What is human development?

1. Human Development Report 2010 – Some insights from the new Gender Inequality IndexJeni Klugman,Director, Human Development Report Office, UNDPBuilding Better: Gender & Human Development in Asia 11 February 2011

2. 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)

3. Diverse and ambitious themes since 1990 • Concept and Measurement • Financing • Global Dimensions • People’s Participation • Human Security • Gender • Economic Growth • Poverty • Consumption • Globalization • Human Rights • New technologies • Democracy • MDGs • Cultural Liberty • Aid, trade and security • Water • Climate Change • Human Mobility • 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

4. 40 years of progress Worldwide trends in the Human Development Index, 1970 - 2010

5. 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

6. 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).

7. Gender Inequality Index: method The GII is composed of 3 dimensions made up of 5 indicators

8. 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

9. Mapping the results Note:Countries are categorized according to GII scores into four quartiles, reflecting a relative grouping with 34-35 countries in each.

10. Significant variation by region and dimension

11. South Asia • The worst losses of any region -- average loss of 74 percent • Women lag behind men in all dimensions captured – especially parliamentary representation, education and labour force participation • Maternal mortality very high – averaging 454 deaths per 100,000 live births • All countries in the region perform poorly on GII: • Worst performing are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal, each exceed 70 percent • Maldives and Sri Lanka perform relatively better – losses below 60 percent

12. East Asia and Pacific • Lowest loss among developing regions - averages 47 percent • 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 • Malaysia ranked 58th on HDI and 50th on GII • 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

13. 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 percent • Although 1/5 countries have at least high HDI and GII worse than 50 %

14. Correlation with inequality • Countries with unequal distribution of human development • also experience high inequality between women and men

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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. • GDI could not be interpreted independently of HDI – so low HDI countries did worse – this is not now necessarily the case – • eg Burundi ranks 166 on HDI , 79 on GII • Viet Nam ranks 113 on HDI and 58 on GII. • Still data constrained – but avoids the weakest data. GDI and GEM relied on income measures (estimated for ¾ of countries in the sample) • eg Qatar and Saudi Arabia lose 47 and 39 places respectively from GDI, as observed participation rates are used instead of assumed income ratios

18. Comparing GII with alternate indices • Other indices include: • Relative Status of Women Index – Dijkstra and Hammer (2000) • African Gender and Development Index - UNECA (2004) • Gender Equality Index - Social Watch (2005) • 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 • Such as OECD’s 2009 Social Institutions and Gender Index and EIU’s 2010 Women’s Economic Opportunity Index

19. 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 • Shows some societies disadvantage women in critical dimensions, highlighting the need for more proactive public policies • Lackof accurate, timely, relevant and limited accessibility of data remains a major obstacle, especially for global studies  insights from regional and national reports

20. Gender in regional and national HDRs Over 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