Transcript Slide 1

Human Development Report 2010 –
Some insights from the new Gender
Inequality Index
Jeni Klugman,
Director, Human Development Report Office, UNDP
Building Better: Gender & Human Development in Asia
11 February 2011
What is human development?
“Human development is the expansion of
people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and
creative lives; to advance other goals they
have reason to value; and to engage actively
in shaping development equitably and
sustainably on a shared planet. People are
both the beneficiaries and drivers of human
development, as individuals and in groups.”
(HDR, 2010)
Diverse and ambitious themes since 1990
Global HDR launched in 1990, published annually
since then, complemented and enriched by over
700 regional, national and sub-national HDRs
1. Concept and Measurement
2. Financing
3. Global Dimensions
4. People’s Participation
5. Human Security
6. Gender
7. Economic Growth
8. Poverty
9. Consumption
10. Globalization
11. Human Rights
12. New technologies
13. Democracy
14. MDGs
15. Cultural Liberty
16. Aid, trade and security
17. Water
18. Climate Change
19. Human Mobility
20. Pathways to Human
Development
40 years
of
progress
Worldwide trends in the Human Development Index, 1970 - 2010
What about missing dimensions?
• The HDI “captures a few of people’s choices and leaves out
many that people may value highly – economic, social and
political freedom, and protection against violence,
insecurity and discrimination, to name but a few.”
(HDR1990)
– (MDGs face similar criticisms)
 New measures for assessing inequality and multiple
dimensions of poverty, building on better data and
advances in methods
– Inequality adjusted HDI
– Gender Inequality Index
– Multidimensional Poverty Index
5
Gender Inequality Index
– Reflects inequality in achievements between
women and men in three dimensions – measured
against normative ideals in each dimension
– Significant data constraints affected the choice of
indicators – these data allow application to 138
countries around the world
 Interpretation: loss to potential HD due to
shortfalls in reproductive health, empowerment
and labor market participation (but not HDI loss).
Gender Inequality Index: method
The GII is composed of 3 dimensions made up of 5 indicators
Gender Inequality Index - Results
Global loss due to gender inequality is 56 percent
• Losses range from
less than 1/3 in
developed OECD
countries to nearly
3/4 in South Asia
• Reproductive health
is largest contributor
to gender inequality
worldwide
Mapping the results
Note: Countries are categorized according to GII scores into four quartiles, reflecting a relative grouping with 34-35 countries in each.
Significant variation by region and dimension
Maternal
mortality (per
GII Value
100,000 live
births)
Developed
OECD
Non-OECD
Developing
Arab States
East Asia and the
Pacific
Europe /Central Asia
Latin America / Caribbean
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
2010 HDI Categories
Very high
High
Medium
Low
World
Adolescent
fertility rate
(per 1000)
Seats in
parliament
(%)
Female Labour
force
participation
(%)
0.317
0.376
8
16
19.4
11.2
20.6
18.1
65.5
58.2
0.699
238
42.6
8.7
27.0
0.467
126
18.1
19.8
70.1
0.498
0.609
0.739
0.735
41
122
454
881
28.2
72.6
65.0
122.3
12.5
17.5
10.4
17.3
58.6
55.3
37.2
63.8
0.319
0.571
0.591
0.748
0.560
8
82
242
822
273
19.1
47.7
41.8
108.9
53.7
20.5
13.3
16.0
14.4
16.2
65.3
52.7
54.7
61.3
56.8
South Asia
• The worst losses of any region -- average loss of 74 percent
o Women lag behind men in all dimensions captured – especially
parliamentary representation, education and labour force participation
o Maternal mortality very high – averaging 454 deaths per 100,000 live
births
• All countries in the region perform poorly on GII:
o Worst performing are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal, each
exceed 70 percent
o Maldives and Sri Lanka perform relatively better – losses below 60
percent
East Asia and Pacific
• Lowest loss among developing regions - averages 47
percent
o Relatively low adolescent fertility rate and relatively
high parliamentary representation
• Among the best performing East Asia countries are those
which do well in the HDI overall
o Malaysia ranked 58th on HDI and 50th on GII
o China ranked 89th on HDI and 38th on GII
•Papua New Guinea ranked among the bottom 10 for GII
• High maternal mortality rate, less than 1%
parliamentary representation and low female
education achievements
Correlations with overall HDI
Losses due to gender inequality are largest in low HDI countries
• All low HDI countries in 2010 have GII score worse than 50 percent
Although 1/5 countries have at least high HDI and GII worse than 50 %
Correlation with inequality
• Countries with unequal distribution of human development
also experience high inequality between women and men
Insights and policy relevance
• Shines the light on the combined disadvantages facing women
in health, empowerment and labour market
• Allows cross country comparisons of key gender disadvantages
• Component indicators highlight areas in need of critical policy
intervention
eg maternal mortality
• Can be decomposed to examine the elements, and follow up
 eg women’s labour force participation rate still only around 60% of
men’s and global average for women in parliament only 16%
• Stimulates debate about the systematic disadvantages of
women.
