Measuring development
Quantitative Measures
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Measuring development using numbers and
statistics, collected in each countries census:
Task - which of the indicators are social? Which
are economic?
Social Development Indicators
(health, water and education)
Economic Development Indicators
(income, possessions and ability to buy things)
Single Economic indicators
• GDP (Gross Domestic Product) – The
value of goods and services produced in a
country.
• PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) GDP per
person (average income) taking into
account local exchange rates and prices.
Task - what would life be like as a child
growing up in these countries?
• You are going to work out which of the 9
countries is the most developed and which
is the poorest using a variety of
quantitative indicators
• Your choice of indicators is up to you
Tasks
When you finished the worksheet:
1. Write a definition for each measure you have used.
2. Compare your ‘total development rank’ with the
‘GNP/capita’ ranking. Which countries moved up the
ranking? Which moved down? which stayed the
same? Try to explain the changes.
3. Why do you think the U.N. and others use more than
one development indicator?
Human development
Index 2007
Composite Development Indicators
• The Human Development Index is the principle
measure of development used by the UN since
1990 and It brings together both economic and
social indicators of development:
• Life expectancy.
• Adult literacy and educational enrolement in
Primary and Secondary.
• GDP per capita.
Human Development Index HDI
• What do they mean for life in those
countries?
• Can any of the indicators be linked up
together?
• The HDI can be used to categorise and
group different countries together
Task using the HDI rankings 2007, add 2
countries to each category:
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Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC)
More Economically Developed Countries (MEDC)
New Industrialised Country (NIC)
Recently Industrialised Country (RIC)
Developing countries
Developed countries
• BRIC countries
• OPEC countries
Human Poverty Index (HPI)
• Is another composite (put together)
measure of poverty.
Developing
countries
Developed
countries
Gender Equity Index (GEI)
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Male/ female life expectancy
Female/ male adult literacy
Male/ female incomes
66% of the world’s illiterate people are
women
• Women provide 70% of the unpaid time spent in caring for family
members. This unpaid work provided by women is estimated at US
$11 trillion per year – one third of the global GDP
• Women own 1% of the land in the world
• There are only 5 female Chief Executives in the ‘Fortune 500’
corporations, the most
• 7% of the world’s cabinet ministers are women
Why measure the equality between
men and women?
• YouTube - I Dare You
• YouTube - Poverty and Powerlessness for
Women - Islamic Relief
• YouTube - The Girl Effect
• What role does gender equality play in
poverty?
Why measure the equality between men and
women?
Women provide 70% of the unpaid time spent in caring
for family members.
Women own 1% of the land in the world
There are only 5 female Chief Executives in the ‘Fortune
500’ corporations
7% of the world’s cabinet ministers are women.
3 million lose their lives as a result of gender based
violence.
Democratic Republic of Congo
BBC3 programme - most dangerous place for
women
Focus questions:
1.Why are women being attacked in the
DRC?
2.How might the treatment of women in
DRC affect poverty of the country?
Measuring Inequality
• The difference between the richest people
and the poorest people within a
country
Differences in national income equality around the world is measured by the
national Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1,
where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same
income) and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality (where one person has
all the income, and everyone else has zero income).
Quantative Indicators The Advantages
• You can compare the development of
Countries across the world and measure
them by accepted indicators.
• Charities, UN and countries governments
can use the indicators to set goals and
targets to improve their development e.g
The Millenium Development Goals (MDG)
Millenium Development Goals
(MDG)YouTube - GOOD: The UN
Millennium Declaration
• Set of goals to reduce poverty
• Development of the world can be measured against the
success of the 8 goals eg. To achieve universal primary
education.
• Overall success: incomes rose, extreme poverty
declined, child mortality decreased, life expectancy rose.
• Asia had the fastest progress
• Sub Saharan Africa in crisis, some African countries are
going backward.
• Latin America, Middle East and North Africa are making
slow progress
How is China doing?
