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Key Text Are Chronically Poor People Being Left Out of Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals? A Quantitative Analysis of Older People, Disabled People and Orphans

Author: E Masset and H White
Date: 2004
Size: 19 pages (1.3 MB)

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Summary

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set ambitious targets for poverty reduction, however, there is a dearth of analysis on how specific groups are faring with respect to these goals. This article, from the Journal of Human Development, aims to close this gap by illustrating that the progress made by three relatively disadvantaged groups – orphans, people with disabilities and older people – is lower than among the general population. Targeted interventions are required to ensure that chronically poor people are not excluded from progress towards the MDGs.

Orphans, disabled people and older people are at risk of losing out in the progress towards the MDGs. Each of these groups is dependent on others for their welfare, either through formal state systems or through informal channels such as family and traditional social structures. It is possible to compare the welfare indicators of these groups because their members share key livelihood features. Quantitative analysis of the performance of these groups in relation to MDG targets in Bulgaria, Ghana, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Andhra Pradesh indicates that:

The school enrolment rates for orphans are lower than other school-aged children in Bulgaria, Ghana and Vietnam. In addition, enrolement rates are lower among orphan girls than boys. Nevertheless, they are rising for both groups.
Orphans in Ghana and Vietnam are more undernourished than other children, although nutrition rates are improving. Females tend to be less-undernourished than males in Vietnam, whilst there has been an increase in poor nutrition rates among girls in Ghana.
People with disabilities are disproportionally poor and have lower survival rates in Bulgaria, Ghana, Andhra Pradesh and Nicaragua. A lack of comparable data means that it is not possible to compare progress over time.
Poverty rates are generally higher for older people living alone than for non-elderly people living alone, except in Ghana. Poverty levels among elderly people living alone or with other older people or children are higher or similar to non-elderly people in Bulgaria, Vietnam, Ghana and Nicaragua.

Redistributive measures are needed to guarantee progress towards the MDGs for chronically poor groups. For example, a system of formal transfers, such as pensions, would deliver welfare benefits to recipients and also to other members of their families. Similarly, direct intervention for children with disabilities is required to tackle early childhood mortality. Along with targeted measures, the overall research agenda should be reworked to facilitate greater coverage of chronically poor people in policy analysis and implementation.

Organisations that carry out large-scale household surveys should redesign their questionnaires to cover individuals living in institutions such as orphanages, long-stay hospitals and residential care facilities.
The newly-designed questionnaires would enable a more reliable system of data collection and provide a more accurate reflection of progress towards MDGs in a country as a whole.
The definition of disability varies considerably between countries. Therefore, there is a need to develop standardised questions on disability for all questionnaires to ensure comparability and the accuracy of results.
Further research is required to identify suitable panel data sets to study the trajectory of families as family members become older.

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Source: Masset, E., and White, H., 2004, ‘Are Chronically Poor People Being Left Out of Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals? A Quantitative Analysis of Older People, Disabled People and Orphans’, Journal for Human Development Volume 5, no.2