Transcript THINK GLOBAL - ACT LOCAL: INDICES FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Jon Hall Human Development Report Office, UNDP Seeta Prabhu UNDP India.

THINK GLOBAL - ACT LOCAL:
INDICES FOR HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Jon Hall
Human Development Report Office, UNDP
Seeta Prabhu
UNDP India
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Why Do We Measure Human
Development?
What we measure affects what we do. If we
have the wrong metrics, we will strive for
the wrong things.
If our measurements are flawed, decisions
may be distorted
Joseph Stiglitz
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Why Do We Measure Human
Development
But different types of measurement reach different
audiences, affect different actions, and are used for
different decisions.
•
Indices vs Sets of Indicators vs Microdata
• Internationally Comparable Data vs National Data vs
Local Data
Strengths and Weaknesses with each
approach. We need an armoury of indicators to tackle the
world’s challenges, affect different levels of decision
making and influence all citizens.
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A Global Index
• Can be a powerful tool to encourage broad debate – the
media like to compare countries
• Can challenge conventional notions and paradigms – that
“economic growth leads to development” is no longer the
only game in town
But….
• Relies on the lowest common denominator of international
data
• Not locally owned … and can miss local contexts, local
innovations
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A National Index
• Can make use of more focused and relevant data
• Can be a vehicle for collecting more data
• Can address local problems
But….
• Lacks international context
• Can be controversial and/or more difficult to sell to
policy makers than an international standard
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Human Development and its
Measurement
Several important steps
Conceptual:
How to define human development?
Operational:
How to observe and measure its components and
determinants?
How to aggregate the different indicators to obtain a
commonly acceptable single index of human
development in order to measure its changes?
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Human Development and its
Measurement
A standard definition of human development as
“a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical
ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and
to enjoy a decent standard of living.”
A broader definition (2010 HDR):
“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”
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Principles
At the onset there were six basic principles (Ul Haq, 1998)
The HDI should
1. Measure the basic concept of human development to enlarge
people’s choices
2. Include a limited number of variables to keep it simple and
manageable
3. Be a composite rather than a plethora of separate indices;
4. Cover both social and economic choices;
5. Be sufficiently flexible in both coverage and methodology;
6. Not be inhibited by lack of reliable and up-to-date data series.
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Definition of HDI
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary
composite index that measures a country's average
achievements in three basic aspects of human
development: health, knowledge, and income.
The HDI was recognized from the onset as simple and
crude
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The Human Development Index
HDI Category:
NA
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
VERY HIGH
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What Does the HDI Tell Us?
• People and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria
for assessing the development of a country, not economic
growth alone.
• It can also be used to question national policy choices, asking
how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can
end up with such different human development outcomes.
• Example: Saudi Arabia has GNI per capita more than $2000
higher than Czech Republic, but life expectancy and expected
years of schooling differ greatly between the two countries.
 Czech Republic is much higher ranked than Saudi Arabia.
• These striking contrasts can directly stimulate debate about
government policy priorities.
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National Human Development Reports
• a policy advocacy document to generate
political attention and public debate;
• a process which provides space for democratic
debate
• presents people-centered recommendations
• contains objective analysis, accurate and
unbiased data
How Many?
Since 1992 some 700 national and sub-national
HDRs + 40 regional HDRs
Latin America and the Caribbean
131
Africa 168
Arab States 58
Europe and the CIS 247
Asia and the Pacific
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On What Themes?
Africa:
HIV/AIDS, gender, governance, poverty, peace and postconflict reconstruction
Asia:
Gender, agriculture, democracy, empowerment
Latin America:
Social capital, people’s participation, vulnerability
Arab States:
Knowledge and information, youth, general HD
Eastern Europe/CIS countries:
Role of the state, market transition, ICT, peace and human
security, HIV/AIDS
5 Ways To Act Local
• Introduction of a new composite index
• New issues from an HD perspective
• Expanding the analysis of HD
• New data sources: household and perception surveys
• Disaggregation
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5 Ways To Act Local
1. Introduction of a new composite index
• The Arab States Report (2003) introduced a measure of
knowledge based on years schooling, use of newspapers,
radios and tv, the numbers of scientists, patent
applications, published books, telephone lines and
internet providers
• The Bosnia & Herzegovnia Report (2007) measured social
exclusion, looking at the long term unemployed and
people below the poverty line, people without health
insurance, people without primary school education,
people not voting or participating in social activities,
people without a telephone
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5 Ways To Act Local
1. Introduction of a new composite index
Plus
– Russia (2004) – Knowledge Index
– Ghana (2007) – Inclusion Index
– Costa Rica (2005) – Citizen Insecurity Index
– Colombia (2003) – Armed Conflict Index
– Mexico (2004) – Political Competition Index
– Thailand (2003) – Human Achievement Index
– Nepal (2004) – Human Empowerment Index
– Chile (2004) – People’s Power Index
– Delhi (2006) – Quality of Service Index
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5 Ways To Act Local
2. New issues from an HD perspective
– The Egypt Report (2001) looks at how
globalization interacts with human development
– The China Report (2002) reviews the nexus
between environmental challenges and people’s
health and livelihoods
– The Peru Report (2005) looks at economic, social
and political competitiveness
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5 Ways To Act Local
3. Expanding the analysis of HD
– The Georgia Report (2002) explores different
definitions of poverty (including intermediate and
extreme poverty)
– The Mozambique Report (2007) looks at HIV Aids
and its implications on demographic, social and
economic development.
