Poverty and Inequality

in EcuadorDoaa

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Contents

Background

Ethnic Groups

Poverty

Inequality

Conclusion

Country profile: Ecuador Located in Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the

Equator, between Colombia and Peru.

Natural resources account for more than half of the country's export earnings and approximately 25% of public sector revenues in recent years.

Population: 15,868,396

Background Ecuador experienced deteriorating economic performance from 1997 to

1998, which culminated in a severe economic and financial crisis in 1999.

So Ecuadorian government adopted U.S. dollar as national currency in 2000. Since this, with increase in oil prices, economic performance has stabilized.

Source: World Bank

1990 2000 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140

20

40

60

80

100

120

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GD

P (c

urre

nt U

S$

billi

on) G

DP

growth (annual %

)

(Year)

GDP growth

GDP

Global financial crisis

Human Development Index Ecuador’s HDI value for 2013 is 0.711, 98 out of 187 countries, below the

average of 0.758 for countries in high HD group and below average of 0.741 in Latin America and Caribbean.

Between 1980 and 2013, Ecuador’s HDI value increased from 0.605 to 0.711, an increase of 17.5% or an average annual increase of about 0.49%.

Source: UNDP

Multidimensional Poverty Index

MPIvalue

Headcount (%)

IntensityOf

Deprivation

Population Contribution to overall poverty of deprivations in

Vulnerable to poverty (%)

Insevere

poverty(%)

Belowincomepovertyline (%)

Health Education LivingStandards

0.009 2.2 41.6 2.1 0.6 4.6 3.3 78.6 18.1

2.2% of the population lived in multidimensional poverty while an additional 2.1% were vulnerable to multiple deprivations.

The intensity of deprivation was 41.6%. MPI value was 0.009

Source: UNDP

Multidimensional Poverty Index

Gap between urban and rural especially Amazon area

Source: UNDP

Multidimensional Poverty Index

Percentage of Poor

People(%)Population

share

Ecuador 0.013 3.5 100.0 Urban 0.005 1.5 67.5 Rural 0.030 7.7 32.5 Coast 0.010 2.6 49.5

Mountain 0.014 3.5 45.0 Amazon 0.046 11.2 5.3

Mapping poverty rates at the sub-national level

Coast

Mountain

Amazon

Why we chose Ecuador? The distribution of income remains severely unequal, in 2011, the country’s

richest 20% received more than half of national income.

Gini coefficient shows domestic inequality.

100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0 Ecuador(20th/129 countries)

GDP per capita (current US$)

GIN

I ind

ex (W

orld

Ban

k es

timat

e)

Ecuador is upper-middle-income country, but they have social inequality

Ethnic Groups in Ecuador

Ethnic Groups in Ecuador Ecuadorian state could be characterized as mono-ethnic in its approach,

favoring the definition of its citizenry as white or mestizo. In 1998, the state be termed “multi-ethnic”.

Both the indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities have suffered unequal treatment.

The 2001 census was the first in Ecuadorian history to include a question designed to account for the Afro-Ecuadorian population.

Poverty in Ecuador In 2014, 22.5% of population is considered to be in ‘income poverty’

(35.3% and 15.5% in rural and urban areas) and 4% in extreme poverty (dropped from 10% by 2004).

Income poverty among indigenous and Montubian peoples is 51.1% and 44.2%, respectively, much higher than the index for whites (14.3%).

Source: Overseas Development Institute

Inequality in Ecuador In 2004, 53% and 73% of indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian characterize

Ecuadorian society as discriminatory.

60% of ethnic groups thought that the white and mestizo population is the most discriminatory group in society.

Inequality

Education

Health

Land Rights

Labour Market

In 1993, Ministry of Education regulated Bilingual Intercultural Education law (BIE) which provides schooling for 13 indigenous nationalities.

To promote the re-evaluation and recovery of cultures and indigenous languages of the diverse nationalities and people.

Currently there are two separate educational systems: one Hispanic (serves white-mestizo population) and one indigenous.

BIE continues to be perceived as second-class schools.

Education

Education• Urban elite schools give privilege admission to white children. Other

children need to beg school officials for a space, bribe them, or use their networks.

• In this way, schools make sure that only those who ‘belong’ to a certain ethnic category can get in.

• Urban and private elite schools teach predominantly white and light-skinned mestizo students to overvalue whiteness. Almost nothing is taught about ethnic and cultural diversity.

• The “not belonging” students suffer everyday experiences of exclusion.

• Only Spanish speakers are the only teachers available to teach in indigenous schools. In Imbabura’s bilingual educational institutions, for example, out of 511 teachers only 20 per cent speak the indigenous language.

