Issue: Exclusive Issue/March 2013
The report, titled "The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World", was presented by President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.
The 2013 Human Development Report identifies more than 40 developing countries, including Turkey, with human development gains that significantly outpaced global norms in recent decades.
The Rise of the South and Human Development
“Never in the history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast” The 2013 Report says. “The South as a whole is driving global economic growth and societal change for the first time in centuries.”
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark states in the foreword of the Report that “The 2013 Report makes a significant contribution to development thinking by describing specific drivers of development transformation and by suggesting future policy priorities that could help sustain such momentum.”
Norway at top, Niger last
Norway, Australia and the United States lead the rankings of 187 countries and territories in the latest Human Development Index (HDI), while conflict-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and drought-stricken Niger have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement of national achievement in health, education and income.
Turkey in 2013 Human Development Report
Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz writes in the report how Turkey strengthened health, education and social support programs as a strategy to reduce poverty.
Turkey’s HDI value for 2012 was calculated as 0.722 in the report —in the high human development category—positioning the country at 90 out of 187 countries and territories.
“The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale,” the 2013 Report adds. “Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.”
This phenomenon goes well beyond the so-called BRICs, middle income countries often represented by Brazil, Russia, India and China, the 2013 Report stresses.
New opportunities and partnerships for South and North
The Report shows that more than 40 developing countries have made greater human development gains in recent decades than would have been predicted.
These achievements, it says, are largely attributable to sustained investment in education, health care and social programmes, and open engagement with an increasingly interconnected world.
This historic progress is creating opportunities for the South and the North to collaborate in new ways to advance human development and confront shared challenges such as climate change, the Report says.
Government Leadership, Global Engagement
The Report argues that ambitious, well-conceived policies can sustain this human development progress in coming decades and expand its reach to still more developing countries.
But it also warns that short-sighted austerity measures, failures to address persistent inequalities, and a lack of opportunities for meaningful civic participation could threaten this progress unless leaders take bold corrective action.
Turkish Minister of Development contributed to the Report
Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz writes in the Report about how Turkey strengthened health, education and social support programs as a strategy to reduce poverty.
“Key policy changes include systematic strengthening of social assistance programmes, conditional cash transfers, social security reforms and an ambitious transformation of the national public health system,” he writes.
These challenges includes an aging population, environmental pressures, social inequalities, mismatches between educational preparation and job opportunities and the need for meaningful civic engagement, among others.
These require both national and global solutions if developing countries are to maintain their human development momentum.
Environmental inaction, especially regarding climate change, has the potential to halt or even reverse human development progress in the world’s poorest countries and communities, the Report warns.
The number of people in extreme poverty could increase by up to three billion by 2050 unless environmental disasters are averted by coordinated global action, it says.
New Resources, New Opportunities, New Institutions
The South itself has both the expertise and the resources to be a more powerful force in global development, the Report argues.
Developing countries now hold two-thirds of the world’s total $10.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, including more than $3 trillion in China alone, and about three-quarters of the $4.3 trillion in assets controlled by sovereign wealth funds worldwide.
Even a small share of these vast sums could have a swift measurable impact on global poverty and human development, the Report says.
The 2013 Report argues that the rise of the South is challenging existing global institutions to change and showing new ways that countries and regions can work together to confront shared challenges.
The rise of the South and its potential for accelerating progress for future generations should be seen as beneficial for all countries and regions, as living standards improve and the world as whole becomes ever more deeply interdependent, the Report emphasizes.
“The South needs the North,” the Report says, “and, increasingly, the North needs the South.”
The new HDI figures show consistent human development improvement in most countries.
“Over the past decades, countries across the world have been converging towards higher levels of human development, as shown by the Human Development Index,” says the 2013 Report.
All groups and regions have seen notable improvement in all HDI components, with faster progress in low and medium HDI countries. On this basis, the world is becoming less unequal.
Major pace of the most countries of the South in HDI
Hong Kong, Latvia, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Lithuania showed the greatest 12-year HDI improvement in the Very High Human Development quartile of countries in the HDI.
Algeria, Kazakhstan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba were the top five HDI improvers in the High Human Development countries.
Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Ghana, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Mongolia were the HDI growth leaders in the Medium Human Development grouping.
Inequality-adjusted HDI changes rankings
When the HDI is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income, some of the wealthiest nations fall sharply in the rankings.
The United States falls from #3 to #16 in the inequality-adjusted HDI, and South Korea descends from #12 to #28.
Sweden, by contrast, rises from #7 to #4 when domestic HDI inequalities are taken into account.
“National averages hide large variations in human experience, and wide disparities remain within countries of both the North and the South,” the Report notes.
The report cites the case of the United States, with an HDI value of 0.94 overall, but an average of 0.75 for Latino residents and 0.70 for African-Americans.
A fuller portrait of poverty than income measurements
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) examines factors at the household level—such as adult literacy, children’s school enrolment, child mortality, access to clean water, electricity and sanitation, as well as basic household goods and home construction.
In the 104 countries covered by the MPI, about 1.56 billion people—or more than 30% of their combined populations—are estimated to live in multidimensional poverty.
