COMCEC Poverty Outlook 2017
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2.2.1.
Trends in OIC
Figure 23 shows the evolution of HDI for OIC member states in different income groups between
1990 and 2015. It reveals that there is an improvement for each income group in the defined
period. It also clearly shows that the HDI values are strongly associated with income level. The
HDI values consistently increases as income group rises. High income and upper-middle income
countries exhibit HDI trends that are over the OIC average and the lower-middle and low income
countries have lower HDI values compared the OIC average.
Figure 23: Trends in Human Development Index of OIC Member States by income groups,
1990-2015
Source: Own calculations from UNDP (2016)
Note: The averages are unweighted. That is, each country in the groups has the same weight irrespective of its
population.
It is worth mentioning that, the HDI level of low income countries in 2015 is even lower than
that of OIC average in 1990. This shows that the low income countries could not catch up with
1990 OIC HDI level in the last 25 years. On the other hand
, Figure 24reveals that there is a sign
of convergence. Accordingly, low income countries grew at much higher rates than other income
groups over the period. The growth rate of low income group was more than 3 times higher than
that of high income countries and more than two times higher than upper middle income group.
Another thing to note is that the high income group exhibits a higher level of annual growth
compared to OECD average. The same thing is true for low income countries when compared
with LDC’s.
0,294
0,341
0,418
0,444
0,477
0,510
0,572
0,588
0,607
0,653
0,714
0,731
0,737
0,779
0,815
0,832
0,200
0,300
0,400
0,500
0,600
0,700
0,800
0,900
1990
2000
2010
2015
Low income
Lower middle income
Upper middle income
High income