Pakistan Human Development Index Report The front cover design reflects Pakistan’s district wise inter-provincial Human Development Index (HDI) over a decade. Districts of a province or region have the same colour – Punjab, pink; Ba- lochistan, blue; Sindh, orange; and Khyber Pa- khtunkhwa, yellow. For this report, 114 district level HDIs are calculated for 2015. The HDI lines show that Balochistan’s districts have had moderate success in improving their HDI but are nowhere near the pace and magni- tude experienced by districts in Punjab. Districts in KP and Sindh fall between the two extremes and have demonstrated a gradual improvement in their HDIs. Pakistan Human Development Index Report 2017 Published for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Reports: In 1990, Dr. Mahbub ul Haq produced the first Human Develop- ment Report, introducing a new concept of human development focusing on expanding people’s opportunities and choices, and measuring a country’s development progress though the richness of human life rather than simply the wealth of its economy. The report featured a Human Devel- opment Index (HDI) created to assess the people’s capabilities. The HDI measures achievements in key dimensions of human development: individuals enabled to live long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, and have a decent standard of living. Subsequent Human Development Reports (HDRs) released most years have explored different themes using the human development ap- proach. These Reports, produced by the UNDP’s Human Development Report Office and ensured editorial independence by UNGA, have extensively influenced the development debate worldwide. National Human Development Reports: Since the first national Human Development Reports (NHDRs) were released in 1992, local editorial teams in 135 countries have produced over 700 NHDRs with UNDP support. These reports bring a human development perspective to national policy concerns through local consultations and research. National HDRs have covered key devel- opment issues ranging from climate change to youth employment, to inequalities driven by gender or ethnicity. This is Pakistan’s first National Human Development Report in over a decade. The last one in 2003, the NHDR on Poverty, focusing on growth and governance, was authored by Dr. Akmal Hussain. Copyright © 2017 United Nations Development Programme, Pakistan 4th Floor, Serena Business Complex, Khayaban-e-Suharwardy, Sector G5–1, Islamabad, Pakistan All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP or the UN Member States. UNDP has copyrights to all photographs used in the report, taken during the National Youth Consultations. For contributions and feedback, please email us at: [email protected] ISBN: 978-969-8736-19-4 Printed in Pakistan by Khursheed Printers For a list of errors or omissions found after printing, please visit our website at http://www.pk.undp.org/ Pakistan Human Development Index Report 2017 team Lead authors Dr. Adil Najam and Dr. Faisal Bari UNDP oversight Shakeel Ahmad (Assistant Country Director, Development Policy Unit) Management and writing team Dr. Rizwan ul Haq (Statistician), Umer Akhlaq Malik, Meeran Jamal, Nadia Ali Sayed, and Maheen Hassan (Editor) Layout and Information Design Nida Salman DEVELOPMENT FROM HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE | iii Contents Development from Human Development Perspective 1 Global HDI measurement 2 Construction of national HDI 3 Human Development Index in Pakistan 4 Level of human development in Pakistan 4 Spatial distribution of HDI across district 5 HDI trend Pakistan 7 HDI ranking trends in Pakistan 9 Lessons for Human Development in Pakistan 11 Development in Pakistan: A closer look 12 Education 12 Education over time 13 Education index: A closer look 14 Health 14 Health over time 15 Health index: A closer look 15 Living standards 16 Living standards over time 17 Conclusion 18 STATISTICAL ANNEX Readers’ guide 21 Statistical tables 23 Technical Notes 1 Human Development Index 35 2 Multidimensional Poverty Index 38 Data sources 43 Regional classification 44 Statistical annex references 45 x | PAKISTAN NATIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2017 Pakistan’s Human Development Index Development from Human The HDI measures development by Development Perspective quantifying three dimensions of human life – education, health, and standard of Human development is about “expanding living. These dimensions are looked upon the richness of human life, rather than sim- to understand how healthy and knowl- ply the richness of the economy in which edgeable an individual is and what is the human beings live. It is an approach that level of his/her standard of living in com- is focused on people and their opportu- parison to the maximum anyone could en- nities and choices”.1 Since the 1980s, this joy in that place and at that time. Although has been a contentiously debated topic a rudimentary measure of development, it that economic growth does not automati- still serves as the starting point of a rich- cally translate into an improvement in the er analysis of human development. It is lives of people. Previously used measures centred around people – who are the real of development, Gross Domestic Product wealth of a nation – and not income, which (GDP) and other national income mea- then becomes a “subset of the human de- sures say much about how rich the econ- velopment paradigm”.4 Income is simply omy is, but are largely silent on the human a means to help individuals achieve some development aspect, or how rich the lives ends; it does not represent overall oppor- of its people are. The wealth of a nation tunities available to them for improving is a poor proxy for the quality of life that their well-being. In contrast, the HDI is a its individuals are able to enjoy; because it means of charting the social and economic does not take into account the prevailing progress made by countries, in creating and income inequality amongst people. As a widening freedoms that allow individuals solution, Mahbub ul Haq introduced the to live the lives they value.5 concept of human development, based on The HDI measures the progress a coun- the human centric approach, as one that try has made in translating its wealth into focuses on enlarging the set of people’s ca- prosperity for its people. This implies that pabilities by providing ‘freedom of choice’ two countries may be equally wealthy, but and increased number of opportunities have very different levels of development and choices available to them.2 In other and vice versa. Many countries with com- words, human development aims to ex- parable national per capita incomes have pand people’s capabilities ‘to be’ and ‘to do’ different levels of success in sharing this what they value. income with the population at large. In- The Human Development Index (HDI), equalities in income distort the income based on this human centric approach, was shares of the population, and erode gains thus introduced in 1990, in the first Hu- made through economic growth. But the man Development Report (HDR). It aimed human development approach is about the to replace the longstanding reliance on quality of lives that people lead, as opposed GDP per capita as a measure of econom- to the incomes they may command. The ic and social progress and placed people two are deeply inter-connected, but the firmly in the center of measures of devel- ability ‘to be’ and ‘to do’ what one values opment.3 It was a bold attempt to include is so much more than just command over – in a single, simple, and appealing statistic commodities. Moreover, there is little ev- – information people can lead. idence of a link between national incomes DEVELOPMENT FROM HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE | 1 and expenditure on health and education,6 due to inequality and the Multidimension- suggesting that Gross Domestic Product al Poverty Index (MPI) quantifies depriva- (GDP) and other measures of national in- tion and its intensity. Both indicators are come are inadequate indicators of human now a standard part of the global HDRs. development.7 Perhaps the biggest contribution of the The HDI has faced its share of criticism HDI is the academic and empirical enqui- as well; over being too crude a statistic to ry that it spawned. It must be acknowl- do justice to the complexities of human edged that, in large part, this debate on development. It is thought that its simple what to measure as development, how to focus on health, knowledge and standards include deeper aspects of development of living, has become as dominant a frame- and how best to make the HDI relevant work for measuring development as the for local conditions is an outcome of this GDP it sought to replace.8 Moreover, the enquiry. Most importantly, it must be ap- inclusion of national per capita income as preciated that the HDI was never meant one of the indicators has been questioned, to be a complete and universal measure as the human development approach re- of development. It was meant rather as an garded income as a means, and not an “instrument of public communication”, end. The HDI claims to use income as a that could supplant income as the measure means of attaining valuable outcomes be- of development. It has succeeded in doing yond having good education and a healthy so.10 At the same time, many of the objec- life.9 Much of the remaining ideological tions regarding the HDI are a relic of the debate centers around what the HDI does year 1990: what to include in the HDI was not encompass: for example, the ability to limited by the data available in 1990 to have a secure life in a clean environment, make possible cross-country comparisons.