8.10A Variables for Measuring Success
Measurements of success compromise a wide range of variables, including improvements in health, life expectancy, education levels, gender equality, freedom of speech and successful management of refugees, as well as increases in GDP per capita.
Interventions in sovereign states, whether humanitarian, military or the use of development aid, should improve the lives of people in a measurable way. There is no universally accepted way of measuring the 'success' of interventions.
Some common measures are:
Infant mortality (deaths before age 1, per 1,000 live births)
- Responds rapidly to changes in sanitation and access to basic health and nutrition
- Correlates strongly with the quality of governance in a state
- Recording is often poor in isolated rural areas
- Improvements in health systems sometimes lead to an increase in recorded infant mortality
- Widely understood, comparable measure
- Relatively easy to calculate from existing records
- Responds relatively slowly to improving social conditions
- National average masks wide regional, local and ethnicity variations
- Widely used, easy-to-understand measure of average wealth
- Simple to calculate and update
- Does not indicate income distribution or income equality
- Does not take into account the cost of living
Single indicators can indicate success, however an index (combines single measures into one -> increases data range and reduces impact of anomalies) is often a better method. Examples:
- Human Development Index (HDI): combining per capita income. life expectancy and average years in school
- Gender Inequality Index (GII): combining maternal mortality, women's participation in higher education and parliament, and participation in the workforce
Improvements in these indices show relatively widespread progress in human well-being, the position of women and human rights. Freedom of speech, as included in the UDHR, is measured using indices such as Reporters Without Borders 'Press Freedom Index' or the EIU Democracy Index.
Many interventions involve the management of refugees fleeing conflict either internally or internationally. The extent to which refugees are treated humanely is important. They should be:
- provided with shelter, food, water and healthcare
- reunited with other family members
- in time, supported to return to their homes or permanently resettled as asylum seekers
Surprisingly, Uganda is a model of refugee management. In 2018, there were around 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda from 13 other African countries. Many are from South Sudan, Somalia and the DRC. Uganda's progressive legal system allows:
- allows refugees to work, to support their families
- gives them access to social services such as healthcare and education
- allows freedom of movement within Uganda
- in many cases provides refugee families with land to farm