Human development index ranking

Year level: Upper secondary Learning outcome Students investigate alternative methods of describing poverty with a specific examination of the Human Development Index (HDI) Read the Background to Poverty Reduction List the four methods commonly used to describe poverty. Describe how each method is useful in describing poverty and the problems it has in capturing how poverty affects countries and individuals. Examine the background information about the HDI in the latest edition of the United Nations Development Programme's. The Human Development Report http://hdr.undp.org/. Answer the following questions: What factors make up the HDI? Why do you think these three factors have been used? List the top five countries List the bottom five countries Some countries have a lower per capita income and yet perform better on the overall HDI than others with a higher income. This suggests they are able to translate their economic performance into human development very effectively. This differential is shown in the figure Real GDP per capita (PPP$) rank minus HDI rank. A positive figure indicates a country's HDI performance is higher than their income and the higher the figure the better. A negative figure indicates their HDI performance is worse than their income. Which ten countries have performed best in terms of having a higher HDI outcome than income outcome? Which ten countries have performed worst in terms of having a lower HDI outcome than income outcome? Why might this difference between income and HDI performance occur? Write a paragraph comparing the performance of a selection of high- and low-performing countries on the HDI. Create a visual display that represents global income and global income distribution. Include: tables/graphs showing GNP per capita for selected nations lists of selected nations in each of the World Bank income categories map of the world highlighting the lowest and highest income countries selected distribution figures. You can calculate income distribution figures (share of global income received by specific countries or groups of countries) yourself. Write conclusions concerning the data. Assessment task Evaluate how effective the Human Development Index (HDI) is for describing poverty.