A Child-Based Human Development Index
2020
Education and health are both constituents of human capital that enable people to earn higher wages and enhance capabilities. A better understanding of how these different human capabilities are produced together could point to opportunities to help jointly reduce the wide disparities in health and education across populations.
This article uses nationally and regionally representative individual-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 55 low- and middle-income countries to examine patterns in human capabilities at the national and regional levels between 2000 and 2017. The findings show considerable heterogeneity in child health across as well as within countries. This study maps patterns and trends in human capabilities and introduces a child-based Human Development Index at the national and subnational levels. Areas of chronic deprivation may indicate within-country poverty traps and require alternative policy approaches to improve child health in low-resource settings.
A Child-Based Human Development Index
Source:
De Neve JW, Harttgen K, Verguet S. Nationally and Regionally Representative Analysis of 1.65 Million Children Aged Under 5 Years Using a Child-Based Human Development Index: A Multi-Country Cross-Sectional Study. PLOS Medicine 2020; 17 (3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003054