Human Poverty Index Research Articles

Macro-level drivers of multidimensional poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Explaining change in the Human Poverty Index

Poverty is increasingly recognised as a multidimensional phenomenon in the development literature, encompassing not only income, but also a range of factors related to broadening an individual’s freedoms to live a life of their own choosing. Poverty so understood suggests that alternative approaches to poverty measurement reflecting this multidimensionality may point towards alternative policies for poverty alleviation. The imperative to reinforce pro-poor policy development in sub-Saharan Africa with evaluation findings that reflect improvements in well-being, rather than solely improvements in national economies, has become self-evident as, despite decades of market-led development policies, much of the subcontinent remains mired in deprivation. As recognised by the 2014 African Evaluation Association’s biannual conference, fresh thinking and new evaluation metrics are required in order to create policies that more effectively increase well-being. This article explores the factors that may account for changes in one metric of multidimensional poverty in developing countries, the United Nation Development Program’s Human Poverty Index (HPI), and will be primarily concerned with measuring the effects on the HPI of policies and activities that relate to, or are explicitly meant to encourage, economic growth, increased literacy and improved health. The study focuses on the outcomes of a panel data set, created for the purpose of this study, of HPI scores for a set of 47 sub-Saharan countries, between 1990 and 2010, and a range of indicators that the development literature and theory suggest should have an effect on income poverty, asking, what is the relationship between these indicators and multidimensional poverty? A parallel set of models has been developed to measure the response of household consumption expenditure to changes in economic growth and human capabilities indicators. All models are estimated using fixed effects estimators and cluster robust standard errors in Stata 12. Consistent with the development literature, household expenditure appears to be significantly and positively related to changes in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. However, when the HPI is regressed on GDP per capita, no statistically significant relationshipis observed, even when controlling for a range of other indicators, calling into question the relationship between economic growth and well-being in much of sub-Saharan Africa. This finding suggests that development policies that focus primarily on economic growth as a means to addressing multidimensional deprivation may be misplaced.

Enrollment and Distribution of Disabled at Primary Schools in Nepal

The issue of education for disabled children is of major concern with a view to achieve the goal of universal primary education. Nepal, being a signatory of Education for All and the Salamanca Declaration (1994), has adopted a policy of inclusive education ensuring the presence, participation and achievement of children having different abilities in the schools. Altogether 53,681children (1.3percent of the total enrolment) having different abilities were enrolled at primary schools of Nepal in 2009. Of them the proportion of children with physical and mental disabilities was high as compared to other types. The enrolment of disabled children varies spatially by region and district. Among disabled enrolled at primary school, The Western and Mid-western Mountain Region share the highest proportion i.e. 3.7 percent each. Among district, Surkhet shows the highest proportion (4.3 percent) of disabled children enrolled. Socio-economic condition of the household and disability of children are directly or indirectly interlinked. The positive correlation between district level Human Poverty Index (HPI) and enrolment of children having disability clearly show this. However, the role of other factors cannot be undermined. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v11i0.11553The Third PoleVol. 11-12Page : 45-49

Social Inequalities and International Trade: A Cross-Country Perspective

In this article we study the role of social inequalities in international trade using the theory consistent gravity model. In addition to the standard set of gravity variables we use aggregate social development indicators such as Human Development Indices (HDI), Human Poverty Index (HPI), Gender Development Index (GDI), as well as detailed measures reflecting various forms of social inequalities. Our results show that measures of social inequalities significantly affect the volume of international trade flows.

