africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
the dashboard avoids the arbitrary weights that are needed to aggregate across
the rows, it still must choose weights to aggregate down each column. By refusing
to weight across the columns, the dashboard approach leaves open the possibility
of finding, say, that GDP per capita has grown by 10 percent while formal sector
employment has declined by 1 percent. Is that inclusive growth? What if GDP
growth is 5 percent and formal employment growth is 1 percent? It may be that
policymakers view such results and apply their own preferred weights to conclude
that growth has been inclusive, and vary those weights as they see fit. Insisting on
an index with fixed weights removes this “wiggle room.”
Practically it may be that, presented with a wide range of indicators—a really comprehensive
dashboard—policymakers, the press, and even analysts will focus on
only one or a few. The highest-profile dashboard approach is the Millennium Development
Goals, which include eight goals and twenty one targets, along with about
seventy specific indicators suggested to measure those targets. Since the goals are
“mash-ups” of the targets, a proper MDG dashboard should include at least the 21
targets and perhaps the 70 indicators. But even though almost all the MDG targets
are readily measured, and some (e.g. reducing the dollar-a-day headcount by 50
percent; eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education) are
followed closely, others (e.g. reducing biodiversity loss; achieving decent employment
for men, women, and young people) are barely noticed. Given the option to
evaluate many indicators, we may choose to focus only on some. The dashboard
allows one to assign an implicit weight of zero to some of its variables. An index at
least forces their inclusion with some positive weight.
6.3 Towards an index of inclusive growth
As noted above, AfDB defines inclusive growth as economic growth that results in
wider access to sustainable socioeconomic opportunities for a broader number of
people, regions or countries, while protecting the vulnerable, all being done in an
environment of fairness, equal justice, and political plurality.
Inclusive growth is important for ethical considerations of fairness. Growth must be
shared and should be inclusive across different segments of populations. Growth with
persistent inequalities may endanger social peace, force the poor and unemployed
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