Human Development Report 2013 - UNDP

Poor people do not just suffer from a lack ofincome. Poverty has multiple dimensions, withdeficits in health and education, for example.Moreover, an estimated 10% of the global populationis afflicted by some form of disability,potentially limiting their standard of livingregardless of income. 22In the early and middle 20th century,European countries reduced poverty not onlyby increasing incomes, but also by providingpublic goods such as health care and education.23 When considering relative povertylevels, it is also important to consider the socialand political arenas, including whether thepoor can “appear in public without shame”. 24Translating income into a decent standardof living depends on a range of assets andcapabilities. These are all issues in which thestate has an important role facilitating accessto health, education, and public and personalsafety (box 1.4). How income is convertedinto well-being, particularly for the poor, alsodepends on environmental circumstances. 25Poverty can be measured more comprehensivelyusing the Multidimensional Poverty Index(MPI), which looks at overlapping deprivationsin health, education and standard of living. TheMPI is the product of the multidimensionalpoverty headcount (the share of people who aremultidimensionally poor) and the average numberof deprivations that each multidimensionallypoor household experiences (the intensityof their poverty). Focusing on the intensityof poverty enables the MPI to provide a morecomplete picture of poverty within a country ora community than is available from headcountmeasures alone. In the 104 countries covered bythe MPI, about 1.56 billion people—or morethan 30% of their population—are estimated tolive in multidimensional poverty. 26 This exceedsthe estimated 1.14 billion people in those countrieswho live on less than $1.25 a day, althoughit is below the proportion who live on less than$2 a day. 27 The pattern holds true for all fourHDI groups, though the difference is larger inlow HDI countries than in medium of highHDI countries (figure 1.3). This also holds truefor many of the rapidly growing countries of theSouth (figure 1.4).The countries with the highest headcountpercentages based on the MPI are in Africa:Ethiopia (87%), Liberia (84%), MozambiqueTABLE 1.2Top five countries that rank better on the HDI than on gross national income percapita in 2012HDI group and countryVery high human developmentHDI value(79%) and Sierra Leone (77%; see statisticaltable 5). The countries with the highest intensityof poverty (deprivations in at least33% of weighted indicators) are Ethiopia andMozambique (about 65% each in 2007–2011),followed by Burkina Faso (64%), Senegal(59%) and Liberia (58%). Despite having asmaller proportion of multidimensional poor(lower headcount ratio) than Liberia does,Mozambique has a higher MPI value (0.512)because it has the highest intensity of deprivationamong countries with data.Gross national income (GNI)per capita (2005 PPP $)GNI rankminus HDIrankNew Zealand 0.919 24,358 26Ireland 0.916 28,671 19Australia 0.938 34,340 15Korea, Rep. 0.909 28,231 15Israel a 0.900 26,244 13High human developmentCuba 0.780 5,539 44Georgia 0.745 5,005 37Montenegro 0.791 10,471 24Albania 0.749 7,822 21Grenada 0.770 9,257 21Medium human developmentSamoa 0.703 3,928 28Tonga 0.710 4,153 26Fiji 0.702 4,087 24Kyrgyzstan 0.622 2,009 24Ghana 0.558 1,684 22Low human developmentMadagascar 0.483 828 28Togo 0.459 928 16Kenya 0.519 1,541 15Zimbabwe 0.397 424 14Nepal b 0.463 1,137 11a. The difference between GNI and HDI ranks is also 13 for Chile, Estonia and Greece, all very high HDI countries.b. The difference between GNI and HDI ranks is also 11 for Liberia, a low HDI country.Source: HDRO calculations. See statistical table 1 for detailed data sources.Chapter 1 The state of human development | 27