Residents in the troubled far southern provinces of Pattani and Narathiwat are among people with the lowest quality of life in Thailand, the latest United Nations report says.

Thailand Human Development Report 2007, launched yesterday at Government House, also identified specific actions that would help the Kingdom progress toward its goal of a sufficiency economy.

Among the key recommendations are to "provide the landless and land-poor with land from the extensive reserves of land that is unused" and "implement community control over local resources that was promised in the 1997 Constitution by passing the Community Forest Bill and other enabling legislation".

The report's assessment of quality of life used 40 indicators covering health, education, employment, income, housing and living environment, family and community life, transport and communication, and political participation.

The top 10 and bottom 10 provinces in the index came as no surprise. Residents of Phuket, Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi, Songkhla, Sing Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Rayong and Samut Prakan have the highest quality of life.

At the opposite end of the index were Mae Hong Son, Tak, Surin, Kamphaeng Phet, Si Sa Ket, Narathiwat, Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Phanom, Phetchburi and Nong Bua Lamphu.

Interestingly, residents in Bangkok and nearby provinces who were on top of the income index turned out to be among the lowest in terms of political participation. And, people in Isaan (the Northeast) with poor incomes were found to be very politically active.

"The maps [of income index and participation index] are the opposite of each other.

"The richer people become, the less engaged they are," noted Hakan Bjorkman, UN Development Programme (UNDP) director.

In 1990, UNDP initiated its first human development report to offer an alternative to conventional assessments that focused simply on economic growth as advocated by the World Bank.

It emphasised quality of life in measuring development achievement or failure.

It found that many countries like Thailand had shown impressive economic performance but overall progress came with stark inequalities.

Here, access to public health services is skewed and maternal fatality remains very high, especially in the mainly Muslim provinces in the South.

Child malnutrition persists among hill-tribe people, while safety at work is uncertain in industrial zones, and pollution and natural disasters are on the increase.

Despite boasts by politicians and others about Thailand's success in limiting the spread of HIV/Aids in the recent decades, the report found that the epidemic was on the move again among at-risk groups in the South and in industrial areas.