Sustainability Tutorial 2018 ACJC H2 2017 Prelims

Objective:

H1 Specimen Paper

TPJC 2017 Prelims H1

[ 3-4 indicators]

Define Sustainable urban development: LT, future

• Development: Economic indicators à GDP

• Social indicators à Life expectancy, literacy rate (LT)

Others: HPI
Answers shared by TPJC & ACJC ACJC
COMPOSITE INDICATORS • Set of Advantage
indicators to • Specific, quantifiable and directly measurable
INDICATOR DETAILS ADVANTAGE / DISADVANTAGES measure targets related to each goal
sustainable • Used to direct and evaluate aid projects in terms
development of accounting for environmental and social
• The HDI is a composite indicator that Advantages UN
assessments
measures the average achievement • More comprehensive and compared Millennium
Disadvantage
of a country based on 3 basic easily. Considered to be a more Development
dimensions of human development, • Too simplistic and specific.
reliable and comprehensive measure Goals
namely: of human development and well- • Reduces development to merely direct
o Longevity of the country’s being than GNP per capita. relationship of input and outputs and ignores
population Compresses social, economic, and complex inter-linkages.
o Access to education by the general well-being into one figure • Reduces sustainable development as an end
country’s population that can be easily compared. point rather than a process of change.
o Standard of living in the • Advantage over GDP. The HDI reveals
country that some countries do better on
human development despite having • Indicator that is Advantages
• These translate into the following 3 relatively low GDP per capita. developed by • The MPI can help the effective allocation
measurable variables: o For example, Italy’s GDP per the UN. The of resources by making possible the
a. Life expectancy at birth capita is only about two- Human targeting of those with the greatest
b. Adult literacy rate (with thirds of that of the United Development intensity of poverty.
two-thirds weight) and the States, but the two Report was first • It can monitor impacts of policy
total percentage of countries have similar HDI used in 2010. intervention.
population enrolled in values. (See Figure ____) • Indicator that • The MPI can be adapted to the national
primary, secondary, and measures level using indicators and weights that
Human tertiary education (with Disadvantages poverty, like make sense for the region or the country.
Development one-third weight) • Errors in data collection. Because the development • It can also be adopted for national poverty
Index (HDI) c. Real GDP per capita HDI takes into consideration 3 poverty is multi- eradication programs, and it can be used
(adjusted according to PPP) variables, any error in the collection dimensional and to study changes over time.
of the data will invariably result in has been mostly • About 1.5 billion people in the 102
• Scores range from 0 – 1. DCs usually the incorrect calculation of the HDI. measured in developing countries currently covered by
attain a high score of 0.8 or more • Time lag. Putting together the HDI economic or the MPI—about 29 percent of their
while LDCs have lower scores, some takes at least a year. However, this monetary terms. population — live in multidimensional
lower than 0.5. means that by the time the HDI is • The MPI’s poverty — that is, with at least 33 percent
finally calculated, the data used for Multidimensional advantage is of the indicators reflecting acute
• Most regions have seen a steady the calculation may already be out- that it deprivation in health, education and
Poverty Index
improvement in HDI over the past dated, or may have already changed. complements standard of living. And close to 900 million
(MPI)
decade especially in East Asia and the • Failure to include certain monetary people are at risk (vulnerable) to fall into
Arab states. considerations. The HDI has been measures of poverty if setbacks occur – financial,
• However, 2 regions have suffered a criticised to neglect certain poverty by natural or otherwise.
drop in HDI. considerations such as ecological considering • Supposed to be less biased than HDI due
o Sub-Saharan Africa where considerations, as well as the degree overlapping to the diversity of indicators used. HDI is
development has been of human freedom. deprivations said to be more biased towards GDP per
hindered due to AIDs, civil suffered by capita.
war, corruption, etc. individuals at the
o Former Soviet Union which same time. Disadvantage
is going through a long • Measures • While both HDI and MPI use the 3 broad
economic depression. similar dimensions health, education and standard
dimensions like of living, HDI uses only single indicators for
the HDI and each dimension of poverty while MPI uses
shows number more than one indicator for each one.
of people who
• MPI is harder to calculate due to the
are diversity in indicators and difficulty in
multidimensional obtaining them. For this reason the MPI
poor. (See
has only been calculated for 100 countries.
Diagram below)
 • It can be HDI is more widely available for most
deconstructed countries.
by region, • Said to not include other aspects of
ethnicity and poverty related to moral, emotional and
other groupings spiritual dimensions.
as well as by
dimension and
indicator,
making it a
useful tool for
policymakers.

UN Development Goals