Measuring Democracy - The UNDP’s Human Development Report - Artur Victoria Studies

The UNDP Human Development Report was first launched in 1990 and it has been conducted regularly each year since then. The last report for 2001 included 162 cases and the report for 200 included 174 cases. Indicators included in HD report are covering the area of other UN organizations, like UNIFEM, UNESCO, WHO, ILO and UNICEF.

The issue of gender equality is most likely one of the most useful areas of the report that can be used in the measuring of democracy. But apart from that, the data about income distribution, accessibility of public services are also present in the report. Because of the varieties of indicators that are covering the large number of different issues, this is probably the best source for assessing gender equality for a large number of cases. Report can be used also to measure inequality and income distribution, and the general accessibility of public services, namely health provision and education, if those issues are considered relevant for measuring of democracy.

The Human Development Report is very comprehensive in terms of country coverage, but not all composite indexes and indicators are available for all cases. From a large number of different indicators some are used to compute five composite indexes that are measuring human development in few more specifically defined areas. Those indexes are Human development index, Human poverty index 1 and 2, Gender development index and Gender empowerment measure. All of them are composed of three or four components that are usually made of one indicator. Gender related indexes are also using gender ratio of the population.

Indicators that are used are standardized for all cases, and where the standardized method is not used, indicators are converted to the standard used in the report. Not all indicators cover all countries. The number of countries covered is dependent on the data availability. The data sources are either international and UN agencies or national data collection organizations. Standardized and comparable definitions for each indicator are used, and standardized measures and scales of measurement are used. If some national data are collected by different standards, then they are adjusted to the standard of the report. The indicators that are used in the report are not same all the time. Between the report of 2001 and the one from 2000 there is a noticeable difference in the type of indicators used. From 2000 to 2001 some indicators are fused, some more differentiated and some abandoned, but the main indicators that can be used for measuring of democracy were present in both reports.

The indicators used in the HD report of 2001, most of them, are dating from 1999, but there are cases where some data were from earlier years, mainly between 1995 and 1998. But some indicators older that that can be found as well. In the 2000 HD report, most of the data were from the 1998.

Some indicators are based on surveys conducted once or few times and they are not updated from year to year. Some indicators do not have annually updated data, as the data are updated less frequently, which depends on the provider. The fact that some surveys are conducted occasionally and not in set time interval (like WTO surveys on drug accessibility) is making HDI less sensitive for measuring year on year change. But most statistical data can be annually collected and are updated accordingly. One pattern that is important is that the newest reports are based on somewhat old data, like data from 1998 in 2000 report and the data from 1999 for 2001 report. So the lag between the report and data must be kept in mind.

Indicators included in the report are basic statistical indicators and those statistical indicators are used to compute composite indexes that are used to rank countries. These different indexes have different component depending on the area in question. One of the composite indexes is the Gender empowerment measure or GEM. Its components are the share of seats held by women in parliament, share of women as the number of officials, legislators and managers, share of women as professional and technical workers and the ration between earned income for women and men expressed in dollars at PPP.

GEM is computed by calculating equally distributed equivalent percentage (EDEP) for number of women legislators, for number of women legislators, officials and managers and professionals and technical staff and for income distribution. Those three elements should show, for first of them political participation of women, second of them decision making power, and the third should show power over economic resources.

EDEP for political participation is calculated by using the men and women shares in the population and their shares in the parliamentary seats. The formula is:

{(women population share x [women parliamentary seats share (index) -1]) + [men population share x (men parliamentary seats share (index)-1)]}-1

To calculate EDEP for economic participation the same formula is used to calculate EDEP for women position among the officials, managers and legislators, and separate EDEP for women participation among professional and technical staff. Two indexes are then averaged to get the score for decision making power and participation.

For income EDEP is calculated first by calculating the share of the income for men and women and then using those shares to calculate the EDEP. The formula for calculating the EDEP is the same as for two previous cases. The formula for calculating share is the following: women (men) earned income (at PPP) – 100/ (women + men earned income [at PPP])-100.

Indexes calculated in this way are used for calculating EDEP by using the procedure mentioned above for other two indexes. The final GEM index is calculated by adding the three EDEP and dividing them by three.

The main problem with the indicators mentioned is the fact that the only data regularly updated are data about the women participation in parliament from the IPU. Other data measuring women economic participation like share of women among the legislators, professionals and managers (all measures are shown combined) and the data about women participation among the technical and the professional staff are from 1999. So are the data for income ratios and the corresponding data for 2000 are from 1998. This is certainly reducing the sensitivity of the indicators for gender equality for the purpose of measuring the changes through time. Second weak thing of this measure is the number of cases, for which GEM can be computed, which were 64 cases in the 2001 report. Reason for this is the fact that the data for the number of women in the professional, manager and legislator category and the data for women share among technical staff and professionals are not available for all countries. The same problems are the estimates for men and women income. HD reports also gives few indicators that are not part of GEM and those are the share of women in government at the ministerial level and the differentiated shares of women for each house of parliament in bicameral parliaments. The data about the shares of women in different chambers are available for all cases and the data for the share among government ministers are available for 90% of cases and again the data are originating from 1999. The data about the women share in ministerial positions are provided by the states and the data about parliamentary participation are provided by the IPU.

The data mentioned above are dealing with equality in political participation, but there are also data that are covering the issues of general gender equality. Also there are data about the accessibility of public services and income equality.

Those indicators can be divided into groups that are measuring the quality of access to health care and education, income inequality, crime, and gender inequality in education and economy.

Data on crime show a percentage of population affected by crime and share of population affected by property crime, robbery, assault, sexual assault, and bribery. The data are based on crime and Victim survey that was so far conducted in 1992, 1995, 1997 and 2000. The survey is conducted by telephone interviews on a sample of about 1000 persons in each country included into survey.

The best indicators that can be used to measure the access to public services are the percentage of population that has access to essential drugs, number of physicians by 100000 people, percentage of births attended by medical staff. The best data about the accessibility of education are data about the primary, secondary and tertiary education enrollment. Here are data that compare enrolment for women and men. Also there are data about income of women and men shown in dollars at PPP.

The problem with most of these indicators is that they are not annually updated. Men and women income is an estimate based on the strength of sectoral employment and wages, and is estimated for the period 1994-2000. The accessibility of essential drugs indicator (% of population with access) is based on WHO survey conducted in 1998/1999, enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary education figures are estimates for 1995-1997 period, but there is also the UNESCO data on the total enrolment in all three levels of education with gender specification. The number of physicians per 100000 people is based on the value of the last year available and the number of births attended by qualified staff is given on the basis of one year (latest available) or an average of a number of years. The latest year where data are available is not indicated. The data sources for specific indicators are not noted, but the general information given say that most of them comes from UN bodies.

HD report gives the data about the income inequality comparing the income or consumption between the richest and poorest 20% and 10%, measuring the ratio between richest 10% and 20% and poorest 10% and 20% and giving Gini coefficient. These data are based on surveys that are in different countries conducted in the period between 1991 and 1999, so the data are not given for the same year. Also HD report gives data about unemployment, giving special data for men, women and youth unemployment. These data are given for 1999 and only for OECD countries.