VENEZUELA: Poverty and National Pride

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Jun 27 1995 (IPS) - Social researchers are trying to redraw the map of poverty in Venezuela by converting into local reality the indicators used by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) to establish quality of life on a global scale.

“We are trying to break down into small units indicators on human development in a way which will serve as a working tool for regional and local authorities,” says Miguel Bolivar, deputy head of the government Statistics and Informatics Bureau.

Essentially, Bolivar and his team are trying to redefine the measurements which led to the UNDP ranking Venezuela at number 46 in its Human Development Index. Uruguay was first among countries of Latin America. Canada got first place among industrialised nations.

Bolivar, who is in charge of the project, told IPS the investigation centred on three indicators – demography, education and income. “Out of national pride, we start with details within our own regions, and only then move within the UNDP index,” said Bolivar.

“It is a question of supplying regional authorities, in the midst of a process of decentralisation in Venezuela, with factual information, so they do not have to take decisions in the abstract,” said Bolivar.

“The last thing we want to be is academic,” he added.

Economic recession has created an acute shortage of public funds in Venezuela, along with high inflation, fiscal deficits, a crisis in the financial system and a decline in the flow of international funds for social programmes.

“In this scenario, regional governors and local authorities are obliged to be very precise as to where, how, and for the benefit of whom they allocate the scarce resources they have at their disposal,” emphasised Bolivar.

Similar programmes had been developed in Bolivia, Chile and Colombia, with the aim of “trying to supply the authorities with better tools for decision-making,” said Marianela de Majo, a UNDP official in Venezuela.

In October, the Latin American Economic System (SELA) presented in October 1994 a new regional development indicator based on four parameters: life expectancy, adult literacy, maximum educational level reached by at least half the population and 1988 income per capita in dollars.

Using this lever, SELA concluded that Uruguay was the country with the best living conditions. Chile had made the most rapid progress since 1970, and Bolivia in the last decade. Venezuela was fifth in terms of its social situation, but tenth for progress made in the last quarter of the century.

The indicator proposes to refine decision-making in social programmes, especially in those concerning health, education, housing, employment and health infrastructures, emphasised Bolivar.

“In Venezuela it so happens that the portion of the central budget destined to states and municipalities is supplied more as a function of the number of inhabitants than based on the duly measured necessities,” said Majo.

The UNPD and the United Nations Population Fund have made a 50,000 dollar contribution for the Venezuelan research, which has been converted into one of the 11 programmes of the Statistics Bureau.

Maurice Phelan, leader of the investigation, explained to IPS that the demographic, educational and income parameters measure the availability of information in these three fields and its usefulness for drawing maps of poverty and the quality of life.

The project began with the state of Cojedes in the central plains, one of the least populated, and evaluates in detail life expectancy, literacy and the average schooling in the different groups, as well as the income of the population.

For sources of information they have the latest census (1991), a poll of homes by sampling — which every six months covers 22,000 of the three million homes — administrative registers and the national accounts,” indicated Phelan.

“The application of the same instruments of the UNDP human development index also tries to calculate averages, from which we can infer new information, and in turn convert this into a basis for other investigations,” he pointed out.

Phelan noted that the Venezuelan investigation also measures the class, especially the relation of women with politics — the number and proportion of elective offices which they occupy – employment, the environment and the services.

Finally there is added to the information gathered the quantification and classification of the non-governmental organisations operating in each state.

It is hoped that by October, when the United Nations celebrates its 50th anniversary, a first ranking of the 22 states of Venezuela and its federal district, which includes Caracas and the neighbouring Caribbean coast, will be ready.