Global Development Flashcards
(81 cards)
What is development
he word ‘development’ implies progress is being made. It has traditionally been measured using economic data, particularly growth in GDP (total or per capita) and a shift from primary industry (e.g. farming), towards manufacturing and the service sector.
Traditionally, GDP growth has been used to measure development, but development is now seen to include more than that.
Human development focuses on progress in terms of quality of life, not just wealth. It includes progress in freedom, equality and how content people are with their lives.
GDP per capita: the value of all a country’s goods and services produced in a year, divided by its population.
Advantages and Disadvantages of GDp
Why GDP is a good measure of development:
Economic growth drives other types of development
Advances in health and life expectancy can only be delivered by economic growth
Why it isn’t
The modern concept of development focuses more improving well-being and abilities: health, life expectancy and human rights (and environment?)
for example, quality of life and contentment, life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, literacy and healthcare
GDP increases don’t specifically include ‘human development’, though some argue it leads to it
The relationship between income and life satisfaction is complex
Life satisfaction increases rapidly with wealth when incomes are low to begin with
When a medium level of income is reached, satisfaction increases only very slowly with additional income
Some people are much more satisfied than their income would suggest whereas others are much less satisfied
% with high life satisfaction:
78% - Mexicans (emerging)
66% - El Salvador (developing)
43% - Japanese (developed)
37% - Greeks (developed)
Nigerians, Russians and the Japanese have similar levels of life satisfaction despite having vastly different income levels. (around 41-3% of people have high life satisfaction)
Economic growth exploits natural resources, which negatively impacts environmental quality (which is part of development)
GDP gives a crude average which skews the income distribution. The majority of incomes could fall well below the mean, and a very wealthy minority raise the average.
The informal economy is not included in GDP or most economic measures - yet in Uganda this is estimated to produce 60% of GDP.
Countries which similar GDP may vary in life expectancy. E.g. Tajikistan 72.2 years, Lesotho 61.1
So… there are now other measures of development…
Happy planet index
A measure of human development, introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006
Combines environmental data on sustainability with social data on satisfaction and health - and doesn’t income data on income.
Uses global data
HPI = EW x LE / EF
EW = Experienced Well-Being -> people are asked were they place their present well-being on a ladder of ten steps
Some sources call this life satisfaction
LE = Life Expectancy
EF = Ecological Footprint -> devised by WWF, per capita amount of land required to sustain a country’s resource consumption
The countries with the highest values are not the most developed, but rather emerging. Do they balance human development with environmental management?
Six categories, three measures - each rated good/middling/poor
High HPI
Highest: Costa Rica 64.0, Vietnam 60.4 (best in Central America)
Also, Mexico, Colombia, Thailand
Middle-income, emerging countries which balance quality of life and the environment.
Medium HPI
Upper Middle: UK 47.9, Japan 47.5
Lower Middle: Singapore 39.8, Ethiopia 39.2, Namibia 38.9 <- low ranking due to the high ecological footprints
(Also, Spain , India, Indonesia, Brazil)
Very mixed group, but most lack extensive poverty and have good social conditions.
Low HPI
Lowest: Botswana 22.6, Chad 25.2
(Also, USA, Russia, Ivory Coast, South Africa)
Very wealthy but wasteful societies OR very poor developing countries. Unequal concern for social development and sustainability.
Shortcomings
2/3 of measures based on highly aggregated and subjective data
Is it reasonable to assume people perceive their well-being and the steps of the ladder in the same way?
Only life expectancy is reliable.
Welfare State
Welfare State
There is no universal model for how a society should be run in order to maximise human contentment and levels of wealth.
In most developed countries governments use taxes to fund a welfare state system. This promotes human wellbeing by redistributing resources to people in need such as children, the elderly, disabled, ill or unemployed. It provides:
Free education, usually from age 4 or 5 to 16 or 18.
Health services, which are free in some cases.
Benefits such as a basic income, housing and social services to those in need.
However, in developed countries there is large variation in terms of which benefits are provided, and how free and generous state welfare systems are.
Sharia Law
Creates a code of conduct incompatible with our perceptions of human rights.
List of countries using it includes some of the richest (Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UEA) and some of the poorest nations (Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen)
What is it?
The legal system in most Muslim countries which dictates many aspects of life.
It is applied differently across the Muslim world: strictly in some countries and more flexibly in others.
