Publication: Human Opportunity Index - Provinces : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan
Loading...
Published
2012-06
ISSN
Date
2014-04-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper complements the World Bank's recent report on poverty by providing some additional information on inequality. In contrast to reports that analyze measures of inequality of income or wealth (such as the Gini), this paper focuses on equality of opportunities of children, where opportunities refer to access to basic services and goods (access to education, health conditions and basic infrastructure) that improve the likelihood of children to maximize their human potential. It introduces a new metric to Pakistan, the Human Opportunities Index (HOI), that combines the overall coverage rate of the opportunity with a penalty for the share of access to opportunities that are distributed in an unequal fashion. The Human Opportunity Index was developed recently at the World Bank and has been estimated now for over 20 countries in Latin America and Africa.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Newman, John. 2012. Human Opportunity Index - Provinces : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan. World Bank Policy Paper Series on Pakistan;no. PK 9/12. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17884 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Human Opportunity Index - National : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)This paper complements the World Bank's recent report on poverty by providing some additional information on inequality. In contrast to reports that analyze measures of inequality of income or wealth (such as the Gini), this paper focuses on equality of opportunities of children, where opportunities refer to access to basic services and goods (access to education, health conditions and basic infrastructure) that improve the likelihood of children to maximize their human potential. It introduces a new metric to Pakistan, the Human Opportunities Index (HOI), that combines the overall coverage rate of the opportunity with a penalty for the share of access to opportunities that are distributed in an unequal fashion. The Human Opportunity Index was developed recently at the World Bank and has been estimated now for over 20 countries in Latin America and Africa.Publication Inequality of Opportunity Among Egyptian Children(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09)This paper analyzes the level and trends in inequality of opportunity among Egyptian children during the 2000s. The analysis uses severall tools, including comparison of the distributions of early risks and outcomes across circumstance groups; estimation of the human opportunity index; measurement of the relative contributions of circumstances to inequality of opportunity; and decomposition of changes in inequality of opportunity and factors driving them over time. Egypt has made significant progress in the availability of and access to basic services for children and mothers, in some cases with an overall pro-poor effect. In particular, appreciable improvements have been made in healthcare utilization before and during pregnancy and immunizations. As a result, there has been a decline in inequality of opportunity over the past decade, largely attributable to increased coverage by basic services rather than through redistributive effects. However, there are areas of persistent and emerging concerns, including postnatal care utilization, nutrition, and schooling. Nutrition indicators have deteriorated during the 2000s, affecting a quarter of children regardless of their circumstances. Wide disparities in school enrollment persist, notably at the higher levels. Large regional disparities in access to basic infrastructure exist, with Upper Egypt and the Frontier Governorates lagging the rest of the country. Family background, especially parents' education and wealth, and geographic factors are key factors affecting child development outcomes in Egypt. While interventions targeted at the less advantaged circumstance groups may offer significant potential for enhancing overall equity in postnatal care utilization and schooling, a more inclusive approach would be needed to improve child nutrition outcomes.Publication Tajikistan : Early Childhood Development(Washington, DC, 2013)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in Tajikistan. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework. Tajikistan has a population of 7.76 million people, of which 35 percent are below the age of 15. Unlike some countries in the region, Tajikistan has a positive population growth rate. SABER-ECD collects, analyzes and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. In each participating country, extensive multi- sectoral information is collected on ECD policies and programs through a desk review of available government documents, data and literature, and interviews with a range of ECD stakeholders, including government officials, service providers, civil society, development partners and scholars. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely and monitoring and assuring quality. Improving ECD requires an integrated approach to address all three goals. Tajikistan has taken steps to develop and adopt national laws and regulations that promote appropriate dietary consumption by pregnant women and young children.Publication Arab Republic of Egypt - Inequality of Opportunity in Access to Basic Services among Egyptian Children(Washington, DC, 2012-06)Egypt's children and youth, representing more than one-third of the country´s population and its future, face several significant challenges, as shown by higher child poverty rates and unequal access to basic services. The objective of this report is three-fold: (i) to analyze the extent of inequality of opportunity among Egyptian children; (ii) to inform government policy on how success in life is influenced by factors predetermined at birth; and (iii) to identify policies and interventions that may contribute to improving equality of opportunity. The underlying premise is that ensuring equality of opportunity entails leveling the playing field in such a way that every child, regardless of the circumstances of his/her birth, will have an equal chance to succeed in life. This report analyzes the extent of provision of equal access to basic opportunities to all children (including healthcare, education, clean water and sanitation), and identifies the main circumstances that affect it and therefore determine human development outcomes. The analysis in this report builds on the concepts and ideas developed in the World Development Report (WDR). The findings are aimed at supporting debates and discussions, within and outside the Government of Egypt, on the need to ensure equality of opportunity, to contribute to the development of policies and institutions for children and youth, and to provide an improved sense of hope and social justice for the future and help build a more equitable society in the post-Mubarak era. The report is structured as follows: section one presents the background and motivation for the study; section two deals with early risk factors and associated health and education outcomes for children; and section three presents the estimates of inequality of opportunity among children. Details about the data sources and various analyses presented are included in the annexes.Publication Republic of Guinea : Early Childhood Development 2013(Washington, DC, 2014-06-16)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies that affect young children in Guinea and recommendations to move forward. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the SABER-ECD framework and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition and social and child protection policies and interventions in Guinea, along with regional and international comparisons.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-15)The Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 is the latest edition of the series formerly known as Poverty and Shared Prosperity. The report emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must be achieved in ways that do not come at unacceptably high costs to the environment. The current “polycrisis”—where the multiple crises of slow economic growth, increased fragility, climate risks, and heightened uncertainty have come together at the same time—makes national development strategies and international cooperation difficult. Offering the first post-Coronavirus (COVID)-19 pandemic assessment of global progress on this interlinked agenda, the report finds that global poverty reduction has resumed but at a pace slower than before the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty with less than US$2.15 per person per day. Progress has essentially plateaued amid lower economic growth and the impacts of COVID-19 and other crises. Today, extreme poverty is concentrated mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and fragile settings. At a higher standard more typical of upper-middle-income countries—US$6.85 per person per day—almost one-half of the world is living in poverty. The report also provides evidence that the number of countries that have high levels of income inequality has declined considerably during the past two decades, but the pace of improvements in shared prosperity has slowed, and that inequality remains high in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, people’s incomes today would need to increase fivefold on average to reach a minimum prosperity threshold of US$25 per person per day. Where there has been progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity, there is evidence of an increasing ability of countries to manage natural hazards, but climate risks are significantly higher in the poorest settings. Nearly one in five people globally is at risk of experiencing welfare losses due to an extreme weather event from which they will struggle to recover. The interconnected issues of climate change and poverty call for a united and inclusive effort from the global community. Development cooperation stakeholders—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to communities and citizens acting locally in every corner of the globe—hold pivotal roles in promoting fair and sustainable transitions. By emphasizing strategies that yield multiple benefits and diligently monitoring and addressing trade-offs, we can strive toward a future that is prosperous, equitable, and resilient.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2023(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-06)Economic growth slowed sharply last year in Europe and Central Asia, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a surge in inflation, and the sharp tightening of monetary policy and financing conditions hit private consumption, investment, and trade. The marked increase in food and energy prices boosted inflation to a pace not seen in 20 years. The burden of inflation was spread unevenly across households. The poorest households faced inflation that was more than 2 percentage points higher than the inflation faced by the richest households, with this difference exceeding 5 percentage points in some countries. Poverty and inequality rates derived from household-specific inflation rates differ from those based on the standard consumer price index (CPI) approach. These differences have important policy implications, because many programs use CPI–based inflation adjustments, which do not accurately capture changes in the cost of living of targeted populations. Output growth in the region is projected to remain little changed in 2023 but better than projected in January 2023, largely reflecting upgrades to the pace of expansion in Poland, Russia, and Türkiye.Publication Small-Scale Private Service Providers of Water Supply and Electricity : A Review of Incidence, Structure, Pricing and Operating Characteristics(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-10)This paper summarizes the key findings and conclusions of a literature review of small-scale private service providers (SPSPs) of water supply and electricity conducted over a six-month period in 2003. It draws on more than 400 documents-including journals, articles, reports, case studies and project reports-which have been disaggregated and referenced in a publicly available database. SPSPs appear most prevalent in countries with low coverage levels, ineffective public utilities that provide inadequate or partial services, and remote, difficult-to-access regions. SPSPs are especially prevalent in post-conflict countries and others with weak or failed states. Of the countries for which evidence of SPSPs was available, at least half fall into this category. SPSP provision of networked services appears to be significantly higher for electricity than for water supply. Most SPSPs identified through the literature are single-purpose entities established for the express purpose of delivering water supply or electricity. SPSPs take a variety of organizational forms, both for-profit and non-profit. As such, they are established for a variety of reasons, including: to meet consumer demand, respond to crises, or as part of larger business ventures. The technology used may extend upstream from distribution services to the means for producing or generating water supply or electricity, so capital needs vary accordingly. The majority of SPSPs have fewer than 50 employees and usually fewer than 10. A lack of affordable financing is a constraint for most SPSPs, which fund investments mainly through their own earnings and savings, loans from friends and family, and money borrowed from formal and informal lenders.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.