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 19901. Concept and Measurement 2. Financing 3. Global Dimensions 4. People’s Participation5. Human Security6. Gender7. Economic Growth8. Poverty9. Consumption10. Globalization11. Human Rights12. New technologies13. Democracy14. MDGs15. Cultural Liberty16. Aid, trade and security17. Water18. Climate Change19. Human Mobility20. Pathways to Human

Development Global HDR launched in 1990, published annually since then, complemented and enriched by over 700 regional, national and sub-national HDRs

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: methodThe 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    

GII Value

Maternal mortality (per 100,000 live

births)

Adolescent fertility rate (per 1000)

 Seats in

parliament (%)

Female Labour force

participation (%)

     

Developed                 OECD   0.317 8 19.4 20.6 65.5   Non-OECD   0.376 16 11.2 18.1 58.2  Developing               Arab States   0.699 238 42.6 8.7 27.0   East Asia and the Pacific   0.467 126 18.1 19.8 70.1   Europe /Central Asia   0.498 41 28.2 12.5 58.6   Latin America / Caribbean 0.609 122 72.6 17.5 55.3   South Asia   0.739 454 65.0 10.4 37.2   Sub-Saharan Africa   0.735 881 122.3 17.3 63.8  2010 HDI Categories               Very high   0.319 8 19.1 20.5 65.3   High   0.571 82 47.7 13.3 52.7   Medium   0.591 242 41.8 16.0 54.7   Low   0.748 822 108.9 14.4 61.3   World   0.560 273 53.7 16.2 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 participationo 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 percento 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 percentAlthough 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 self-evident 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 Relative Status of Women Index – Dijkstra and Hammer (2000) o African Gender and Development Index - UNECA (2004)o Gender Equality Index - Social Watch (2005)o 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 HDRsOver 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