UNDP Human Development Index Research Articles

Quality of Life of Children in Orphanages: A Study in Bamako, Mali

The Republic of Mali is among the poorest countries on both the African continent and in the world. Nearly 70% of the population resides in rural areas, and 10% lead a nomadic lifestyle. Data from the African Development Bank indicates that 48% of the population is under the age of 15, 49% falls between the ages of 15 and 64, and 3% is over 65. The fertility rate stands at 7.4 births per woman. From a sociological perspective, the concept of "quality-of-life" is often likened to lifestyle. Factors such as adequate nutrition, health conditions, educational levels, and access to cultural and developmental facilities have come to be recognized as indicators of quality-of-life. This paper delves into a field study that investigated the quality-of-life of children residing in orphanages in Mali. In-depth interviews were conducted with officials from three orphanages in Bamako, Mali's capital—comprising one privately owned and two state-owned institutions. A qualitative research approach was employed. The data obtained from these interviews were digitized using the NVivo software package. This data was then organized into nodes, creating a structured relationship between the nodes and the data. Content analysis was applied to interpret the qualitative data, with emerging concepts being categorized into nodes during the coding phase. Observations made during the interviews were duly noted. Additionally, quantitative data from sources like the African Development Bank, UNDP Human Development Index, World Health Organization, and Bulletin of Statistics were integrated to reinforce the qualitative findings. Based on the accumulated data, themes were developed in alignment with the three primary indicators of quality-of-life: 1) Physical welfare and social security, 2) Life expectancy, and 3) Opportunities for personal growth and education. The study's findings reveal that, regardless of the differences between state-owned and privately-owned orphanages, the overall quality-of-life of the children is below the expected standard across all three indicators.

Some universal patterns in income distribution: An econophysics approach

AbstractThe econophysics “two‐class” approach yields a novel theoretical and empirically robust relation: The per capita income of any bottom fraction (x) of the population equals a(x)∙(1−G) , where a(x) is a coupling coefficient, G the Gini, and is national per capita income. For the bottom 70%, a(70) = 1, which yields the Sen inequality adjustment to the 1993 UNDP Human Development Index, without any reliance on social welfare functions. Alternately, a(80) = 1.1 yields the bottom 80% per capita income (Vast Majority Income). We propose the latter as a new inequality‐adjusted measure of wellbeing.

The Effect of Institutions on Economic Growth in Muslim Countries

For the last century, Muslim countries have been generally recalled by political and economic instabilities. They have been facing important problems such as poverty, internal turmoil, social disorders, lack of democracy, inadequate health services and low education level that obstruct their economic developments. These problems in general are addressed to the low level of governance and spoiled institutional structures of markets and political area. According to the good governance approach, efficient markets attract private investors which will drive economic development and growth. For a market to be efficient, various institutions must be established and markets must operate within that framework. This work examines the relationship between the institutions and economic growth in Muslim countries to address this problem. The problem statement is: Is there a significant relationship between the institutions and economic growth in Muslim countries? The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation Countries are used as a proxy of Muslim countries. World Bank World Governance Indicators are used as a proxy for the levels of institutions and UNDP Human Development Index is used to proxy human capital. Results show that there exists a significant relationship between the institutions and economic growth in Muslim countries.

Pametan privredni razvoj u evropskim zemljama

Industry 4.0 is a set of digital and physical technologies and cyberphysical systems that create new values at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. It is causing significant changes and developments in the industrial sector worldwide. This research aims to determine the impact of Industry 4.0 on socio-economic development by establishing the correlation between Industry 4.0 Index and the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). Following the correlation analysis, country clusters will be formed based on the implementation of I4.0 and socio-economic development. There is a strong correlation between the implementation of Industry 4.0 and socio-economic development at the European level, while all countries can be placed within three significant clusters. This paper confirms the positive impact of Industry 4.0 on socio-economic development. It also provides institutional and business stakeholders with an objective incentive to implement the core I4.0 technologies faster.

The Gender Disparity of Refugee Earnings in the United States

The refugee crisis impacts both low and high-income countries alike, and the question of refugee assimilation receives much attention worldwide. While all refugees face various challenges in assimilating to their host countries, female refugees face additional challenges. This paper focuses on the earnings of refugees upon arrival to their host countries. The 2018 Annual Survey of Refugees was used to study the earnings trajectory of male and female refugees who arrive in the United States. Results reveal a significant earnings gap of approximately $1.70 an hour, which is equivalent in pay to male refugees receiving almost eight more years of schooling. To examine the underlying mechanism behind this result, this paper studies how the predicted earnings trajectory varies when including the UNDP Human Development Index and the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap variable, using refugees’ country of birth. Findings indicate robust results that female refugees do not benefit from increases in human development, while both male and female refugees benefit from increases in gender equality. These results have important implications for refugee policy in the form of cash assistance or vocational training.

Clean energy transition and intertemporal socio-economic development: Evidence from an emerging market

Lack of access to efficient energy comes with a huge cost in terms of health costs, monetary costs, and various socioeconomic consequences. In this paper, unlike the existing studies that focus on health and wellbeing effects associated with energy poverty, we investigate whether the household transition from polluting energy to clean energy leads to household socioeconomic development, in line with the UNDP human development index. Mapping households in two waves of Indian Human Development Survey Data 2005 and 2012, we find that compared to the matched sample of households that did not undergo transition into clean energy (control group), the households which underwent clear energy transition experience an average 12.2% improvement in their household development. Our results remain the same after testing for potential endogeneity. Contrary to our expectations, we also find that household consumption of polluting energy sources persists even with increased clean energy consumption. The stronger preference for polluting energy consumption demands both government intervention and further research.

Наукові аспекти цілепокладання регіонального розвитку як складової територіального брендингу

The article is concerned with substantiating the most important features of development of the system of goals of territorial branding in the context of socio-economic development of territories. The features of territorial branding are researched, which, along with the use of classical branding instrumentarium, uses specific tools and methods, which is due to the peculiarities of its object - the territories of the country. The main components of the territory brand are generalized according to the international ratings WorldBank Ethics Indices, UNDP Human Development Index, CAF World Giving Index, Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index, etc. It is determined that the main components of the brand of the territory are the brand image, which means the overall impression of the brand and its perception by society as a whole and stakeholders in particular; brand identity, as well as infrastructure and marketing components that support the brand and increase its strength. The analysis of scientific approaches to territorial branding has proved that in general they are aimed at determining its various components, but none of them pays enough attention to goal setting as a key element of branding. The logical scheme of the relationship between the elements of the goal setting of territorial branding is proposed. It is proved that the main elements of goal setting of regional development and territorial branding are mission, vision and the system of strategic and operational goals, which are determined taking into account the opinions of experts and residents of the territory. Consistency and interconnection of all elements of goal setting will increase the efficiency of territorial branding. Prospect for further research is to develop methodological support for algorithmization of the territory brand development process.

Global Distribution of Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) in the Light of the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI): A Preliminary Perspective of a Rare Disease.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), although the most common primary immunodeficiency in humans, is a rare disease. We explored the spatial global distribution and country-wise prevalence of CVID, based on published data and those available from databases. As a country's medical progress is linked to its technological and socio-economic developmental status, we expected that observed CVID prevalence was linked to human wellbeing. To assess this, we examined the correlation of observed CVID prevalence and the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), which is a key measure of human development. Seventy-four data sets from 47 countries were available (most of them no older than 10 years). Analyses revealed that observed CVID prevalence ranged from 0.001 to 3.374 per 100,000 (mean 0.676 ± 0.83) and was highest in “high” HDI countries (Spearman′s rho = 0.757). Observed prevalence was particularly high in countries where immunodeficiencies are systematically documented in registers. In “low” and “middle” HDI countries, CVID awareness is extremely poor. Assuming that true CVID prevalence does not differ among countries, this study, though preliminary, provides evidence that the discrepancy between observed and (unknown) true prevalence can be clearly linked to the countries' developmental status. As a potential alternative explanation, we briefly discuss the possibility that variation in CVID prevalence is related to human genetic lineage.

Global burden and trends in premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer: a population-based study

Breast cancer has distinct causes, prognoses, and outcomes and effects in patients at premenopausal and postmenopausal ages. We sought to assess the global burden and trends in breast cancer by menopausal status. We did a population-based analysis of global breast cancer incidence and mortality among premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Menopausal status was defined using age as a proxy, whereby breast cancer cases or deaths at age 50 years or older were regarded as postmenopausal. Age-standardised breast cancer incidence and mortality in 2018 were calculated using GLOBOCAN data. Incidence trends for 1998-2012 were assessed in 44 populations from 41 countries using the Cancer in Five Continents plus database, by calculating the annual average percent change. Approximately 645 000 premenopausal and 1·4 million postmenopausal breast cancer cases were diagnosed worldwide in 2018, with more than 130 000 and 490 000 deaths occurring in each menopausal group, respectively. Proportionally, countries with a low UNDP human development index (HDI) faced a greater burden of premenopausal breast cancer for both new cases and deaths compared with higher income countries. Countries with a very high HDI had the highest premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer incidence (30·6 and 253·6 cases per 100 000, respectively), whereas countries with low and medium HDI had the highest premenopausal and postmenopausal mortality, respectively (8·5 and 53·3 deaths per 100 000, respectively). When examining breast cancer trends, we noted significantly increasing age-standardised incidence rates (ASIRs) for premenopausal breast cancer in 20 of 44 populations and significantly increasing ASIRs for postmenopausal breast cancer in 24 of 44 populations. The growth exclusively at premenopausal ages largely occurred in high-income countries, whereas the increasing postmenopausal breast cancer burden was most notable in countries under transition. We provide evidence of a rising burden of both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer worldwide. Although early diagnosis and access to treatment remain crucial in low-income and middle-income countries, primary prevention efforts seeking to decrease exposure to known breast cancer risk factors are warranted in all world regions to curb the future breast cancer burden. None.

СТРАТЕГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ ІНВЕСТУВАННЯ В ЛЮДСЬКИЙ КАПІТАЛ ДЛЯ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ РОЗВИТКУ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ УКРАЇНИ

The article identifies the essence of human capital, which is characterized by the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) and reflects the development of mankind, combining in one indicator information about health, education and income. This indicator has long been an impeccable tool for comparison and a basis for national priorities. Outlines the importance of investing in human capital at all levels in modern conditions. The importance of human capital revealed, the importance of human development assessment for the national economy outlined. The index of human development and Ukraine's position in the world ranking analyzed. The growing relevance of investing in human capital is a key value of modern society, as well as one of the basic factors of economic growth. That is why there is a need to study issues related to the formation and development of human capital, its impact on economic growth of the national economy, the importance of investing in human capital becomes especially relevant. The effect of COVID-19 virus on the human development index was assessed.

Widening Development Gaps between ASEAN-5 and Advanced Nations

This paper examines ASEAN-5 economies through the components and structure of the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) and the UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI). The paper shows a close correlation between the results of both indexes for ASEAN-5 countries and their GDP growth. We believe that most measurements of stability focus on financial and economic indicators and are often blind to many important social aspects of human developments. For a more complete analyses, the study has taken into account the components of two popular indexes; under the GCI, we examined the economies of ASEAN-5 for a total of 114 indicators that are grouped into 12 pillars which are then organized into three sub-indexes such as basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factors; under the HDI, the study evaluated ASEAN-5 economies for three specific capabilities: health, education, and a decent standard of life. The deterioration in the rankings of both GCI and HDI across ASEAN-5 was also reflected in their GDP performances during 2010-2011; as a result, Indonesia’s GDP declined from 6.4% to 6.2%, Malaysia from 7.5% to 5.3%, Philippines from 7.6% to 3.7%, Singapore from 14.5% to 6.3%, and Thailand’s GDP contracted from 7.5% to 0.8% (i.e. worst since the Asian crisis). The global financial crisis of 2008, sovereign debt crisis in Europe, and the taper tantrum in May 2013 had agonizingly proved that the banking sectors and national currencies of ASEAN-5 are still not immune to adverse developments in Japan, Europe, and the United States (i.e. monetary tightening and the trade war with China).

