39% of Guyanese intensely deprived of basic needs – UN 2022 Report

Sep 10, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2022 Human Development Report titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World” has found that 38.8 percent of Guyanese citizens are intensely deprived.

The document was launched on Thursday, September 8, marking 32 years since the organisation has been calculating the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures a nation’s health, education, and standard of living.

Notably, the report said Guyana’s HDI value for 2021 is 0.714— which put the country in the high human development category—positioning it at 108 out of 191 countries and territories. Also, between 1990 and 2021, Guyana’s HDI value changed from 0.509 to 0.714, a change of 40.3 percent.

In 2021 – the year under review – Guyana’s Human Development Index dropped from the previous year. It declined from 0.721 in 2020 to 0.714 in 2021.

Delving further into the specifics of the country’s performance, this newspaper found that 38.8 percent of the population was intensely deprived.

In its Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for developing countries, the UNDP report explained that 10 indicators were used in its analysis of three broad dimensions. The dimensions considered were health, education and standard of living. The estimates were arrived at based on surveys done between 2015 and 2020. It is understood that 13,000 participated in the study.

‘Nutrition’ (Adults ages 19–70 years are considered undernourished if their body mass index (BMI) is below 18.5 kg/m2. Individuals ages 5–19 years are considered undernourished if their age-specific BMI values are below minus two standard deviations from the median of the reference population) and ‘child mortality’ formed part of the first dimension.

For education, the UNDP assessed the years of schooling (if no household member of “school entrance age + six years” or older has completed at least six years of schooling) and school attendance (any school-age child is not attending school up to the age at which he or she would complete class 8).

For its standard of living dimension, the UNDP survey veered into ‘electricity’ (The household has no electricity); ‘Sanitation’ (the household does not have access to improved sanitation, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or it is improved but shared with other households. A household is considered to have access to improved sanitation if it has some type of flush toilet or latrine or ventilated improved pit or composting toilet that is not shared); ‘Drinking water’ (the household does not have access to an improved source of drinking water according to the SDG guidelines, or an improved source of drinking water is at least a 30-minute walk from home, roundtrip. A household is considered to have access to an improved source of drinking water if the source is piped water, a public tap, a borehole or pump, a protected well, a protected spring or rainwater); ‘Housing’ (at least one of the household’s three dwelling elements—floor, walls or roof—is made of inadequate materials or natural materials such as mud, clay, earth, sand or dung) ‘Cooking fuel’ (the household cooks with dung, wood, charcoal or coal) and finally ‘Assets’ (the household does not own a car or truck and does not own more than one of the following assets: radio, television, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike or refrigerator).

Health

The study found that health’s contribution of deprivation to overall multidimensional poverty was 29.2 percent. Specifically, 24.5 percent of the total was as a result of the nutritional factor, while child mortality accounted for the remaining 4.8 percent.

Education

Education accounted for 23 percent of the multidimensional poverty. The study found that 13.4 percent of the households that were surveyed have completed at least six years of schooling while another 9.7 percent have not attended as they should.

Standard of Living

Meanwhile, in the breakdown of its standard of living dimension, the organisation found that 8.8 percent of Guyana has no electricity; 5.7 percent of homes do not have sanitary washrooms while another 4.8 percent of homes did not have access to clean drinking water.

In its assessment of the housing situation in the country, the UNDP report said 11.6 percent of homes built in Guyana are made from mud and other inadequate materials.

Meanwhile, 7.2 percent of the population was found to be using dung, wood, charcoal or coal as fuel and another 9.6 percent of the people does not own a car or truck or own more than one of the following assets: radio, television, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike or refrigerator.

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