 media coverage
Selected Media Headlines
• India is worse than Pakistan on gender equality - “India has made it to the
top 10 countries recording exemplary economic growth, but its story is
marred by appalling levels of gender inequality” The Times of India, Nov 2010
• At the bottom of the barrel - “With women at such a low priority level, is it
surprising that we languish below on other indicators too?”
Hindustan Times, Nov 2010
• India’s poor development record - “The gender inequality index is selfevident and underlines the idea that gender inequality lies at the core of a
group’s overall level of deprivation.” Business Standard, Nov 2010
• Analyzing Pakistan’s human development ranking – “One issue which needs
particular attention is the status of women in the country.”
The Express Tribune, Nov 2010
• Meeting the Asian Development Challenge - “Inequality for women remains
a major barrier to human development throughout Asia” Bangkok Post, Dec 2010
• Japan’s Gender Gap - “Japan is likely to sink deeper into stagnation unless
society can change in a way that makes it easier for women to play a greater
role” Editorial, Kyoto News, Dec 2010
GII advantages relative to other indices
• Holistic and integrated view: includes reproductive health and
empowerment
• Method penalises overlapping inequalities, and does not
allow for substitution
• Improvement over GDI and GEM.
o GDI could not be interpreted independently of HDI – so low HDI
countries did worse – this is not now necessarily the case –
o eg Burundi ranks 166 on HDI , 79 on GII
o Viet Nam ranks 113 on HDI and 58 on GII.
o Still data constrained – but avoids the weakest data. GDI and
GEM relied on income measures (estimated for ¾ of countries in
the sample)
o eg Qatar and Saudi Arabia lose 47 and 39 places respectively from GDI, as
observed participation rates are used instead of assumed income ratios
Comparing GII with alternate indices
• Other indices include:
o
o
o
o
Relative Status of Women Index – Dijkstra and Hammer (2000)
African Gender and Development Index - UNECA (2004)
Gender Equality Index - Social Watch (2005)
Gender Gap Index - World Economic Forum (2006)
• Because underlying frameworks differ, so too do results
• Some provide useful complementary findings on the
institutions that influence gendered outcomes
o Such as OECD’s 2009 Social Institutions and Gender Index and
EIU’s 2010 Women’s Economic Opportunity Index
Conclusions
“Gender inequality remains a major barrier to human
development. Girls and women have made major strides
since 1990, but they have not yet gained gender equity.”
2010 Human Development Report
• New measures cast important light on gender disparities in
health, empowerment and labour market participation
o Shows some societies disadvantage women in critical
dimensions, highlighting the need for more proactive public
policies
• Lack of accurate, timely, relevant and limited accessibility of
data remains a major obstacle, especially for global studies
 insights from regional and national reports
Gender in regional and national HDRs
Over 700 regional and national HDRs, including...
• Asia Pacific HDR (2000) Human Development in South
Asia, the Gender Question
• South Korea (2005) Gender
• China (2005) Towards Human Development with Equity
• India (2002) - gender equality and poverty
 Asia Pacific HDR (2010) Power, Voice and Rights: A
Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific