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The World Bank announced in a recent annual assessment of poor countries, that Zambia among others, had crossed the threshold to become a middle income country (MIC) because its average gross national income (GNI) surpassed $1,005.
An article in The Guardian, however, approached the assessment with cautious optimism. Its author, Charles Kenny, agrees that ‘even the poorest countries can get richer’, but the assessment hides vast inequalities that still exist within Zambia. Read the article in full here.
I asked VSO Zambia’s Frida Kabaso what a GNI above $1,005 actually meant for Zambia’s poor?
Frida agreed that even though progress has been made by the Zambian government in providing basic services, ‘poverty levels, especially in rural areas, are still very high.’ She also said that although literacy levels have increased significantly, ‘education on its own may not be a practical way of addressing poverty if not coupled with employment creation’.
She further commented that ‘there is need for the World Bank to redefine how countries qualify to receive aid’, and that GNI ‘is not the best indicator of poverty as GNI can focus too much on flourishing urban areas and ignore the poorest people who benefit little from improved GNI.’
Eighty per cent of Zambians still depend on agriculture as their main source of income, and so without improving the sustainability of their livelihoods, the economic base of the country will remain insecure.
It is also now accepted that there are more poor people living in absolute poverty in MICs than in the 35 poorest countries in the world. This is due to massive inequalities within MICs. Thus as Zambia joins the MIC ranks, VSO will in no way lessen its efforts to improve the lives of the poorest people who live there.
It is good to read that VSO recognizes, in the case of Zambia, the potentially misleading designation of “middle-income country”, which can indeed mask vast inequalities and ongoing, widespread poverty. This position would also be welcome with respect to Namibia and South Africa.
Hi Blake,
Thanks for your comment. I very much agree, the rankings conceal vast inequalities.
A quick google of the world bank date site http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications/country-and-lending-groups
reveals the World Bank classes the following VSO countries as having reached ‘lower middle income status’: Cameroon, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Papau New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu.
It would be great to talk to people living and working in these countries to hear what ‘middle income status’ means to them.
Great article. There are so many ways a development economist can measure development, would Zambia hit the threshold in all cases?
See the interesting guardian article below for another way to measure development
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/30/colombia-new-poverty-measurement-index
Thanks for a instructive post; I enjoyed it very much. Saul Mohorovich
Informative material – I enjoyed it very much! Rufus Goehring
Thanks Rufus.
hi, interesting reading. I am an economist student and would love to do a research on this topic. thanks