedback mechanism to establish whether or not the benefits of technology are reaped. Says the report: "In Kenya, it took 18 months to approve the research use of transgenic sweet potatoes, despite the very low risk involved."

The report also says developing countries are losing billions of dollars as a result of emigration of professionals. India, for instance, loses as much as $2 billion a year owing to brain drain to the US.