World Giving Index: What it is and How is Latin America & Central America

World Giving Index (WGI or IMG in Spanish) is a study of the behavior of actions related to the action of giving, donate and / or help around the world. Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), an UK research center, is responsible for the study and is based on more than half a million interviews conducted worldwide and is constructed from data collected by Gallup, a global research consultancy and solutions that gets data from 2005/06, as part of its world Poll survey and classifies more than 150 countries in the world according to how generous is its population.

The main purpose of the index is to provide information on the extent and nature of "give" in the world. This index is useful to compare countries with each other, no matter what their condition. No donations or contributions quantified in monetary value but makes visible what percentage of the adult population has voluntarily operated for the welfare of others, has donated money or time has been dedicated to an organization.

Because the generosity or the "giving" can be understood in different ways, three aspects of behavior are analyzed. The score of this index is based primarily on a quantitative average based on questions about the behavior of the action of "giving" turn establishing a ranking for each question in the following way:

That action has been undertaken in the past month:

• Monetary donations: Has donated money to an organization?
• Volunteering: voluntarily devoted time for an organization?
• Help others: It helped a stranger, or someone who did not know I needed help?

Results Worldwide

Based on the world's population is estimated at more than 6,000 million people and that about 5,000 million are adults, then this is equivalent to almost 8 in 10 people worldwide are adults and in accordance with global trends, the WGI states that over 40% of adults in the world have driven by the welfare of others.

Globally, the average percentage of people who have helped a stranger or offered time voluntarily increased year on year, while the proportion of people who donate money has declined slightly. It should be noted that, since the three behaviors were moved in the same direction historically.

According to the latest results, the United States is the only country present in the Top 10 of the three classifications. Helping a stranger is the fastest growing category in this latest report has. As for groups, young people (15-29 years) are those who are becoming more active in helping.

Among the results, it is important to note an increase in the percentage of people helping strangers. The levels of donation to charities or causes remain below the levels reached before the economic crisis of 2008-2009 and volunteering has increased mainly in young however, does not reach previous levels. They help young people increasingly have more and more ability to perform volunteer. The segment of people of 15-24 years is the fastest growing and happens to be the last group in the ranking of 2008 are currently the second.

Top 20 countries

In the chart below, the top 20 countries according to historical WGI observed with the average per capita income PPA 2009 to 2013. there is practically a top of countries: US, Canada, England, Holland, New Zealand countries Ireland and Australia arising from others, where specifically between PPP per capita incomes between US $ 30 and 60mil in the IMG:

Source: WGI (CAF) and World A.

Top 10 Countries by behavior

The next graph shows the first 10 Countries are appraised according to their historical average scores of the WGI from 2010 to 2014 in each of the three aspects:

Source: WGI (CAF)

LATAM by behavior
In general, solidarity levels in LATAM countries are not significant when compared globally however it is important to follow up to see the behavior in the region. The following results take into account the historical average of five years for the IMG.

Help a stranger:

Countries leading this aspect are Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Costa Rica where more than 60% of the adult population and the least likely countries to help are Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil.

Source: WGI (CAF)

Donating money:

Countries that stand out in this area are Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Chile, where more than 40% of the population donates money to charities causes. Moreover, in Venezuela, Ecuador and El Salvador nearly 1 in 10 people are willing to donate money:

Source: WGI (CAF).

Volunteering:

In the area of volunteering, it should be noted that Guatemala leads followed by Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica where more than 35% of the population of these countries are involved in volunteer and least performing volunteer activities are Ecuador and Venezuela.

Source: WGI (CAF) 

Within ten best ranked countries in terms of the proportion of people who volunteer their time, in 2013, 4 out of 10 Guatemalans said that volunteered. This made Guatemala occupied the No. 8 worldwide and currently 13 th in the world.

Apparently this is an important feature in high-risk countries by climatic factors or political instability. Myanmar, for example, was the country where most people donate money to causes or charities (over 80% state donations) and as the fourth country in the world in volunteering. This would be more common than expected and becomes recurrent in areas where natural disasters or armed conflicts generate big losses and destruction and disaster.

The following chart shows the comparison between LATAM countries taking the percentage of average volunteer 2010-2014 and their average homicide rates from 2009 to 2013. It is noted that Guatemala, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have homicide rates and percentages similar but voluntary neighboring countries such as Guatemala El Salvador and Honduras do not reflect the same phenomenon, with higher homicide rates.

Fuente: WGI (CAF) and UN.

Final Considerations

Even small countries in the region are in the first places with higher rates, populations are smaller, although large Latin American countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico are not listed within the first places still contribute significantly.

The solidarity movement is becoming more important worldwide and in this time where climate change increases risks to populations, is important to encourage these initiatives particularly care for those already in action. In LATAM and particularly in Central America, it seems that may have more impact.

The Charities Aid Foundation report suggests that governments around the world encourage legislation that:

• Ensure that civil society organizations (CSOs) are regulated in a fair, consistent and open manner.

• Make it easier for people to process and provide incentives whenever possible.

• Strengthen the role of civil society as a public actor.

• Ensure that CSOs are transparent.

Sources:

www.cafonline.org/pdf/WorldGivingIndex2013_1374AWEB.pdf

www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/worldpoll.aspx

www.gallup.com/home.aspx 

http://www.laprensa.hn/inicio/781826-417/la-meta-ahora-es-bajar-tasa-de-homicidios-a-30-est%C3%A1-en

http://banguat.gob.gt/Publica/guatemala_en_cifras_2015.pdf 

Tasa de homicidios: https://data.unodc.org/#state:0

Pib per cápita: http://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD