Pakistan is among the largest group of multi-dimensionally poor countries in the world, according to the Human development Report 2011 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Among the low human development countries, Pakistan is at number 145, whereas Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India and China are among the medium development countries. The report offers important new insights showing how sustainability is inextricably linked to basic questions of equity that is, of fairness and social justice and of greater access to a better quality of life.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) examines factors at the family level such as access to clean water and cooking fuel and health services, as well as basic household goods and home construction standards that together provide a fuller portrait of poverty than income measurements alone. Per the report, sustainability is not exclusively or even primarily an environmental issue, as this report so persuasively argues, but is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the 7 billion of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow, for centuries to come.
Some 1.7 billion people in 109 countries lived in ‘multidimensional’ poverty in the decade ending in 2010, by the MPI calculus, or almost a third of the countries’ entire combined population of 5.5 billion. This compares to the 1.3 billion people, which are estimated to be living on $1.25 a day or less. According to the report, Niger has the highest share of multi dimensionally poor, at 92 percent of the population, followed by Ethiopia and Mali, with 89 percent and 87 percent respectively. If a comparison is drawn of the figures given in the report of two South Asian states, Pakistan and Bhutan, around 27.4 percent of Pakistani population is living in severe poverty compared to the 8.5 in Bhutan, while 11 percent population in Pakistan is vulnerable to poverty while in Bhutan it is 17.2 percent.
Providing insights into environmental problems in the poorest households, including indoor air pollution and disease from contaminated water supplies, the report stated that South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is home to over 90 percent of the multi-dimensionally poor people. According to the report, Norway stands atop, whereas DR Congo, Burundi and some others are at the bottom. The United States, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Germany and Sweden are among the top 10 countries in the 2011 Human Development Index if the Index is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income, some of the wealthiest nations drop out of the top 20, with fall of the United States number 4 to 23, the Republic of Korea from 15 to 32, and Israel from 17 to 25. According to the report, US and Israel dropped mainly because of income inequality and health care issues.
Yemen ranks as the least equitable, followed by Chad, Niger, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Central African Republic and Sierra Leone.-APP