Multidimensional poverty index of totos- The smallest and primitive tribe in jalpaiguri district of West Bengal

The Toto is one of the smallest and primitive tribe of our country. Due to isolation these people are able to preserve their primitive culture. They had settled only in a small village situated on the western bank of the river Torsha. This area located on the border area between India and Bhutan. Its distance from Jalpaiguri district town is 100 k.m. North –East and 67 km North –West from Alipurduar sub divisional town and 21 km North only from Madarihat. In the old days the Totos were exclusively dependent on the forest products. Hunting and gathering of timber, fruits and forest nuts constituted their main source of living. But in course of time they have brought changes in their style of living, since their initial sources of income gradually became harder. Later they worked as porters and carried oranges from Bhutan to the sellers of plain area for their subsistence and livelihood. Recently government has taken many steps to facilitate the living hood of Totos, primary school, high school and health centers are there in Toto para. In this paper an attempt has been taken to measure the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index of Toto community. Poverty was measured in Human Development Reports through the Human Poverty Index (HPI) from 1997–2009. In 2010, the MPI replaced the HPI. The MPI addresses the imperfections of HPI by allowing comparisons across countries or regions of the world, as well as within-country comparisons between regions, ethnic groups, rural and urban areas. The MPI reveals the combination of deprivation that strike a household at the same time. A household is considered as multidimentionally poor if it is deprived in some combination of indicators whose weight sum is 30% or more of the dimension.

A Study on Poverty and Hunger in India

Poverty is not simply a lack of adequate income. It is a social phenomenon in which a section of a society is unable to fulfil even its basic necessities of life. Even with more than a thousand analysis and hundreds of programs to alleviate poverty, the level of poverty has not decreased up to the mark in the world. India is continuing to face this issue in spite of its development in many areas of operation. Article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of United Nations1 states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”. This right is further reaffirmed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. But this basic right is not conferred on many people. The Human Development Indicator shows that India stands in the 136th position among 186 countries with an index of 0.554 and is in the lowest ebb of the Medium Human Development. Hence this paper intends to study the intensity of poverty and hunger in India by appraising the indices like Global Hunger Index, Below Poverty Line Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index calculated by various global institutions. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) uses indicators of the most basic dimensions of deprivation of human life already reflected in the HDI like longevity or survival, knowledge and a decent standard of living. Hence this study studies the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which also reflects the HDI. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n12p147

Relación entre la educación y los componentes del índice de pobreza de Amartya Sen: Un análisis en Colombia

<p align="justify">El presente artículo abordó la relación entre educación y los componentes del índice de pobreza propuesto por Amartya Sen para el caso colombiano. La pobreza es un problema cuya discusión asume una relevancia mundial como elemento de impacto social crítico, por lo que es necesario diseñar procesos de medición coherentes con su magnitud. Las <em>medidas absolutas </em>de pobreza pueden dejar fuera de consideración ele- mentos asociados a su emergencia en diversos contextos o circunstancias sociales. Este estudio retomó los planteamientos que Amartya Sen hace sobre la pobreza en relación con medidas que no solamente se asocian al ingreso, la línea de pobreza o las necesida- des básicas insatisfechas sino que además, conectan con el desarrollo y la libertad en el marco de las capacidades humanas. Así, se tuvieron en cuenta consideraciones sobre la pobreza en Latinoamérica y Colombia, la teoría de las capacidades y su relación con la libertad y la educación como libertad instrumental, con el fin de presentar un método para medir pobreza y sus relaciones con las capacidades humanas. Para el análisis esta- dístico se trabajó con las Variables de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares (DANE, 2010) y se analizaron un total de 226.302 hogares dentro de una población de 44´216.992,26 habitantes, con estos datos se pudo establecer para el año 2010 el índice Sen de pobreza y proveer bases conceptuales para medirla en relación con la educación a partir este modelo explicativo para el caso colombiano.</p>

Explaining the African food riots of 2007–2008: An empirical analysis

A sharp escalation in worldwide commodity prices precipitated the global food crisis of 2007–2008, affecting the majority of the world’s poor, causing protests in developing countries and presenting policymakers with the challenge of simultaneously addressing hunger, poverty, and political instability. These food price shocks fomented violent civil responses in some countries, but not others, offering a unique opportunity to assess the factors that contributed to these disturbances. We explore this question empirically with specific reference to Africa, where “food riots” occurred in at least 14 countries. By examining the socio-economic and political conditions facing African countries, we attempt to answer why only some countries in Africa witnessed food riots in late 2007 and early 2008, while others did not. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that higher levels of poverty (as proxied by the Human Poverty Index), restricted access to and availability of food, urbanization, a coastal location, more oppressive regimes and stronger civil societies are associated with a higher likelihood of riots occurring. We also examine three country cases (Egypt, Mozambique, Niger) which represent different circumstances and responses to the food crisis, and identify specific factors that were associated with food protests in each case. Our study highlights the importance of pro-poor policies and investments and improved governance in addressing the problems facing the poor and in helping secure political stability. As the frequency and variability of natural disasters increase in response to climate change, such policies can serve to protect the poor from the debilitating consequences of the resulting shocks.