Composite indices, alternative weights, and comparison robustness

Composite indices are widely used in development economics and can often be highly influential. Yet most remain controversial owing to inter alia the arbitrary selection of component weights. Several studies have proposed testing the robustness of rankings generated by composite indices with respect to alternative weights but have not provided sufficient guidance on the choice of these alternatives. This paper proposes a holistic yet theoretically novel approach for selecting sets of alternative weights and assessing comparison robustness that is applicable to linear composite indices with any finite number of dimensions. Our approach is founded on the main normative assumption that a consensus has been reached on the minimum and the maximum allowable weights that should be assigned to the components. This approach is applied to robustness testing of inter-temporal country improvements generated by arguably the world’s most influential composite development index, the UNDP Human Development Index.

Forest resources of nations in relation to human well-being.

A universal turnaround has been detected in many countries of the World from shrinking to expanding forests. The forest area of western Europe expanded already in the 19th century. Such early trends of forest resources cannot be associated with the rapid rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide nor with the anthropogenic climate change, which have taken place since the mid 20th century. Modern, most recent spatial patterns of forest expansions and contractions do not correlate with the geography of climate trends nor with dry versus moist areas. Instead, the forest resources trends of nations correlate positively with UNDP Human Development Index. This indicates that forest resources of nations have improved along with progress in human well-being. Highly developed countries apply modern agricultural methods on good farmlands and abandon marginal lands, which become available for forest expansion. Developed countries invest in sustainable programs of forest management and nature protection. Our findings are significant for predicting the future of the terrestrial carbon sink. They suggest that the large sink of carbon recently observed in forests of the World will persist, if the well-being of people continues to improve. However, despite the positive trends in domestic forests, developed nations increasingly outsource their biomass needs abroad through international trade, and all nations rely on unsustainable energy use and wasteful patterns of material consumption.

The meta-geography of the open society: An Auto-CM ANN approach

This paper presents an innovative operationalization of world-system analysis through attributional data, and makes use of an innovative Artificial Neural Network computational tool, the Auto-Contractive Map (AutoCM), to analyze the core-periphery structure of a database including five well-known, publicly available indicators that can jointly be considered an empirical proxy of an open society formulation of Western governmentality: World Competitiveness Index; Freedom of Press Index; Economic Freedom Index; Corruption Perception Index; and UNDP Human Development Index. We find clear evidence of a core-periphery structure in the data, which is largely coherent with a benchmark version obtained through an alternative computational method, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). Moreover, we find that the resulting meta-geography of the world-system is still shaped by the colonialist geopolitics of the British Commonwealth as the key organizational backbone.

Economic freedom, good governance and the dynamics of development

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence about what institutions are most likely to favor development in its different stages. Firstly, we identify the three development stages that prevailed in the world between 1996 and 2011 according to the income classification of the World Bank corroborated with data from the UNDP Human Development Index. Secondly, we consider that a country had a “successful” behavior if it improved its development stage in that period. Grouping countries based on “success”, instead of according to the income level, allows us to introduce the dynamics of development in the analysis. Thirdly, we formulate a panel data and a probit model to determine the institutions that are behind the success cases. The results identified economic freedom as the most important institution in all development stages; governance was also found essential, but only in the countries in the intermediate stage of development.

Composite Indices, Alternative Weights, and Comparison Robustness

Composite indices are widely used and can be highly influential. Yet most remain controversial owing to inter alia the arbitrary selection of component weights. Several studies have proposed testing the robustness of rankings generated by composite indices with respect to alternative weights but have not provided sufficient guidance on the choice of these alternatives. This paper proposes a holistic yet theoretically novel approach for selecting sets of alternatives weights and assessing comparison robustness that is applicable to linear composite indices with any finite number of dimensions. This approach is applied to robustness testing of inter-temporal country improvements generated by arguably the world’s most influential composite development index, the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). More than two-thirds of HDI country improvements between 1980 and 2013 were found to be not robust to the selected set of alternative weights.

