UBN (Unsatisfied Basic Needs)
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The UBN methodology seeks to determine, with the help of a few simple indicators, if the population’s basic needs arte being satisfied. The groups that do not reach the minimum threshold are classified as poor. The selected simple indicators are: inadequate housing, housing with critical overcrowding, housing with inadequate services, households with high levels of economic dependence, and households with school-age children not enrolled in school. . |
- Information 2005
Presentation
Bulletin
Annexes
- Information 2003
Selected Simple Indicators
Inadequate Housing
This indicator expresses the physical characteristics of homes that are considered inadequate for housing human beings. Households located in administrative centers are classified separately from those located in other towns.
housing with critical overcrowding
This indicator seeks to establish critical overcrowding in homes. Homes where more than three people occupy one room fall into this category (with the exception of kitchens, bathrooms, and garages).
Housing with inadequate services
This indicator expresses directly the lack of access to minimum sanitary conditions. Households located in administrative centers are classified separately from those located in rural areas. In administrative centers, this includes houses without a toilet or water supply, who must get their water form a river or a spring, or who must wait for a water tank wagon or rainfall in order to get water. In the rural areas, given their conditions, this includes houses without toilets or water supply who get their water form rivers, springs or rainfall.
Households with high levels of economic dependence
This is an indirect indicator of income levels. It includes homes with more than three people per employed member, in which the head of the household has at least two years of elementary education. .
Households with school-age children not enrolled in school
This indicator measures the satisfaction of minimum educational needs for the population of children. It includes households with at least one child over the age of 6 and under the age of 12, related to the head of household, who is not enrolled in a formal education institution.
Given that each one of the indicators refers to basic needs of a different type, a compound indicator is created on the basis of the simple ones, which makes it possible to classify a household as poor or with UBN if they show at least one of the lacks exposed by those simple indicators. A household is considered to be in conditions of misery if it has two or more unsatisfied basic needs.
In order to estimate the magnitude of poverty in relation to the population, it was assumed that the persons living in homes with UBN or in a situation of misery were in the same conditions as that of their respective home.