Comparison of Old and New Methodology in Human Development and Poverty Indexes: A Case of the Least Developed Countries

The most common indicators for measuring the countrieseconomic level are the macroeconomic aggregates such as the per capita Gross National Product or Gross National Income. Though they reflect the creation of added value, their drawback is that they do not include aspects such as the social, political, cultural or environmental side. It is therefore necessary to create and use alternatives for measuring ongoing economic development. These alternatives can be indicators that reflect socio-economic development and the degree of economic deprivation, and include the Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index, or Multidimensional Index of Poverty. As the world economy changes, such as bio-social system, the structure of these two indices are also changing in order to better reflect the conditions and state of economies. This paper deals with the development of both human development and poverty indexes in general and, secondly, their empirical research focusing on the poorest part of the world - the Least Developed Countries. A two-sided comparison of traditional and new formulations of these indices found significant differences in achieved levels. The analysis shows that using the new methodology, human development index worsened values of individual economies, with the exception of three countries. The results of a new methodology of poverty indexes are not so clear, but more satisfactory, since nearly half of economies did not change the values and eight countries improved their situation in relation to poverty.

Poverty Profiling of the Estuarine Set Bag Net Fishermen Community in Bangladesh

Poverty is a major threat to the coastal communities specially the estuarine set-beg net fishermen in Bangladesh. This study covers the poverty profiling of this community through traditional approaches as well as sustainable livelihoods approach. The headcount ratio of the investigated villages ranged between 43% and 74% with an average 52% which is higher then the national poverty level (37.4%) of Bangladesh. Livelihoods assets profiling shows that high level of poverty is prevailing in all the capital assets needed for the sustainable livelihoods of the estuarine set bag net fishermen. Poverty levels of different livelihood components are quantified using fuzzy method. Human poverty index, physical poverty index, social poverty index, financial poverty index and natural poverty index of the estuarine set bag net fishermen community of Bangladesh are found to be 0.64, 0.29, 0.66, 0.55 and 0.85 respectively. Natural, social and human poverty levels are found to be very much acute among the five capital assets investigated.

A Global Survey of Low Vision Service Provision

Purpose: To conduct a global survey of low vision services to describe the needs, priorities, and barriers in provision and coverage.Methods: Data were mainly derived from a survey and from some secondary sources. The survey was distributed to Vision 2020 contacts, government, and non-government organizations (NGOs) in 195 countries during 2006–2008. Themes in the survey were: epidemiology of low vision, policies on low vision, provision of services, human resources, barriers to service delivery, equipment availability, and monitoring and evaluation of service outcomes. Contradictory and/or incomplete data were returned for further clarification and verification. The Human Poverty Index was used to compare the findings from developed and developing countries.Results: Service availability was established for 178/195 countries, with 115 having some low vision service. Approximately half the countries in the African and Western Pacific regions have no services. Few countries have >10 low vision health professionals per 10 million of population. In many of the countries NGOs were the main providers and funders. Funding and awareness were frequently cited as barriers to service access. Women, people with disabilities, and rural dwellers were less likely to access services. There were few reports of monitoring and evaluation into the quality and impact of services.Conclusion: This global survey provides the first consolidated baseline of low vision service provision. Where data are available, coverage of services is generally poor. Low vision health professional numbers are low. Services in over half of the world’s countries are funded by NGOs, raising issues of sustainability.