Quanitative measures:
• Purchasing Power Parity has increased from
$554 in 1980 to $5383 in 2007
• Its economy has grown 9.8% every year for last
10 years.
• 2nd largest exporter of goods in the world
• Shanghai and Piers Morgan
China, human rights and poverty
Piers Morgan on Shanghai
YouTube - The Human cost of the Olympics
YouTube - China's widening wealth gap - 17
Oct 07
• So do Quantitative indicators give us the
full picture?
Quantative indicators The drawbacks
• Are they reliable? Are they complete? eg. Afghanistan.
• Some countries are very rural eg Burkina Faso.
• Definitions of indicators differ GDP/ PPP
• Governments manipulate figures e.g. Zimbabwe
• Inequalities within each country e.g. China or Wales
• High GDP/ capita countries, does everyone benefit? E.g.
Saudi Arabia
Qualitative Indicators
Opinions and viewpoints form reports about the
‘things’ in a country which cannot be measured
Qualitative Indicators
Opinions and viewpoints form reports about the
‘things’ in a country which cannot be measured
Qualitative indicators
YouTube - From Poverty to Power - Promotional Video
These are based on viewpoints and opinions about specific
aspects of poverty and inequality:
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Justice
Freedom of speech
Treatment of the elderly
Treatment of indigenous groups
The role and status of women
Human rights
Measuring poverty in India
Quantitative indicators say:
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Life Expectancy 65 years
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PPP $2960
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Growth rate 7.4%
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4th largest economy in the world
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Dispatches is a Channel 4 current affairs programme. It can be used as a
Qualitative measure of poverty and development.
Focus questions:
1.
How did India develop so rapidly?
2.
What issues are being raised in the programme raising about India’s
poverty?
3.
Why are some of the poorest people in India getting poorer?
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YouTube - Untouchable? - India
Measuring poverty and
development in China
• 44 million new mobile phone users in the past 6 months
• 0 billionaires in 2002, 106 billionaires in 2008
• YouTube - Amnesty China Olympics cartoon
• YouTube - China's Silenced Voices | Amnesty
International
• YouTube - TankMan - Tiananmen Square Protests (with
John Lennon)
Advantages
• They focus on many issues to do with
quality of life, which are important but
difficult to measure.
• They also focus on the link between
people and their environment.
• They focus on inequality as a cause of
poverty
Qualitative measures of poverty and bias
USA Quantitative indicators:
• Life Expectancy 78 years
• PPP $46,970
• Growth rate -1%
• Largest economy in the world
• Largest exporter of services in the world
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Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko is about the health service in
USA. 1:40
Focus Questions:
1. What points is Michael Moore raising about poverty in USA?
2. In what ways might the documentary be biased?
Where is the bias?
Disadvantages
• Qualitative indicators are opinions and
subjective.
• Reports and documentaries come with
their own agendas.
• Its often difficult to compare country with
country. Openness of UK with extreme
restriction in China.
Happy Planet Index (H.P.I)
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This is a new indicator of development which is a score
based on both data and opinions. It looks at:
1. How satisfied people are with their lives (Qualitative)
2. How healthy they are (Life Expectancy)
3. Impact on the earth’s environment (Ecological
Footprint)
Global HPI | Global HPI | Explore | Happy Planet Index
If every person in the world lived
like a welsh person
Measuring poverty and inequality
has changed over time
• Earlier ideas – income only GNP, GDP, PPP
and the Brandt Line.
• Moved on to social indicators and deprivation
adult literacy, access to fresh water.
• Later qualitative indicators concerned with,
vulnerability, Inequality, Empowerment and
human rights.
• Happy Planet Index
• Human rights international accountability index
• Multi dimensional poverty Index (MPI)
Multi-dimensional Poverty Index
(MPI)
Based on survey questions and a sample of
the population the MPI asks:
• Does the family have a dirt floor?
• Does it have a decent toilet?
• Does the family have to walk more than 30
minutes on foot for fresh water?
• Did anyone in the family finish primary
school?