by tba06 | Nov 19, 2022 | Dashboard, Team Project, Visualization
Authors: Tala Abdul Samad, Nour Al Bidewe, Basman Hariri, Sara Sadaka, Aziz Saliby, Jean-Pierre Sakr
Over the past two years, Lebanon has been witnessing compounded crises such as brain drain, poverty, unemployment, and inequality. On October 3rd, we wanted to listen to the factors that affected the Lebanese the most. Borhan, a 60-year-old man living in Beirut, was one of the people we met. We captured a video with him to show the suffering of the Lebanese since the start of the crisis where he comprehensively described the severe living conditions. As we all know, 2019 was a year of transformation for Lebanon, beginning with the October 17th revolution in 2019, following the global pandemic in 2020, and the rise of inflation. Borhan expressed the feelings of most Lebanese, where he identified the problems that we are facing as residents. Many people mentioned that specific sectors have been hit the most, therefore we would like to perform exploratory data analysis and surveys using different datasets to be able to identify inequalities. We are also interested in using a data-driven approach to identify gaps and inequalities that exist in the education, income, and health sectors.
As a result, we have exploited the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and we have identified several indicators which we have used as proxies to measure multidimensional poverty in Lebanon. We chose to have a topic related to the multidimensional poverty index in Lebanon compared to the Arab region. Since the multidimensional poverty index is calculated using three different dimensions, namely education, living conditions, and health, we decided to divide the three different dimensions among us.
Living Conditions:
Housing is a significant indicator of the multidimensional poverty (MDP), and based on ESCWA calculations, the main indicators to assume whether housing is counted as depreciation for a household or not are ‘Overcrowding rate’ – the percentage of the population living in an overcrowded household – ‘Housing type’ i.e. houses, apartments, row houses, townhouses and duplexes, ‘Sanitation quality’ – availability of handwashing facilities, toilet cleanliness.
Historical data related to housing utilities in Lebanon was gathered from the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), which contains significant indicators to measure MDP such as water, electricity, gas, actual rent, furnishings, household equipment and routine household, and others. Data is shown monthly from December 2007 till September 2022.
This data reported many indicators highlighting the increase in poverty on multiple sides. It is worth reporting that the consumer price index (CPI) Housing Utilities in Lebanon records the highest score this September 2022 (363.3) compared to October 2021 (215.9).
Looking at the nutrition level, food inflation was detected as the cost is more skewed to the right for the year 2021-2022; rising food prices reduce the purchasing power of food consumers. Another devaluation could be mentioned in the transportation sector, as the transportation sub-index of the CPI basket in Lebanon increased by 2339 points in September of 2022 (3,725), compared to August 2021 (1,386); the cost of transportation is significantly increasing, resulting in a limitation to access in the transportation sector.
It is worth mentioning that the CPI in Lebanon has more than doubled over the past year, peaking this September 2022 at a score of 1,611.4 against 714.8 in October 2021, and a higher CPI indicates higher inflation. This eventually leads to adjustments in the cost of living and income, which tends to worsen inequality or poverty as it hits income and savings harder for poorer or middle-income households than for wealthy households.
Healthcare System:
As stated by Joao Martins, MSF Head of Mission in Lebanon, “The crisis in Lebanon has been driven by years of corruption and now we are seeing that this can contribute to the destruction of an entire health system just as effectively as war or a natural disaster”. As a result, it is important to conduct a deep dive analysis on the healthcare system in Lebanon which is a dimension that measures multidimensional poverty.
First we will look at the current health expenditure (%of GDP) which takes into account the public and private health expenditure. By comparing Lebanon to the Arab World, we can notice that the current health expenditure is higher along the mid 2000 with Lebanon having 11% in 2000 while the Arab World having 4%. After that, Lebanon witnessed a decrease and the Arab World an increase reaching a value of 9% and 5%, respectively. The decrease in the expenditure in Lebanon has negatively affected the healthcare system as medication and vaccines are becoming scarce. Looking more closely, we can see in the next graph that the access to immunization has tremendously decreased in Lebanon. On average the access to vaccines (such as DPT, HepB3, and measles) has decreased from 83% (2000) to 67% (2021).
On another hand, we evaluated the demand for private insurance in Lebanon. As we can see, the demand has decreased from 70% (2000) to 45% (2021). This decrease is due to all private insurance companies converting their payment method to fresh U.S. dollars and since the NSSF benefits have diminished due to the economic crisis, most Lebanese people are now left with no proper access to health assistance.
Education:
We also conducted a survey on school and university students to analyze access to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic which was also identified as the new normal.