ASSESSING THE ROBUSTNESS OF COMPOSITE INDICES RANKINGS

Ranking objects in terms of different attributes is a crucial practice that is typically sensitive to the choice of attributes' weights. In this paper we present rigorous methods to assess the extent to which the weight‐based rankings are robust to the choice of alternative weights. Empirical illustrations are provided, showing the robustness of country rankings arising from the values of the UNDP Human Development Index, the Gender‐related Development Index, or the Human Poverty Index among others. The ideas and techniques presented in this paper can be used to assess the reliability of multiattribute rankings.

Human development report 2010: Changes in parameters and perspectives

Human Development Report (HDR) 2010 in its 20 th year contains several significant changes. Indicators to measure the three dimensions of Human Development Index (HDI) have been changed: Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Index have been replaced by Gender Inequality Index (GII) and Human Poverty Index has been replaced by Multi-dimensional Poverty Index. Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) has been introduced for the first time. Between 1980 and 2010, India's HDI rose by 1.6% annually from 0.320 to 0.519. While India's HDI value has improved over time, the rank has not improved as much as compared to other developing countries. On GII, India ranked at 122 with a GII value of 0.748 (ranges between 0 and 1) in 2010 HDR (based on data of 2008), revealing considerable loss in achievements in three dimensions of human development - reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market - due to inequality between genders. Multi-dimensional Poverty Index was 0.296 (2000-2008) and IHDI was 0.365 (2000-2007).

Composite Indices of Development and Poverty: An Application to MDGs

The measurement of development or poverty as multidimensional phenomena is very difficult because there are several theoretical, methodological and empirical problems involved. The literature of composite indicators offers a wide variety of aggregation methods, all with their pros and cons. In this paper, we propose a new, alternative composite index denoted as MPI (Mazziotta-Pareto Index) which, starting from a linear aggregation, introduces penalties for the countries or geographical areas with ‘unbalanced’ values of the indicators. As an example of application of the MPI, we consider a set of indicators in order to measure the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and we present a comparison between HDI (Human Development Index) methodology, HPI (Human Poverty Index) methodology and MPI.

Measuring Poverty and Socio-Economic Deprivation Inequalities in India at Sub-National Level

This study examines the inequality of income, poverty and socio-economic variables manifesting human deprivation across the sixteen major states in India at different points of time. There exists a positive trend of inequality in income and poverty (measured in terms of head-count ratio-HCR) across the states at seven points of time, but there is a sharp increase in inequality in poverty after 1993-94. Since HCR captures only one dimension of poverty viz. income, we measure other non-income dimensions of human deprivations and their inequalities at three points of time: 1980-81, 1990-91 and 2000-2001. The results show a common positive trend of inequality implying increasing regional imbalance over the decades. Keeping in mind the problem of weights and aggregation in estimating Human Poverty Index (HPI) popularized by UNDP, a new multidimensional measure of poverty is suggested. This new measure of poverty is found compatible with the head-count ratio and human poverty index estimated by Planning Commission, India. Cluster Analysis has been applied in a similar context of human deprivation on the major states of India that provides us two distinct clusters in three points of time: 1980-81, 1990-91 and 2000-2001. The results show that Kerala has been a distinctive state in India in all the three points of time.

Is There Any Relationship between Environment, Human Development, Political and Governance Regimes? Evidences from a Cross-Country Analysis

The current study attempts to understand the relationships among Environmental Quality (EQ), Human Development (HD) and political and governance regime in a cross-country framework. The underlying hypothesis is that in addition to income, as reflected from the literature on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, several other factors, including social and political ones, may influence environmental decision making, and thereby environmental sustainability, in a country. The EQ of the countries in the current study is denoted by their Environmental Performance Index (2008). Human development is represented by Human Development Index (2007) and Human Poverty Index (2006). Democracy Index (2008) and Corruption Perceptions Index (2008) are considered as proxies for political transparency in a country and its susceptibility to rent-seeking activities respectively. The regression results confirm the closer association between the socio-economic and socio-political factors in a country and its environmental performance.

