Social Watch Launches Basic Capabilities Index (BCI)

On 14 October, the civil society coalition Social Watch launched their Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) 2011, an annual comprehensive and interactive report on global development and human well-being. Focusing on three indicators mirroring the Millennium Development Goals, the BCI measures mortality among children under 5, reproductive health (via the proportion of births attended by qualified medical professionals), and educational enrollment and literacy attainment in 167 of the world’s countries. The Index reveals a surprising lack of correlation between economic growth and social progress; in other words, a nation’s increased per capita income does not necessarily equate a better quality of life for its citizens.

The BCI points to a recent decline in the progress of social indicators relative to emerging economic growth and increased global trade. Global per capita income doubled from 1990 to 2011, but average BCI barely improved; since 2000 in particular, gains in human well-being indicators have inched forward at disturbingly disproportionate rates. Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio asserts that economic inequality is to blame for this gap; “prosperity does not trickle down,” he explains, and individuals’ basic well-being has not significantly advanced despite macroeconomic improvement.

Due to the lag time in availability of data on social indicators, the BCI does not fully address the impact of the global financial crisis that began in 2008. What the Social Watch report makes clear is that austerity measures resulting from the crisis will continue to impact the most vulnerable, and economic stagnation will slow the already insufficient pace of education, health, and nutrition reform in the world’s least developed countries.

The BCI includes a few positive indicators, however. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, where the five worst-performing countries are located, social indicators made sufficient progress since 2000, more in line with the expected results of economic growth.

Even more significantly, the report points to three successful examples of improved well-being and environmental responsibility: Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Georgia have maintained their commitments to offsetting climate change while simultaneously improving quality of life for their citizens. Most of the top-ranked countries on the BCI emit carbon dioxide from consumption of fossil fuels at significantly higher rates than the global average of 4.5 tons per capita per year; fifty countries with low BCIs burn less than one ton of carbon equivalent annually but rank poorly in terms of social performance. The successful examples cited in the report illustrate the middle ground, and Bissio states that “we should not believe that a better quality of life requires consumption and production patterns that destroy the environment.” Social Watch calls on countries to honor their commitments to the goals of environmental protection articulated in 1992 at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, providing tangible examples of environmentally responsible development and steps towards poverty eradication. Governments will meet on the 20th anniversary of the original Earth Summit in June 2012.