Defining Poverty Using Dominance-Based Rough Set Theory and Proposing Strategic Objectives for the United Nations Developing Countries

Abstract

This article is the last of a series of three researches. The purpose of this research is to expose the results of using Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA) to help International organizations (both non-governmental organizations and governmental organizations) define poverty, identifying economical, sociological, political and technological strategic objectives for developing countries. More precisely, politicians, decision makers and international organizations will be able to study 23 various political, economical, sociological and technological indicators and classify all the countries according to the following three different categories: [A] Countries that are doing well according to the selected indicators; [B] Countries that need support to acquire category A status; [C] Countries ranked the lowest and meeting special support with regard to the criterion or criteria considered. The three categories are delimited by tertiles relative to the average ranking of the member states of the United Nations. The chosen criteria are measured in order to provide decision rules based on this classification. These decision rules thus focus on the strategic needs of countries with respect to improving their development and classification. We strongly believe that by targeting these identified needs, this research will help the sustainable development of countries in need to set realistic targets, prioritize International funding, evaluate economical growth and sociological improvements. Among the results of this article, priorities for countries ranked the lowest should focus on reducing adolescent fertility and increasing school life expectancy.