Simplifying the Water Poverty Index

In this paper, principal components methodology is used to derive simplified and cost effective indexes of water poverty. Using a well known data set for 147 countries from which an earlier five-component water poverty index comprising of Resources, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment was constructed, we find that a simplified three-component composite index comprising of Access, Capacity, and Environment, with unequal weights, or its two-component counterpart comprising of Capacity and Environment with equal weights, would be more cost-effective to construct without much loss of information. These simplified indexes have high positive and negative correlations with the Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index, respectively.

New trends in population dynamics

We present in this paper a deterministic model for a general human population dynamics. The main variables are population and welfare. These variables are considered to calculate UN’s indices like HDI1, HPI-22, GDI3 and GEM4. The model has been validated for the case of Spain in the period 1999-2005. 1 Human Development Index, calculated by the UN. 2 Human Poverty Index for selected OECD countries, calculated by the UN 3 Gender-Related Development Index, calculated by the UN. 4 Gender Empowerment measure, calculated by the UN.

Worldwide Patterns of Education Across Human Development Indicators

The study determined the worldwide pattern of education across human development indicators through data mining. Indicators were analyzed using cluster analysis, Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation, and multiple regression analysis (stepwise regression analysis). Countries high or medium HDI are better off socially, economically, and politically compared to countries with low HDI. People with high quality of life came from countries with high human development index, high education index, high life expectancy, high GDP, controlled population growth, low poverty index, low spending for debt, and high usage of telephones. Social and economic development is evidenced by high access to education, healthy and long life, high access to resources needed for decent living, controlled population growth, low poverty rate, less government corruption, sufficient fund allocation for education, low spending for debt payment, and active use of ICTs. The main predictor of education across countries regardless of the level of human development index is the human poverty index. Poverty deprives people access to education, hindering the development of a person’s potentials necessary for a productive and healthy life in a society. Rapid population growth, limited government funding for education, and large spending for debt further limit people’s access to education.  Keywords: Worldwide atterns of education, human development index, human poverty index

Análise espacial da pobreza municipal no Ceará, 1991-2000.

Tem-se falado demasiadamente sobre a distribuição espacial dopobre. Quanto mais desagregado o mapa, mais perfeita é a sua visualização, maior a evidência da heterogeneidade da pobreza e melhor o entendimento da maneira de que ela é formada e como pode ser combatida a partir de políticas públicas localmente específicas. O Ceará apresenta a pobreza distribuída de forma heterogênea por todo o território cearense (medida pelaproporção de pobres e pelo índice de pobreza humana municipal), o que é corroborado a partir dos mapas de pobreza apresentados. As hipóteses de que há clusterização da miséria no Ceará e de que alguns municípios cearenses passaram por um processo de difusão de contágios entre 1991 e 2000 sãoconfirmados para os dados fornecidos pelo IPEADATA para o período 1991- 2000. A constatação foi possível através do instrumental econométrico espacial.

Poverty and Reaction to Crime – Irresponsibility Proven

The article scrutinizes issues regarding the definition of wealth or poverty and reac­tion to crime as reflected by the number of prisoners in the development of West European countries as well as the development of the new member states, former countries in transition. Authors point out the problem of implementations of the principles of democracy, economic development not only in new member states, but rather globally. They stress that the traditional criterion for measuring wealth (GDP) is not sufficient to understand and evaluate different social phenomena, including crime and crime policy. For the more precise evaluation we need a so-called Human Poverty Index (HPI) which is a multidimensional measure of poverty. The HPI shows deprivation in four basic dimensions: health, education, material standards and social exclusion. Using this tool authors emphasize strong correlation between inequality and the number of prisoners in the transition countries, which leads to a conclusion that countries in transition when establishing democracy do not care much about the welfare state by introducing a safety net. The consequence is that a small part of the population became extremely rich, preventing, thus, democratic development of a political system. Authors criticize that in most cases transition countries blindly follow USA, instead of creating a welfare state. With this regard it should be stressed that widening the gap between rich and poor citizens in transition countries raise threat to democratic system turning into an oligarchy. Furthermore, it leads to the more tough approach towards crime and crime policy.