Factors that Promote or Hinder Development Flashcards
Factor that Affect Development
The factors that influence development in the Caribbean are multi-faceted and can be categorised as social, political, economic environmental, technological or cultural. It is, however, very difficult to separate any one factor that accounts for the level of development in any one society. Like many issues, none of these factors stands in isolation; they are strongly interconnected or interact with each other. However, the nature of each factor and the subsequent level of development that follows vary from one country to another. Additionally, one factor can have both positive and/or negative effects on the development of a country.
Social Factors
Gender Inequality-hinders Caribbean development in the following ways:
- Lack of equal access to the workforce deprives society of important skills and knowledge that would enable it to fully benefit from the contribution to be made by all of its members and prevents the economy getting the full benefit of its human potential. While men take the higher status scientific, technical, administrative and managerial jobs, women are employed in lower status positions in the health and education sectors and lower level administrative office and commercial positions.
- even if women gain access to professional and managerial positions, they experience a glass ceiling. This selective access to jobs has stifled the ambitions and potential of professional women.
Changing Class Boundaries
In the plantation society, a closed system existed where status was ascribed in the basis if race, colour and ethnicity. This resulted in a rigid social stratification in which people were not socially mobile. After emancipation, World War II and independence, a more open system evolved and to some extent social change meant people of European descent were no longer viewed as superior and so no longer feared. However, social stratification based on race, colour and ethnicity largely remained.
Quality and Relevance of Education
Educaton, or lack thereof, is a key indicator of the level of development. There is evidence that education has unmatched power to develop human resources by improving lives, particularly for girls and women. Many organisations, including the UN and it agencies UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP and World Bank, agree on the huge importance of education to sustainable development. The 2016 UN sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) states: ‘This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to a quality higher education.’
The Quality and Relevance of Education Promote Caribbean development in the Following Ways:
- Facilitates the continuos development of literacy, numeracy, and technical skills. These then aid further learning of higher-order skills such as problem solving.
- Inculcates life skills in members of society.
- Helps people in the Caribbean to improve their quality of life and standard of living by assisting them to obtain decent work, raising their incomes, increasing productivity and facilitating upward social mobility, which in turn all fuel economic development.
Caribbean Development is Hindered by the Following Education and Training Issues:
- Generally, high rates of illiteracy exist in some Caribbean countries. People lack basic skills that will enhance their employment opportunities and result in greater productivity.
- Although literacy rates are high in some Caribbean countries, illegal activities and domestic violence show uneducated choices and suggest that what people are being taught may be irrelevant to their lives.
- The inherited colonial-style education system aimed at creating an elite class has not empowered the masses for a competitive labour market.
Government Policies
Government policies can affect both human and economic development. Governments can use their powers to invest directly to develop new industries; introduce and enforce laws to provide protection to social groups or to the environment; provide public goods and services; and use taxes and incentives to achieve economic or social objectives.
Political Factors
Political Ideologies- can promote development in the Caribbean by:
- producing cadres of informed leaders with well-defined goals.
- offering clear guidelines for social and economic development.
- foster fragmentation and make countries vulnerable to external interference in domestic affairs.
Popular Movement:
- Rastafari
- Garveyism
- Black Power Movement
- Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League.
How Government Policies can Promote Caribbean Development:
- By investing in business; Caribbean governments have become major employers, resulting in reduced unemployment.
- By improving technology, healthcare, education, agriculture and supporting the private sector.
- By improving labour relations and enactment of policies aimed at environmental protection and anti-pollution.
Economic Factors
Distribution of Wealth and Resources: a key feature of Caribbean societies in the unequal distribution of wealth, income and resources among citizens. Some citizens, especially the elite, live in luxurious conditions, while other citizens live in poverty or abject poverty, as many do in Haiti. For various reasons, some countries have failed to adopt a policy of sustainable development that aims to provide social and economic equalisation for all citizens. There are also disparities in wealth at a national level. Many Caribbean countries have limited energy and mineral resources. As such, they experience disadvantages in terms of trading with countries with more resources and so their expenditure is high on imports. In Haiti, due to the absence of resources, the economy is very dependent on a declining agricultural sector for most of its GDP.
How the Distribution of wealth and Resources affect Caribbean Development
-Capitalism consolidates assets, both wealth and resources, into private ownership, which heightens disparities between rich and poor resulting in increased unemployment, low levels of investment, fewer opportunities and for some, homelessness and living in abject poverty.
Crime and social unrest increase as a result of poverty. This can act as a deterrent to foreign investors and tourists, meaning not only a fall in foreign exchange or revenue, but also still higher unemployment rates.
Entrepreneurial Drive and Activity
There is a direct link between business and economic growth and development. If a few persons are willing to take risks and open their own business, the concentration of wealth and economic power remains in the hands of a few big businesses. This has social implications, such as widespread poverty. Although the economic growth and development of a country depends largely on the productivity of its human resources, there must also be dynamic entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs play a key role in an economy because they look for new ways to create products or do businesses.
More specifically, entrepreneurial drive and activity can promote Caribbean development in several ways:
- by creating employment and reducing the high unemployment levels in the Caribbean
- by meeting the growing demand for goods and services, thereby increasing national income, and paying taxes such as corporation taxes, which assist in funding government social services and programmes.
Global Conditions
As small, open economies, Caribbean countries are highly exposed to changes in international economic conditions. These can be changes in international markets, prices and interest rates. Most economic activities in the Caribbean are affected by globalisation. CARICOM and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) represent a regional response to this.
Global Conditions can hinder Caribbean Development:
- Small economies or very small domestic markets can make countries economically dependent on foreign trade and overseas markets and investors. Foreign investment may be significant for employment in the short to medium term, but does not necessarily strengthen the institutions of a country for sustainable development.
Changing international prices for goods and services determine Caribbean countries’ economic fortunes. Many countries are dependent on imported goods from the metropole or Far East. In addition, economies dependent on commodity exports.
Tourism
The tourist industry is a major aspect of the economy of many Caribbean countries, which earn foreign exchange and other revenues for Caribbean governments. It has therefore been used extensively to promote development of infrastructure and social services.
