I recently came across a really interesting infographic put out by the United Nations as part of the groundwork for a post-2015 set of global priorities to end poverty: My World. It is an interactive survey asking citizens of the world to choose what they determine to be the six most important from a list of priorities, such as a good education, access to clean water and sanitation, action taken on climate change, and political freedoms. These results are organized and graphically depicted as overall global priorities, and by sex, age groups, Human Development Index (HDI), and country.
Obviously this survey has skewed results based on its availability only online and not being mandatory, and by having voters pick six top priorities in no particular order, but, nevertheless, it gives some indication of the perspectives of people around the globe.
From the survey, it is apparent that priorities and values differ across the various brackets, though good education, better health care, and an honest and responsive government come out as the top three results globally and in most brackets. The results between men and women globally tend not to differ too greatly, and Canada's priorities more or less align with the priorities of those with a very high HDI.
One result I found particularly alarming is that the priority of action taken on climate change ranked #7 for those with very high income, but globally, among males and females, and among all age brackets it consistently ranked as the lowest or second lowest priority. Despite all the recent hype over climate change and sustainability, it still seems like other interests take precedence in the mind of the average citizen. Furthermore, this is almost an oxymoron, as the higher income groups who claim to place action on climate change as a relatively important priority could be seen as the ones who are causing a lot of the issues, but are also the ones who are suffering the least.
There is an overwhelmingly high absolute number of votes from Nigeria and India (with ~158,000 and ~79,000 votes respectively*), compared to other countries that have a few thousand or even less than one hundred votes. Is this a simple reflection of the size of the population, access to internet, propagation of the survey...or does it show strong agency of the people?
These are only a few observations, but so many more can be made from the survey results, so I encourage you to make your own observations and insights. Additionally, I would like to see a summary and analysis of the results once the survey has closed, to be used as a way forward. Hopefully this information is taken into consideration by citizens and decision-makers around the globe to incite change and to take on the issues that are most important to or valued by citizens.
Now it's your turn - visit the website to vote. What are your priorities? And what can we do to address them?
*these statistics are constantly changing as the survey results are updated live online
Obviously this survey has skewed results based on its availability only online and not being mandatory, and by having voters pick six top priorities in no particular order, but, nevertheless, it gives some indication of the perspectives of people around the globe.
From the survey, it is apparent that priorities and values differ across the various brackets, though good education, better health care, and an honest and responsive government come out as the top three results globally and in most brackets. The results between men and women globally tend not to differ too greatly, and Canada's priorities more or less align with the priorities of those with a very high HDI.
One result I found particularly alarming is that the priority of action taken on climate change ranked #7 for those with very high income, but globally, among males and females, and among all age brackets it consistently ranked as the lowest or second lowest priority. Despite all the recent hype over climate change and sustainability, it still seems like other interests take precedence in the mind of the average citizen. Furthermore, this is almost an oxymoron, as the higher income groups who claim to place action on climate change as a relatively important priority could be seen as the ones who are causing a lot of the issues, but are also the ones who are suffering the least.
There is an overwhelmingly high absolute number of votes from Nigeria and India (with ~158,000 and ~79,000 votes respectively*), compared to other countries that have a few thousand or even less than one hundred votes. Is this a simple reflection of the size of the population, access to internet, propagation of the survey...or does it show strong agency of the people?
These are only a few observations, but so many more can be made from the survey results, so I encourage you to make your own observations and insights. Additionally, I would like to see a summary and analysis of the results once the survey has closed, to be used as a way forward. Hopefully this information is taken into consideration by citizens and decision-makers around the globe to incite change and to take on the issues that are most important to or valued by citizens.
Now it's your turn - visit the website to vote. What are your priorities? And what can we do to address them?
*these statistics are constantly changing as the survey results are updated live online