Charter of the Economy years of schooling at 35 percent, while the smallest difference is 7 percent is in the case of life expectancy. This clearly highlights the fact that Pakistan will have to attach the highest priority to education if it is to catch up with the rest of South Asia. Table 26.2: Trend in HDI of Pakistan Year HDI ACGR(%) 1990 0.402 ­2000 0.447 1.06 2010 0.512 1.36 2014 0.530 0.86 2019 0.557 0.99 Source: UNDP, GHDR Table 26.2 above gives the trend in the HDI of Pakistan from 1990 onwards, when it was first constructed by UNDP. The fastest growth rate was from 2000 to 2010. There are two possible explanations for higher growth during this decade. First, the GDP growth rate was higher especially in the Musharraf era. Second, the provision of social services was largely devolved to district Governments. This probably led to a better reflection in expenditures of people’s preferences and to greater efficiency in the provision of services. Table 26.3 highlights the variation in the HDI by location from 2006-07 to 2018-19. This has been done for the first time for Pakistan in the 2020 National HDR of UNDP. Two important conclusions emerge from the Table. First, there is a big gap of almost 20 percent between the urban HDI and the rural HDI. Fortunately, this gap has narrowed somewhat since 2006. However, this will be a need for greater focus on service provision in rural areas. Second, there is significant variation both in the level and rate of change in the HDI of the Provinces of Pakistan. On the positive side, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a relatively backward Province, has shown the fastest growth in the HDI. However, Baluchistan has a HDI over 20 percent lower than that of Sindh, which has the highest HDI. It has also shown little improvement in the HDI. Table 26.3: Trend in the Level of HDI by Location and by Province 2006-08 2018-19 Urban 0.606 0.641 Rural 0.483 0.527 Ratio 0.797 0.822 By Province Punjab 0.527 0.472 Sindh 0.529 0.574 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 0.491 0.546 Balochistan 0.470 0.473 Ratio* 1.125 1.213 *HDI of highest Province divided by HDI of the lowest Province. Source: UNDP, NHDR 2020 Annual Growth Rate (%) 0.47 0.73 ­0.68 0.68 0.88 0.05 ­266