Economic Growth and Employment in Vietnam

Economic Growth and Employment in Vietnam. By David Lim. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Pp. 181. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Vietnam's and employment issues, which have undergone dramatic changes over the last twenty-five years. Economic Growth and Employment in Vietnam is written by David Lim of Griffith University (Australia) and Technological and Higher Education Institute (Hong Kong) as a result of his work done for the International Labour Organization (ILO) in preparation for Vietnam's Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan 2011-15. With the exclusion of the preface, the book is presented in four parts. The first part (Chapters 1-3) focuses on economic and non-economic achievements and employment creation during the twenty-five years of economic renovation. The second part (Chapters 4-8) examines different aspects that, according to the author, have influences and relationships with employment creation of the country. The third part (Chapters 9-11) discusses the demand for skilled workers and the higher education and vocational training system to meet this demand. The fourth concludes and presents some policy recommendations and proposes an approach to future reforms and changes. Its message delivered to policymakers of Vietnam is apparent: despite the remarkable performance of the and human development during the past few decades, employment creation from economic growth is lower than expected. The structure of industries is biased towards capital-intensive enterprises, while owning a huge legacy of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that did poorly in creating employment. Regardless, the country has a favourable population structure for development. The youth employment rate is high, but the education and training system is unable to provide the skilled workers demanded by the expanding economy (p. 160). Those are issues that need to be dealt with by the government to avoid the middle-income trap. The background analysis for the achievement of Vietnam and its issues regarding employment creation is set out in the first part of the book. In the chapters on economic and human development performance, the book presents the success of Vietnam since 1990, where rapid economic growth has contributed to recognition of legitimacy and rights of private sectors and pro-trade reform. In addition, Vietnam's human development performance is presented through the improvement of UNDP's human development index (HDI), in achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) and low inequality. Its employment performance is very good. Its unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Southeast Asia (p. 27). Beyond official statistics, however, the book rightly points to the weaknesses of the employment situation of Vietnam. The vulnerability of employment is high even with low unemployment rate as more than two-thirds of the employed population works with little or no pay for their family businesses. Youth unemployment accounted for 45 per cent of all unemployment and employment growth lagged behind population growth. Wage inequality is large between the two biggest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, and other regions, and between different business sectors. The quality of employment is questionable since employment is largely in the informal sector. On top of that, employment growth is lower than the growth in output, as estimated by various studies. …

Generalized Family of Multi-Step Utility Functions for Adoption in UNDP's Human Development Index

UNDP introduced the human development report in 1991, a radical change in its approach in terms of multi-step fragmenting of the utility function and a concept of threshold income level, which was followed till 1998 by following an ill-structured Atkinson based multi-step utility function. Realizing the weaknesses in it formulation, the UNDP abandoned the approach abruptly from 1999 onwards. As a viable substitute for erroneous Atkinson based multi-step formulation of utility function used in UNDP's human development reports till 1998, we provided a generalized family of the utility functions under the premise of multi-step formulation while adhering to the concept of threshold income level and have showed in the present study that the earlier proposed two alternative formulations due to Bhatnagar (2001, 2002a) turn out to be particular cases.

Mali’s Nomads: Bulwarks Against Jihad

Mali’s Nomads: Bulwarks Against Jihad

Relation and Growth of Internet Penetration Rate with Human Development Level from 2000 to 2010

This study examines the relation of Internet penetration rate with human development level over the last decade. The main purpose is to investigate the possible existence of a digital divide between developed and developing countries during the last 10 years. Furthermore, it also explores how the growth of the Internet penetration rate in developed countries is compared to that of developing countries. UNDP Human Development Index is used to measure human development level, while Internet penetration rate is represented by the number of Internet user per 100 inhabitants of a country. The result of this study supports the argument that a digital divide exists because of this disparity in Internet penetration rates.