Science, technology and innovation (STI) are key to economic as well as social development especially in the areas of health, knowledge and standard of living. Extant literature explicitly states the crucial role STI have in propelling development and previous studies identified factors related to development but did not proceed to measuring the abilities of these factors to explain human development index (HDI). Through the lenses of National Innovation Capability Theory, Capability Approach Theory and Social Absorptive Capacities Theory, the researchers proposed and tested a model that predicts the quality of life by employing a positivist deductive quantitative mixed method cross-sectional archival research that involved data from 157 countries. General results revealed that the model is a good model as evidenced by model fit and quality indices and is able to account for or explain the variation in HDI by as much as 85%. Findings of the study provided an empirical model with metrics that can inform policy makers and program developers in the field of science, technology and innovation governance in its role to enhance the quality of life.