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Outdated and misleading data in HDR 2011

Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by frank.higiro Categories: Ministry, National Development Planning & Research

Rwanda's court of arm and the 2007 National Human Development Report's cover page.

The Government of Rwanda disagrees with rankings in 2011 Human Development Report released by UNDP on November, 2nd 2011.

UNDP's affiliated office, HDR published its 2011 Global Human Development Report on the theme “Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All”. The HDR, among others, ranks countries and areas depending on their Human Development Index value.

Rwanda dismisses the rankings on the basis of the outdated data used as well as the fact that the estimation methodology is not backed by sound judgment taking into account the country context.

Estimated indices are based on data from international sources that are supposed to allow comparison between countries; however for Rwanda data used are often more than five years old and the most recent are 3 years old for others. That actually means comparing countries at different period of time and still ranking them as if data referred to the same period which is misleading and makes questionable any conclusion and/or comparison between countries.

To cite but a few, examples include: the contraceptive prevalence rate taken at 36 while it is today at 45, births attended by skilled health personnel taken at 52 while it is today at 69, the Fertility rate taken at 5.3 while it is in reality at 4.6.

Furthermore, estimations of indices are based on assumptions made on the source database that do not take into account development in various countries. The methodology used in updating some of the data is not based on judgment within country context. It completely ignores developments at national level.

In the report, the inequality-adjusted HDI calculations are based on an estimated gini coefficient of 0.531 while Rwanda has never been at that level. The proportion of people under the national poverty line is estimated at 58.5% which higher than 6 years ago. Any assumption or results from this estimation can only be erroneous for Rwanda it would mean increasing rates of poverty and inequality in Rwanda over the last 10 years; which everybody who knows Rwanda would agree as being unsound and in contradiction with trends.

The Government has been working with country offices of UN agencies in Kigali and UNDP country office is as surprised as the Government on the data used in the report.