GLOBEMED’S GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM
globalhealthU HIGHLIGHTS
Track 1
THIS TRACK
Overview
TRACK 1 Goal: Learn about the many facets of poverty. Investigate how poverty is intimately related to health and GlobeMed’s work.
THIS WEEK QUANTITATIVE EXPLORATION OF POVERTY Goal: Develop an understanding of the standard measurements of poverty and see how poverty is manifested around the world.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND SMALL GROUP FACILITATORS You should use your small group facilitators to help lead this week’s discussion. Make sure the appropriate people are contacted and prepared to lead!
CONTACT US
Rachel Markon & Neal Emery, co-Directors of ghU globalhealthU@globemed.org
Week 1: Quantitative Exploration of Poverty During the first week of Track 1, we will engage in a quantitative exploration of poverty. Because poverty encompasses such a range of conditions, definitions vary drastically based on the lens of observation. Understanding how major organizations and institutions define and label poverty will allow us to evaluate these metrics, and see how accurately they describe many faces of poverty around the world today.
What is Poverty: Definitions and Quantifiers. Estimated time: 10 minutes As a tool for comparative analysis between populations, many international institutions have developed specific quantifiers of poverty. How these organizations define poverty is important, as it affects the policies they implement and how the broader public - including ourselves - understands poverty. Definitions ✦ World Bank Definition of Poverty ✦ World Bank Definition of Extreme Poverty ✦ Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) ✦ Absolute Poverty ✦ Relative Poverty Resources ✦ Definitions of Poverty Document ✦ A two-pager on the MPI : http://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/MPI_One_Page_final_updated.pdf ?cda6c1 Possible Presentation Method ✦ Definition Matching ✦ Chapter members try to match official definitions of poverty to the correct term. The purpose of this activity is to help chapter members distinguish between the different conceptualizations of poverty. ✦ Break chapter into teams. Give teams a set of index cards with the definitions of poverty, and a set of index cards with the terms.
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GLOBEMED’S GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM
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Teams compete to see who can correctly match the terms to the definitions first (or who can match the most definitions to their terms correctly). When the teams have made their guesses, come back as a group and reveal the correct answers. You may want to go over the definitions as well for clarification, especially the MPI.
Key Points ✦ The Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index incorporates different levels and forms of deprivations into its definition of poverty. The MPI is important because it begins to grasp the interconnected nature of poverty – one form of deprivation links to another form of deprivation, can cause another form of deprivation, and can result from another form of deprivation.
What Does Poverty Look Like: Analyzing Differing Depravations. Estimated time: 10 minutes Beyond understanding poverty by definition, it is important explore how poverty is witnessed around the world. You can attempt to overview worldwide data, provide comparisons between specific countries, or closely examine one country. The MPI will be very useful for this portion because it presents data on various deprivations. It is important to show data from booth poor and wealthy countries, especially in terms of their relations to health. Key Points ✦ Different countries experience different trends of poverty; poverty is not a uniform phenomenon. ✦ Poverty is best defined by deprivations, but countries of equal poverty experience different deprivations. Thus, in order to define poverty in different places, one must determine a country’s specific deprivations. ✦ Purely monetary understandings of poverty (i.e. living on less than $1.25), do not recognize differences among types of poverty but may nonetheless be informative for large scale or historical comparisons. Resources ✦ MPI Graphs Document ✦ General Graphs Document ✦ Key points from the MPI Document ✦ MPI data for specific countries : http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/ mpi-country-briefings/ ✦ World Bank data for specific countries : http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ DATASTATISTIC/0,,contentMDK:20485916~menuPK:64909264~pagePK:64909151~piPK: 64909148~theSitePK:6950074,00.html ✦ World Bank Poverty Indicators : http://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty ✦ Epianalysis provides links to various data sites : http://epianalysis.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/ dataaccess/#more-352 ✦ Interactive graphing websites: ✦ Gapminder : http://www.gapminder.org/ ✦ Interactive mapping: http://www.ushahidi.com/ ✦ World Bank Data Visualizer : http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/
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Columbia Mapping Site : http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/povmap/datasets/imageGallery/ Stat planet : http://www.sacmeq.org/statplanet/StatPlanet.html
Possible Presentation Methods ✦ Myths and Truths ✦ Collect a series of facts about poverty; create a series of fake facts. ✦ Divide chapter into teams. ✦ Teams take turns trying to decide if the fact they are given is a myth or a truth. ✦ Have a discussion about the myths and truths. Did any of them surprise people? Did anyone change the way they think about poverty? ✦ Graphical Analysis ✦ Divide chapter into groups. ✦ Give each group a series of the graphs, but do not give the descriptions that come with the graphs or the titles of the graphs. ✦ Let the groups see if they can determine what the graphs mean. ✦ At the end, give the groups the explanations and titles of the graphs. ✦ Have a discussion about the links between the graphs. Can you discern any patterns or trends? What do these graphs mean for actual people?
Discussion Estimated time: 10 minutes While official definitions of poverty are important in certain contexts, we have to critically examine the different components of poverty definitions and ask ourselves if they are comprehensive and accurate. We must also consider if official definitions of poverty accurately describe poverty around the world. Possible Discussion Questions ✦ What are the advantages of the official definitions of poverty? What are the disadvantages? Especially consider the distinction between the World Bank definitions and the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index. ✦ How could the official definitions of poverty be formulated to more accurately portray poverty? ✦ What are the real life ramifications of the various definitions of poverty? ✦ Compare the various definitions of poverty to the data you looked at. Did they match up? Did certain definitions more accurately describe poverty? What are the implications of this? ✦ Would your definition of poverty for those in your own life be characterized as such by these definitions? If not, why is that?
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