The countries with the highest percentages of ‘MPI poor’ are all in Africa: Ethiopia (87%), Liberia (84%), Mozambique (79%) and Sierra Leone (77%).
Yet the largest absolute numbers of multidimensionally poor people live in South Asia, including 612 million in India alone.
You may find further information about indices on www.undp.org.tr
Between 1980 and 2012, Turkey’s HDI value increased from 0.474 to 0.722, an increase of 52 percent or average annual increase of about 1.3 percent.
The rank of Turkey’s HDI for 2011 based on data available in 2012 and methods used in 2012 was– 90 out of 187 countries.
In the 2011 HDR, Turkey was ranked 92 out of 187 countries.
However, it is misleading to compare values and rankings with those of previously published reports, because the underlying data and methods have changed.
Life expectancy at birth increased in Turkey by 17.7 years
Between 1980 and 2012, Turkey’s life expectancy at birth increased by 17.7 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.6 years
Expected years of schooling increased by 5.5 years. Turkey’s GNI per capita increased by about 133 percent between 1980 and 2012.
Comparison with OECD and EU
Turkey’s HDI value which is 0.722 is below the average HDI value of EU member states which is 0.864.
In addition, Turkey is also the lowest-ranking country among OECD countries with the average HDI of 0.881.
Turkey’s HDI value is below all the HDI values of European Union countries. Countries which are close to Turkey in HDI rank are Bulgaria (0.782) and Romania (0.786) which have HDIs ranked 57 and 56.
Other indices in the Report
Turkey’s HDI for 2012 is 0.722. However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.56, a loss of 22.5 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices.
Gender Inequality Index, reflecting gender-based inequalities, is 0.366 for Turkey, ranking it 68 out of 148 countries in the 2012 index.
In Turkey, 14.2 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 26.7 percent of adult women have reached a secondary or higher level of education compared to 42.4 percent of their male counterparts.
For every 100,000 live births, 20 women die from pregnancy related causes; and the adolescent fertility rate is 30.5 births per 1000 live births.
Female participation in the labour market is 28.1 percent compared to 71.4 for men.
Another index that is presented by 2013 Report is Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
MPI identifies multiple deprivations in the same households in education, health and standard of living.
The most recent survey data available for estimating MPI figures for Turkey were collected in 2003.
In Turkey 6.6 percent of the population lived in multidimensional poverty (the MPI ‘head count’) while an additional 7.3 percent were vulnerable to multiple deprivations.
The intensity of deprivation – that is, the average percentage of deprivation experienced by people living in multidimensional poverty – in Turkey was 42 percent.
You may find the graphs and tables on Turkey's rankings in these indices and Turkey's comparison with other countries in this link.
[BAGLANTILAR]
The experience of many states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in managing a rapid transition from centrally planned to market economies holds useful lessons for developing countries elsewhere, says the Report.
The first phase of the transformation began with a sharp drop in living standards and human development.
While each country managed a subsequent recovery, the overall experience underscores the importance of social inclusion and a responsible role for the state.
Sultanoğlu: The experience of Eastern Europe and Central Asia holds a lesson
“The experience of many states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in managing a rapid transition holds useful lessons for developing countries elsewhere,” explains Cihan Sultanoğlu, who heads UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
She adds further that the overall experience underscores the importance of social inclusion and a responsible role for the state.
Many countries of the region - such as Croatia, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkey - have become increasingly important aid donors, with disbursements exceeding $4 billion in 2011.
These emerging donors are also active in bilateral or trilateral exchange of knowledge with countries with common heritage or beyond.
In recent years Romania has shared its experience conducting elections with Egypt and Tunisia, Poland has helped Iraq with small and medium-size enterprise development.
Furthermore, the Czech Republic has cooperated with Azerbaijan on environmental impact assessments and Slovakia has assisted Moldova and Montenegro in public finance management.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia in Human Development Index
The average HDI value for the region of 0.771 is above all other regions average and above the world average of 0.694.
Between 2000 and 2012, the region registered annual growth of 0.70% in HDI value, placing it fifth.
The region does well in all the HDI components indicators, leading other regions on mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling and GNI per capita.
Its average life expectancy at birth of 71.5 years places it in the third position on this indicator. The region’s average mean years of schooling of 10.4 years, is nearly 3 years above the world average of 7.5 years.
The average gross national income per capita of $12,423 is nearly 20% above the world average of $10,184.
Relative to other regions, inequality in distribution of HDI achievement appears minimal in Europe and Central Asia Region.
The overall loss when the HDI is adjusted for inequalities is 12.9%, about half the world average loss of 23.3%.
The income component is where the loss due to inequality is highest in the region followed by health. The biggest loss due to inequalities is suffered by Turkey.
The average Gender Inequality Index value for the region is 0.280 making it the best performer relative to other regions.
In terms of components, the region outperforms other regions on maternal deaths and proportion of females with at least secondary education. However, it does not do so well when it comes to female share of parliamentary seats.
Multi-dimensional poverty is relatively minimal in this region. In absolute numbers, Turkey has the largest number of people suffering overlapping deprivation (4.4 million people).