[Gcap-mujeres] Basic Capabilities Index 2008 - Alternative poverty estimates

[Social Watch]

Social Watch launches 2008 Basic Capabilities Index (BCI).
Complete information available at:www.socialwatch.org/en/avancesyRetrocesos/ICB_2008/index.htm
PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS

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PRESS RELEASE
Alternative poverty estimates say progress is too slowto achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015
New York, September 22 -- Contrary to repeated mainstream claims thatpoverty is diminishing fast in the world, the coverage of the basic needsrequired to escape poverty is slowing down and even regressing in manyplaces, says the 2008 Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) released today bySocial Watch, a network of more than 400 civil society organizations in 70countries.
The Basic Capabilities Index, made public today by Social Watch statesthat the majority of the planet’s population lives in countries withdormant social indicators or progressing too slow to reach an acceptablestandard of life in the next decade, or for which there is no reliableinformation. Progress in basic social indicators slowed down last year allover the world and at the present rate –the index stresses- theinternationally agreed poverty reduction goals will not be met by 2015,unless substantial changes occur. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance,progress in social indicators is extremely slow and, at the current rate,would only reach an acceptable BCI score in the 23rd century.
The whole index figures and graphs are available at www.socialwatch.org
Out of 176 countries for which a BCI figure is computed, only 21 registernoticeable progress in relation to how they were in 2000. Other 55countries show progress that is slight and slow, while other 77 countriesare stagnant.
Setbacks are registered in Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean andeven in Europe (Georgia), yet the majority of countries which haveregressed the most in social development are to be found in Sub-SaharanAfrica where they are extremely alarming, since countries in this regionwere already among the lowest in the index.
A summary index, the BCI provides a consistent general overview of thehealth status and basic educational performance of each country and isproven to be closely correlated to the measurement of other capabilitiesrelated to countries’ social development.
The Basic Capabilities Index is a simple average of three indicators:percentage of children who reach the 5th year of primary education,mortality among children under five, and percentage of child deliveriesattended by skilled health personnel. The BCI assigns a score to eachcountry and assesses its evolution over time for those countries for whichreliable data are available. Information is insufficient to show trendsfor 23 countries, of which China is one. As the impact of the food crisisstarting in 2006 begins to be registered by incoming statistical data,Social Watch researchers estimate that the situation is likely to worsenin next months.
By not using income as an indicator, the BCI is consistent with adefinition of poverty based on capabilities and (the denial of) humanrights, thus free from the inaccuracies affecting income-based estimates.Last August 26, the World Bank corrected by almost 50% its estimation ofthe total number of people living in the world with under one dollar aday, from less than a billion to 1.4 billion.
The BCI has been calculated for 176 countries, which were then groupedinto categories. The most alarming realities are to be found in countrieswith critical BCI scores, followed by those with very low BCI and low BCI.Only 52 countries have BCI value of 98 or 99, which implies almostuniversal access to basic education and health services. Such a high BCIcan only be achieved without malnourishment (of children and theirmothers) and when basic housing and sanitation are provided, Social Watchunderstands a BCI value close to the maximum to be synonymous with the“dignity for all” that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights wants toachieve.
“Such dignity is not the objective of social development”, specifiedSocial Watch’s coordinator Roberto Bissio, “but a necessary starting pointto achieve it”.
For more information contact/spokesperson
Roberto BissioSocial Watch CoordinatorMobile: +336 219 83661E-mail: socwatch en socialwatch.org

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