You can be part of our project by filling this online survey. Your answers are highly valuable to the development of our dashboard since the larger the sample size, the more accurate our results would be.
At a later stage, we would like to present our results to our target audience which are UN agencies, local NGOs, and Lebanese ministries. We got a total of 135 responses from all over Lebanon where the survey was populated via social media platforms. The majority of the respondents were university students or graduates. Most of them were unemployed or employed in a full time position.
We asked the respondents about their evaluation to their online experience; the answers rated their experience as poor or fair. On a scale from 1 being a very bad experience and 5 being a very good experience, most of the respondents rated the effectiveness of online learning as 3. In addition, we asked about the preferred type of education; the majority answered the traditional physical method as the most preferred following the hybrid method as second preferred. These answers make us conclude that the online learning experience was not that good in Lebanon. This might be due to the lack of training from the government and the teachers.
To further explore the facilities that were available to ease the online learning experience, we asked the people about their access to devices, electricity and internet. For the devices, the majority had access to devices that were mainly Mobile phones or laptops. Most of the respondents have access to electricity but not all the time while almost all the respondents have access to internet but the variance changed between access all the time and access but not all the time. Most of the respondents reflected that they couldn’t focus and they weren’t serious about their studies during online learning. Furthermore, on a scale from 1 being not at all to 5 being for sure, we asked the people about their willingness to retake the online experience. The answers varied between 1 and 2 mainly.
Finally, we asked the people about the disadvantages of online learning. Some of the responses include poor network, electricity cuttage, procrastination, weak communication, lack of motivation to study, more distraction, professors are not equipped with the resources, challenging experience for both students and professors. From this survey, we can conclude that Lebanon wasn’t prepared well for such a situation, especially its basic infrastructure which includes bad electricity and network services.
by eaa37 | Nov 15, 2022 | Dashboard, Team Project
Contributors: Aya Zeini, Baraa Abo Ghouch, Eslam Abo Al Hawa, Layan El Kaissi, Marian Abou Fares, Mhammad Nahle.
For the past 25 years, Netflix has always been the largest streaming service in the world as it holds more than 10% of the global internet traffic. New players have joined the competition and they are growing rapidly, and the question is: How will Netflix be able to maintain its dominant position?
In Q1 2022, Netflix lost around one million subscribers, and this was the first drop in number of subscribers for the past 10 years which led to a huge drop in its stock price and market share as it went down from 690.3 till 190.4 within 7 months only. On the other hand, Netflix income has always been increasing especially from 2022 as it was 2,219 where it became 4,500 but in 2022 it decreased for the first time by 1.6% and this is where they felt there is an urgent need for call of action.
One of the problems Netflix was facing is relying on licensed titles which counts for 97% of the content in 2016. After they started losing those licensed titles, they had to remove them which led to losing a lot of subscribers. ‘Criminal Minds’ is the top-watched licensed show on Netflix as of 2021 and it was later removed due to licensing issues which was disappointing to Netflix users and as per our survey, 51% users canceled their subscription after they hooked on a Netflix series and found it was removed. By 2022, they increased the percentage of produced original titles by 50%. They followed this strategy of spending a lot of money into making originals to fuel their subscription growth especially after subscribers began to hemorrhage.
Netflix is also struggling from the competition. In Q2 2022, Disney platforms had 27.3% (year over year) growth of subscribers compared to 5.5% for Netflix. Can you imagine their growth in coming years?
Despite the fact that Netflix is struggling to maintain its trajectory, they still have the biggest overall subscribers base and have a history of innovation that is going to be very difficult for any competitor to defeat. Currently, Netflix is planning to introduce a cheaper membership that includes advertising to grasp more subscribers. Although this is a good step to start with, but they still have to work at being nimbler and more dynamic with packaging and bundling so most people don’t like to be distracted by adds while watching and this has been validated in our survey. At the same time we found out that 72% of our surveyed Netflix users 72% aren’t willing to switch to another platform and 82% said they enjoy original titles produced by Netflix.
This proves the point that Netflix users are loyal and didn’t give up on the platform but rather they demand improvements to meet their needs. Therefore, if Netflix can continue to produce original titles that creates a significant reaction from users and impress them, users will find value in their membership. Moreover, investors should keep an eye out for Netflix’s following releases and viewership to see if the platform is still breaking records and satisfying viewers. This is a streaming war, if Netflix decides to resist and fight back, the chances of Netflix falling below their competitors are slim.
by dnk07 | Aug 7, 2022 | Dashboard
Countries with high death rates and relatively low fertility rates and birth rates may face a risk of population decline.