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5 Ways To Act Local
4. New data sources: household and perception
surveys
– The Latvia Report (2001) surveyed the public and policy
makers to investigate whether people had sufficient voice in
the policy process
– The Central and Eastern Europe Regional Report (2003)
surveyed 5000 Roma to analyze their Human Development
– The Somalia Report (2012) surveyed 3500 young people to
understand their feelings, frustrations and potential
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5 Ways To Act Local
5. Disaggregation
– The Bulgaria Report (2000) calculated a municipal HDI for
262 Bulgarian towns
– The Kyrgyzstan Report (2002) looks at HDI according to
different altitudinal zones
– The El Salvador Report (2008) looks at HDI according to
labour force status
– Plus Uganda (2002), Nepal (2001), Malawi (2001), Mongolia
(2003), Egypt (2003 &04), Lebanon (1998)
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Going Local-Human Development
Reports in India
India has the largest number
of sub-national HDRs globally
• 25 Sub National/State
• 44 District
• 2 City
• 2 National
• 2 award winning SHDRs
Chhattisgarh and West
Bengal
• District HDR awards Manav
Vikas in 2012
Three key features: Government owned
participatory and independence of analysis
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HDI Computed at District Level
Serious data challenges
• Lack of data on income and HD indicators at the
required level of disaggregation
• Non comparability of data across time points
• Lack of consistency of data from different sources –
variations across department, district and state level
• Non availability of data disaggregated by sex and social
group
• Data constraints have led to adaptation of indicators
used for HDI and poverty –
– Reciprocal of IMR combined with life expectancy at age one used
in place of life expectancy
– Consumption expenditure used as proxy for income/poverty
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Innovations in HD Measurement
at Local Level
• Use of HD Radars India NHDR 2002,
Bankura DHDR
• HDI and HPI for Social
Groups- Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled
Tribes
• Inequality Adjusted
HDI for States in India
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Innovations Enabling HD
Measurement at Local Level
• District Human Development
Report Cards- PAHELIPeople’s Audit of Health,
Education and Livelihood
– Data collection becomes an
engaging and participatory
exercise
– Pictographic and easy to
understand survey tools usedin local languages
– Wider dissemination of report
cards possible to encourage
greater public participation in
planning
Sample PAHELI Toolkit
Sample HD District Report Card
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Impact of Local Level HDRs
Low HDI districts prioritized by State governments for
• Resource allocation across regions – Finance
Commission, State governments
• Local level planning for improving HD indicators
• Establishing special institutional mechanisms – Human
Development Missions in Bihar and Maharashtra
• Detailed diagnostic studies in wards with low HDI in
cities – Mumbai M-Ward initiative led by municipality
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Impact of Local Level HDRs
Local level HDRs have led to
• New programmatic initiatives to tackle specific issues –
Education Guarantee Scheme in Madhya Pradesh
• Impetus to collection of statistics on HD at local level
• Sensitized local elected representatives to human
development issues in their constituencies
• Enabled people’s participation in planning processes –
Chhattisgarh HDR – 17000 village report cards
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HDI as a Tool to Assess Inclusion
• Inclusion a much aspired objective of development policy
in many countries in the global south including India
• No widely accepted composite measure of inclusiveness
of human development outcomes or growth exists
• Computing HDI disaggregated by regional, income levels
and across the divides of various social groups an answer
• Example- HDI, HPI for marginalized groups like indigenous
people and religious and ethnic minorities
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Conclusions
• Think Global: The purpose of HDI rankings is to
stimulate debate and policy discussion
• Act Global: The HDI data show there are different
paths to development
• Think Local: A wealth of knowledge in 20 years’
worth of national reports and a wealth of innovation
too
• Act Local: local data are needed for local problems
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More Information @ WWW.HDR.UNDP.ORG
WWW.UNDP.ORG.IN
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