The Gender-related Development Index (GDI) is an indication of the standard of living in a country, developed by the United Nations (UN). Although not used to compute the HDI, it is one of the five indicators used by the UN Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report (HDR). The GDI measures achievement in the same basic capabilities as the HDI does, but takes note of inequality in achievement between women and men. The GDI is simply the HDI discounted, or adjusted downwards, for gender inequality. The downward adjustment is due to the fact that no country in the world has achieved complete gender equality (“Measuring Inequality”, 2009).
The GDI aims to show the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. (“Gender-related”, 2009). Decent standard of living is a broad and unambiguous phrase. In the context of the GDI, standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate.
Calculating the GDI involves three criteria:
- life expectancy
- education (the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrollment ratio)
- estimated earned income (at purchasing power parity in US$)
Unit-free indices between 0 and 1 are calculated for females and males in each of the above areas. No country in the world has attained a 1 (1 is a perfect score and denotes complete gender equality in the above fields). The methodology used imposes a penalty for ine
quality, such that the GDI falls when the achievement levels of both women and men in a country go down or when the disparity between their achievements increases. The greater the gender disparity in basic capabilities, the lower a country’s GDI compared with its HDI. Though the GDI does not directly affect a country’s HDI value, there are very close associations with gender equality and human development. For example, the countries that have the 25 highest HDI rankings also have the 25 highest GDI rankings. The inverse also holds true: the countries defined as having low human development also possess the lowest GDI rankings. The region with the greatest inequality is, by far, Sub-Sahara Africa, with 45 of its 47 countries ranking in bottom 50 GDI slots.
Though there are worldwide gender discrepancies, the UN has reported significant decreases since the 1970s. From 1970 to 1992, the global GDI values improved 48% from .432 to .638. Developing countries saw the greatest change; in that same period they had a 62% increase from .345 to .560 (HDR, 1995). These are certainly optimistic figures and more recent data has shown global gender equality is at an all-time high. Official data on the GDI has been collected since 1995 – the first year it published its findings – and has steadily shown improvements in gender equality. The maps below shows 2007 GDI values according the HDR (2009).
http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?Country=ID&IndicatorID=15
In addition, the link below shows an interesting comparison chart of the GDI and its components published in the UN’s 2009. It clearly demonstrates the relationship gender inequality has on a country’s HDI score.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Table_J.pdf
References
“Gender-related Development Index”. (2009, October 22). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 11, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-related_Development_Index
Human Development Report 1995. United Nations Development Programme. 1995. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_1995_en_chap3.pdf
Human Development Report 2009. United Nations Development Programme. 2009. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Complete.pdf
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