We explore through data visuals that developed countries have lower death rate than do developing countries. We understand the background by looking into various factors affecting this as hospital bed per capita, GDP per capita, health expenditure per capita and population growth rate. We use this knowledge to see which developing country requires an immediate call for action.
The highest mortality rates are seen in the African continent. Indeed, it is painful to see people dying in developing and poor countries where health care networks and facilities are less robust and people struggle to obtain basic needs such as clean water, adequate food and sanitation.
Death rate is highest in countries with lowest Hospital bed per Capita, lowest health expenditure per capita and lowest GDP per capita as per evidence for 10 countries (5 lowest death rate per 1000 capita Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE and China) vs 5 Highest Death rate per 1000 capita (Sierra Leone, Chad, Mali, Niger and South Sudan) .
Nations and government should assist Africa to enhance their economic conditions to raise the GDP, to build hospitals to increase the bed capacity and increase health expenditure. Failure to do so may result in a population decline. Maps clearly show Africa shows very low GDP in addition to highest mortality rates.
But a clear plan is needed, in which country should we start improving and working on such factors. We suggest considering population decline as an urgent factor.
Population decline seems to be an issue and should be avoided especially in Sierra Leone Why?
Sierra Leone has the highest death rate. Yet, it is not among the countries with highest birth rate and highest fertility rate. Moreover, among the top 5 countries with highest mortality rates it is showing the least population growth. This seems a country of concern especially when it comes to population decline. Let us start here.
Please don’t forget that High Death rate in Africa is not about population in Africa.
To prove this, we consider China. China has very high population yet a very low death rate of 4.88 per 1000 people compared to 23.2 per 1000 people in Sierra Leone.
We cannot really control population and accept high death rates in populated countries. We need to:
- Enhance socioeconomic conditions and Governments need to invest in better GDPs in the healthcare system and to build hospitals to increase hospital per 1000 capita
- Increase awareness about hygiene
- Increase healthcare education
by sfh25 | Aug 7, 2022 | Dashboard
What is child labor? By definition is it any type of employment that prevents children from their childhood and dignity, and/or could be harmful to their physical or mental wellbeing.
Using the data collected from around the world and presented in the WDIData.csv I have tried to visualize child labor ratio. As you can see in below figure where child labor is presented on country level and the size of the dot indicates a higher ratio:
Children between 7 to 14 employement rate
Child labor affected both male and female children alike, as you can see in below figure:
Children between 7 to 14 employement rate – Male vs Female
Child labor is usually associated with:
- Wealth of the country (GDP per capita)
- Educational level
- Political conflict
- Government involvement and follow-up
Below figure, for example, shows an association between child labor and GDP per-capita (size of the dot represents the total population):
Percentage of children in employment vs GDP per capita in year 1962
What can we do to help children around the world?
To be able to address child labor we have to address all the points that contributes to it.
In my opinion, a good start will be with governmental support. Governments, for example, need to address this though issuing laws that prevents child labor below certain age.
Enhancing GDP is a long process and should be planned on country level. But a good start could be through controlling government expenditure and directing it to important areas only. Focusing on investing in infrastructure and support local productions vs imports.
Political conflict has to be addressed through serious piece discussions and cooperation with neighboring and world leading countries. And through strengthening the army and local forces and eliminating corruption.
Final thoughts
Child labor is one type of child abuse that should be addressed seriously. And although a lot of factors contributes to it that should be addressed there is one additional point that we might need to start with; which is the collection of data. Going through the WDIData.csv it is was clear to me that there is a lot of gaps over the years and on country level. And it is time to take the initiative and document child labor around the world properly. For children are the future of our race; they are the foundation on which we build our society. And it is very important to nurture them and protect their childhood.
by ear06 | Aug 6, 2022 | Dashboard
Introduction
In this day and age, women are still vastly underrepresented at the top of business organizations, and also in the roles that lead to the top, progress has been slow even stalled over the last decade. Women should be empowered to walk up to senior positions. What are the pathways? What are the challenges? How to help the world achieve equality between men and women? What does it take to step up from being a technical or a functional expert, a great team leader to stepping up to a bigger, broader enterprise-wide role? What are the current facts and figures, and statistics on this topic?
Let us dive in.
Did you know?
In the U.S., women represent 47% of the workforce and in 40% of families, women are the primary or sole breadwinners.
Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to outperform the competition.
Women earn more bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the U.S. than men.
It has been reported that women control 70% of household spending, or $12 trillion, in developed countries around the world.
And yet…
Globally, women hold on average just 34% of senior leadership positions.
