This year's WDI focuses on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
now in their 10th year. It shows that considerable progress has been
made in reaching these challenging goals. Despite the economic and
financial crisis that has swept over the globe, the target to reduce by
half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty is still within
reach in several developing regions. Home to the most people living on
less than $1.25 a day, Asia has accounted for much of this remarkable
achievement. Sub-Saharan Africa meanwhile remains off track to meet the
income poverty goal.
But progress has been uneven at the country level. Only 49 of 87
countries with data are on track to achieve the poverty target. Some 41
percent of the people in low- and middle-income countries live in
countries that are unlikely to achieve the target. And 12 percent live
in the 60 countries for which there are insufficient data to assess
progress.
"An important part of the World Bank's strategy for fighting
poverty is improving the statistical systems in developing countries.
Governments, citizens, and aid agencies need reliable statistics to
shape their policies," said Shaida Badiee, director of
the Development Data Group that produces the World Development
Indicators.
Highlights from the 2010 WDI include:
Economy
* The world economy grew by 2.8 percent in 2008 measured in
purchasing power parity terms, down from 5.0 percent in 2007. Low- and
middle-income economies grew faster than high-income economies,
increasing their share of world output by more than a percentage point
to 43.3 percent.
* Trade fell in almost every region under the impact of the global
recession. South Asia was the only exception. Developing economies now
account for 33 of merchandise exports and 21 percent of service exports.
But low-income economies are largely left out, providing only 1 percent
of world exports.
Educational attainment
* The MDGs call for all children to be able to complete primary
school by 2015. This goal is close to being achieved. At the end of the
2007 school year, 7 out of 10 people in the developing world lived in
countries that have achieved full primary school enrollment or are on
track to do so. Still this leaves 72 million primary school-age children
not enrolled, most of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gender equality
* Education opportunities for girls have expanded everywhere,
but gender gaps remain large in low-income economies, especially at the
primary and secondary levels.
* More women are in the workforce, although they are more likely than
men to be in vulnerable jobs, without regular salaries or benefits.
* More women are entering national parliaments. The largest gains
have been made in South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, where
women now occupy more than 20 percent of the seats.
Child health
* Increasing immunization rates, better management of diarrheal
diseases, and malaria prevention programs have all contributed to
falling mortality rates for children under age five. In developing
countries, the child mortality rate declined from 101 per 1,000 in 1990
to 73 in 2008.
* Thirty-nine countries, representing 45 percent of the population of
developing countries have achieved or are on track to achieve a
two-thirds reduction in child mortality before 2015.
Mothers' health
* New estimates of maternal mortality, which became available
after the WDI went to press, show substantial decreases in maternal
deaths for the first time since setting the fifth MDG target of a 75
percent reduction in the mortality ratio from levels prevailing in 1990.
Official estimates from the United Nations later this year are likely
to confirm this trend.
* The proportion of pregnant women who had at least one antenatal
visit rose from 64 percent in 1990 to 79 percent in 2008. But the
proportion who had the recommended four or more visits is still less
than 50 percent in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where most
maternal and infant deaths occur.
Combating disease
* New HIV infections have fallen by 17 percent since 2000, and
wider access to antiretroviral treatment has contributed to the first
decline in AIDS deaths since the epidemic began. But there are still
33.4 million people - two-thirds of them in Sub-Saharan Africa living
with HIV/AIDS and most of them women.
* Tuberculosis prevalence has fallen, but the target of halving the
1990 prevalence rate by 2015 is unlikely to be met. In 2007 there were
13.7 million cases globally, down only slight from 2006.
* There were nearly 1 million malaria-related deaths in 2006. Ninety
percent of malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, and most are
children under age 5. Progress has been made in scaling up the use of
insecticide-treated bed nets among children, which rose from 2 percent
in 2000 to 20 percent in 2006.
Environmental sustainability
* Net forest losses since 1990 have been substantial but recent
data show a slowing in the global rate of deforestation. In East Asia,
China has added to its forest cover by converting marginal crop lands.
* While economies have become more efficient in their use of energy,
reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP produced, carbon
dioxide emissions per capita continue to rise.
* More people have access to improved (protected and accessible)
water sources, and at least 65 developing countries are on track to
reduce by half the proportion of people lacking access to water source.
But more than 1.5 billion people lack access to toilets, latrines and
other forms of improved sanitation and there has been little improvement
since 1990.
Development partnership
* Aid flows from the member of the OECD Development Assistance
Committee have increases - from $69 billion in 2000 to $122 billion in
2008 - but even with further increases in 2009 and 2010 they will fall
short of the pledges made five years ago.
* Better debt management, trade expansion, and, for the poorest
countries, substantial debt relief have reduced the burden of debt
service.
* Average tariffs have been falling and countries are
trading more freely, but many obstacles remain for developing country
exporters. Some are imposed by their trading partners - such as high
peak tariffs applied selectively to certain good and subsidies paid by
rich countries to domestic agricultural producers - and some are the
result of poor infrastructure and inefficiencies that limit the ability
of developing countries to compete in the global market place.
From Polity.org.za
The full WDI database is available here
http://data.worldbank.org/
[10/05/11]
The report discusses four main channels linking integration and human
development: income; access to services, empowerment, and
sustainability. It assesses how factors common to many countries might
condition the impacts of regional integration on human development. This
qualitative analysis is supplemented with simulations of regional
integration processes within Africa and beyond.