Education In urban areas, 62% of children have access to a computer, and 24% have access to Internet in school. In rural areas, only 33% have access to a computer, and 6% to Internet.

In rural areas, 53% of schools have a single teacher to teach all six grades, whereas in urban areas only 4.8% of schools face this problem.

In 2006 the state invested $18.3 million on the bilingual education, or $154 per student versus $390 million, or $300 per student, on Hispanic education. This distortion also affects access and quality of service for the lowest quintiles, where most of the indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorians are found.

Enrollment registration costs for primary education, are only covered for 63% of the population, most of them from urban areas.

Education

Only 30% of Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian children complete primary school (compared to 76% of children from other groups).

Indigenous students face far longer commutes to the nearest school, the costs of transportation much higher.

Access to educational services is adversely affected by the fact that a number of children do not have birth certificates, which makes the process of registration enrollment more difficult.

In 2006 Illiteracy rate Years of school for kids younger

than 14Indigenous 30% 4

Afro-Ecuadorians 15% 6National 9% 8

HealthInequalities by economic status and ethnicity are strong determinants in the use of health services in Ecuador.

Private Health Plan: average 60-year-old man may expect to pay between $70 and $100 for a middle-grade plan.Public Health: one physical doctor for 730 people, huge regional disparities, public infrastructures.

30% of Ecuadorians go without affordable health care. Western health-care delivery exists mainly in large cities, with remote clinics rarely functioning in anything similar to western designs.

Shamanism and home remedies are important resources that fill in the gap.

Health

The Law of Free Maternity and Infant Health Care (LMGYA) guarantees free healthcare for women during maternity period and to every kid younger than 5.

Due to lack of access, 68% of the deliveries among indigenous women still occur outside of health care system.

The access and continuous provision of free maternity and child care is heavily affected by insufficient information.

Only 34% of the women knew about their entitlements under this program. Service providers themselves also lack information about the Law, especially in rural areas.

LMGYA has not been translated into ten indigenous languages and the majority of health staff does not speak any of them.

Land Rights

In 1998, Constitution outlined a series of right for Afro-Ecuadorians. Another legislative promise in 2004 called National Institute of Agrarian

Development. Ethnic groups forced to leave their ancestral lands. Ecuador has one of worst land distribution with a Gini coefficient of over 0.8. On average, 5 hectare land shared by 5 to 8 families. Wealth from petroleum production is rarely invested into development of the

Amazon region. Indigenous habitat continues to be eroded by extractive activities in the

Amazonian region which negatively impact the environment and infringe upon the rights of indigenous people.

Labour Market The national unemployment rate in 2007 was at 7.9% whereas Afro

Ecuadorians were 11% over all and indigenous population unemployment rate was 6%.

Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in rural areas, and they are concentrated in agricultural and informal employment “low-income occupations”.

Women from white and mestizo population make up a considerable portion of the workforce and are particularly visible in banking and finance, university teaching and research, and NGOs.

Labour Market Ethnic women have lower years of experience required in formal paid jobs. They work in informal sector, which are difficult to be counted in national statistics.

They are not equally distributed in all occupations and 87.92% of them are concentrated in 5 out of 10 occupations in 2012.

Employers often would not interview persons whose job applications carried Afro-Ecuadorian photos.

Source: Inter-American Development Bank

Government should take more responsibly to reduce inequality within groups:

Paying greater attention to social sectors that have not shared fully in the benefits of growth, especially Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous populations.

Need to foster a culture of respect for diversity, mainly on the part of the media and in the daily practices of citizens.

Address the lack of qualified teachers through creating a feasible incentive program that brings teachers into remote areas.

Non-indigenous students should be exposed to the indigenous perspective as a way to lessen stigmatization.

In order for the language to be fully accepted and integrated into Ecuadorian society, both groups must alter their beliefs and stereotypes.

Conclusion

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Bibliography Ordóñez, A., Samman, E., Mariotti, Ch. And Marcelo, I. (2015), Sharing the Fruits

of Progress Poverty reduction in Ecuador, Case Study Summary, Overseas Development Institute, UK.

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (2015), OPHI Country Briefing June 2015: Ecuador Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) At a Glance.

Sánchez, J. (2005), Inequality, Ethnicity and Social Disorder: The Ecuadorian Case, Andean Center of Popular Action.

UNDP (2015), HDI values and rank changes in the 2014 Human Development Report.

World Bank: http://data.worldbank.org/ (Accessed: 05 December 2015) World Health Organization. (2008), Health Systems Profile, Ecuador.