Women represent 45% of the S&P 500 workforce, but only 4% of the CEOs.
In a study of nearly 22,000 publicly traded organizations worldwide, 60% have no female board members!
What are the challenges?
Many challenges persist for women who aim for senior roles. While most organizations are seen to be putting effort into managing a more balanced gender diversity, there are still barriers faced by women, we mention the following:
- Women hold to higher standards; they are more detail oriented and need to do more than what men generally do to demonstrate that they are capable.
- A long way to fighting gender stereotypes, where general opinion says that men are better in doing certain jobs such as managing sports teams and in the oil & gas sector, while women are now more present in police jobs, engineers, etc.…. women should be recognized for similar skills sets as men.
- Women are not as experts as men in playing strategies and taking risks.
- Women are allegedly known to be emotionally driven while taking decisions.
- They are supposed to manage many roles within the family and multitask.
- They face harassment at work and a lack of role models.
- We see cultural and social restrictions in some countries.
- Cognitive bias in the process of hiring, promoting, rewarding, and recognizing skills.
- Lack of women’s self-confidence.
- Women are perceived as being overly aggressive when voicing their opinion.
How can this situation improve?
- Women need to learn how to be more self-confident and grab the chance in senior roles.
- Implementing fair and inclusive policies, rules, and regulations to encourage more diversity in the senior management place.
- Companies must realize the importance of having equally men and women on their top board as much as possible. It is now clearer that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially and competitively.
- Mentoring and supporting women.
- Providing unbiased training and professional development courses to those charged with selecting potential candidates.
- Fostering a work culture where women are encouraged to take on leadership roles.
- Not to forget the many recently introduced university programs on this topic from prestigious business schools.
Visualizations and Analysis.
By looking at the data from World Development Indicators, specifically the index of “Female share of employment in senior and middle management (%)” we get the results in Tableau as below:
Edit | Women in Leadership – by Elsy Riachy (tableau.com)
It is clear that the global average for Women in Leadership (WIL) in 2020 reached 34% from 31% in 2010, a very slow increase. Additional efforts should be made to plan a 50% score 10 to 15 years from now.
Things to note…
Each one of us should be taking action to ensure that the world is moving towards a more inclusive workplace where women are empowered to lead and have the opportunity to develop and progress.
Different ideas and perspectives help for a more innovative world in business which will ensure growth in a sustainable way.
Quotes
“Diversity and Inclusion, which are the real grounds for creativity, must remain at the center of what we do”. ~Marco Bizzarri
“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
by mba39 | Aug 5, 2022 | Dashboard, Uncategorized
Diseases have always been a main driver behind the increase in mortality rate at a global stage with variations in its indulgence and impact among different countries. Many of these diseases are chronic, incurable diseases such as: cancer, diabetes and many more that are widely spread and and is considered lethal.
Data and statistics proved the correctness of our statement as it was evident that there is a considerable variation among different countries when comparing the data trend of how mortality rate due to diseases (CVD, cancer, diabetes or CRD) fluctuated over time across many countries worldwide. The data was collected from people ageing between 30 and 70 to make sure the data collected was relevant. For simplification, I chose two countries (Lebanon and Germany) to compare how they performed over time in this certain aspect. The result was a considerable drop in the mortality rate due to such diseases in Germany (from 16.1% to 12.1%) compared to Lebanon that showed almost a neutral change over time (from 20.2% to 19.9%). This was reflected by a constantly higher life expectancy at birth in Germany as compared to Lebanon.
After analyzing the collected data from different perspectives, we were able to draw conclusions about certain factors that might have impacted and influenced this variation in the data trend between the two countries. Among these multiple factors were the R&D expenditure (as a % of GDP) and the GDP per capita (in current US$). After visualizing how these two aspects varied over time in the two mentioned countries, we noticed that Germany invested incrementally in developing its R&D over time compared to Lebanon that had no records in this area. This investment in R&D results in technological advancement that promotes and enhances many areas including the health sector and medications. Here, Germany has achieved a lot of improvement that in return guarantees a better healthcare system and environment as well. As for the GDP per capita, Germany has also evolved and elevated greatly (from $2,761 to $46,253) compared to Lebanon that scored very low in GDP per capita growth (from $1,234 to $4,650). This explains Germany’s much greater capacity and ability to undertake such R&D projects and investments which ultimately leads to better and healthier ways of living and hence, drives a drop in the mortality rate over time caused by such diseases.
For countries scoring very low in GDP such as Lebanon, it is recommended to look for other ways to fund such R&D projects in order to bring a change and enhance the living standards and environment and have a better control over such diseases.
