Is there any comprehensive index like HDI available for developing countries and long time series ?
You can go to UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and get it.
I think HDI is the only quantitative measure of human development. It has a time series and cover all countries. Maybe a proxy of this could be a dummy variable (qualitative) using 1 to "human development" and 0 to 'not human development". It means you should point to a HDI value which values above it mean high level or "human development" and values under it mean low level or"not human development". It is a little bit confusing and I really don't know if it works because even low level means human development. Because of its qualitative characteristic it is difficult to be used as a quantitative variable. This opinion is just an assumption and requires caution.
Maybe you can gather long time series of life expectancy, education, poverty rate, income distribution and per capita income for each emerging country.
World Bank Statistic bureau yields HDI with 3 dimension and indicators: income per capita ppp USA dolars, education degrees or student basic inscription, and born expect life. You can use one of them, nevertheless I recomend put to work all indicators. I hope help my sugesting. Mario
I suggest the European transparency and recognition tools and especially to the European Qualifications Framework.
I think this depends on the area or the country you are interesting in, for the developing countries the problem is how to choose the best proxy among many, while for the under developing countries the problem is what type of data (proxies) are available.
So, if you focus on developed countries it is easier to choose otherwise you have to think carefully about what is more beneficial.
Thanks all for your invaluable comments and suggestions. My current research focuses on developing countries and when I use some human capital variables like primary/secondary school enrollment as a proxy I found very counter-intuitive results like negative relationship between human development and growth. In that case, what is the best method/procedure for developing a unique human development index by using available human capital formation and other variables as life expectancy, average years of schooling, adult literacy rate and others.
Dear Md. Akther and colleagues, my academic background in Islamic Studies (M.A. Bonn University, Germany, Bauer: 1988), and dialogue in the MENA region (PhD Taos Institute, US/International; Bauer: 2013) is based in addition on systemic Organisation Development concepts with the Management Centre Vorarlberg, Austria). All these together have tought me many enriching approaches, methodologies and tools that I am using as a mix of appreciative inquiry and technical fact-based research for my consecutive practice in either individual dialogue, group-based training or communal and regional evaluation. Great to cross all Your most insightful comments, I consider humble procedures the best, maybe more rewarding than aiming at a 'unique' HDI? Thank You.
السلام عليكم
Dr. Akhter Uddin
If I had to choose a single national level quantitative indicator of (low) human development I might choose maternal mortality.
Of course, some governments provide more reliable figures than others. (Indeed, the figures of some governments follow a perfectly uniform and thus highly suspect rate of decline.) And, as maternal mortality is defined in different ways by different national agencies, one could not make meaningful single-point-in-time cross-national comparison.
Cross national comparisons of rates of change, however, would be more convincing, provided that definitions of maternal mortality (e.g., 24 hours after delivery versus 48 hours after delivery) do not change during the period under considerations and provided that levels of relative confidence in reported figures are noted.
I think that much of the the Quran and many Ahadith would support the notion that the welfare of women and children are the best indicators of the advancement of a society.
If one were taking the Quran and Ahadith as guides, as your International Center for Education in Islamic Finance might want to do, one would probably choose the level of compassion toward those who are in need as the leading indicator of human development. This of course shifts the focus from results to intentions. I believe that having compassion – شفقة – and sharing ones wealth with others – e.g., giving زكاة – are almost constant themes of the Quran. (They are mentioned 187 and 369 times, respectively, more often than prayer.)
Multi-dimensional and qualitative indicators (such as feelings of being respected in society) would be ideal, but I take your question to be about a single quantitative indicator.
Christopher
p.s. I hope that Research Gate can handle the Arabic words. Sometimes formatting reverses the order of letters in right-to-left writing.
Thank you, Christopher, for your insightful suggestion and I really appreciate your idea of human development from Islamic perspective. It is indeed very difficult to find an indicator which would reflect the level of human development truly from Islamic perspective as human development in Islam is multidimensional.
You are welcome.
Another thought is that you consult Soedjatmoko's Development and Freedom and his The Primacy of Freedom in Development. These are written from what he might have thought of as an Indonesian Muslim perspective. He makes much the same argument that Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen do but before them.
I am writing about Muslim charity in Pakistan. Perhaps we can confer directly. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 92-341-2401379 (PKT/GMT+5)
Thanks for sharing your contact. I will definitely write you as your topic is very interesting for me.
Do any body think that both (Expected years life+ average years of schooling) could be good proxy variable for human capital, as the first one is for health care level and the second is for education?
Calculation of the index combines four major indicators: life expectancy for health, expected years of schooling, mean of years of schooling for education and Gross National Income per capita for standard of living. Every year UNDP ranks countries based on the HDI report released in their annual report.
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