Covers behaviour and beliefs (public and private)
It includes zakat, which means the payment of taxes to help less fortunate people. However, if perpetuates gender inequality, by denying fundamental human rights to women.
But, strict Sharia Law contains many human rights violations:
theft is punishable by the amputation of the right hand
converting from Islam is punishable by death
a man can beat his wife for disobeying him
a woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative
Bolivia under Evo Morales
An indigenous Aymara, first elected in 2006, who won an unprecedented third term in office in 2014
Taxes have been raised on the profits of oil TNCs to over 80% and the extra government income used to reduce poverty through health, education and other programmes including increasing the minimum wage by 50%.
Has lifted 500,000 Bolivians from poverty - extreme poverty has fallen by 43%
However Bolivia is still one of the poorest countries in Latin America, dependent on its resources for economic growth, where 1/4 still live on less than $2 a day (World Bank)
Best development goals
Hans Rosling (1948-2017) was a Swedish physician, academic, statistician, and public speaker. He felt that future goals should be to improve environmental quality, health and life expectancy of the poorest and human rights -> and that economic growth was the most important way of achieving this.
However, he argued that human rights (especially property rights) are essential to economic growth, and that these cannot exist without a good, stable government. He stressed the crucial role health plays in human development, arguing that improving health. life expectancy and environmental quality often unlocks people’s economic potential.
Economic growth is needed to built infrastructure, raise incomes to pay for medicine and education and develop journalism for human development to increase.
Both the Indian subsidy system and the radical tax redistribution of Evo Morales are seen by some as discouraging economic growth. This is because subsidies undercut some prices, and very high taxes discourage investment by TNCs. -> there is a general consensus that economic growth is important if human development is to increase in the long term.
Education and economic development
Education is crucial to economic development as it increases the value of ‘human capital’ - a.k.a. producing a literate, numerate, enterprising and skilled workforce.
Education mainly comes from schooling (primary, secondary, university) but continues during employment (training)
Education gives a better job and higher wages -> material benefits -> quality of life
The relationship between years in education and income:
A low number of years in education results in a poorly educated, unskilled workforce with low earning capacity, so incomes remain low.
High incomes mean governments have the taxes to invest in education (investing in future human capital, which in turn increases future income.
Norway: 2013 Expected years in education - 17.6
Income per person $70,600 (2016)
Niger: 5.4 years, $360
Education and Human rights
Human rights are the rights people are entitled to simply for being human: they often include freedom, equality, the right to a fair trial, the right to education and a certain standard of living.
It informs people about personal health, diet and hygiene
It allows people to understand their human rights, so they are more likely assert them when they’re undermined.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is part of the UN’s International Bill of Human Rights, signed by 163 countries, recognises the right to free primary education.
Education inequality
However, education varies because of poverty, and gender inequality. (meaning this view is not universally shared)
UNESCO has found that education is still inaccessible to over 60 million children of primary school age. 32 million of this is from Sub-Saharan Africa. 20 million can be found in Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific.
Poverty
Since 1970, the highest level of education achievement has improved dramatically in Africa, but, even in 2020, 50% of 20-24 year olds are expected to leave education at the end of primary school, and fewer than 10% will have had any post-secondary education.
% No education:
Africa 1970: 59%
2020: 22%
North America 1970: 2% - 2020: 0%
% Post secondary:
Africa 1970: 4% - 2020: 9%
North America: 21% -> 24%
In Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, only 8% of children reached Grade 4 (where basic literacy and numeracy skills are taught, end-of primary level), and learnt the basic skills in 2013-14. Standard of achievement also varies, since in Niger 51% of children reached Grade 4, but did not learn the basic skills.
In Swaziland (with a GDP per capita 9x higher), 94% of children reached grade 4, and only 2% did not learn the basic skills.
Gender inequality
In low-income Sub-Saharan Africa, fewer girls than boys finish both primary and secondary school because education often costs money and boys are prioritised. Girls are also traditionally seen as working in the home. 54% of the world’s non-schooled population are girls.
Primary school completion rate: 72% boys, 66% girls
Also 6% different in secondary school completion rate.
Inequality is also clear in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in primary school: poverty plays a role but boys tend to be valued more than girls for religious and cultural reasons (so more of them finish school)
93% boys, 87% girls
South Asia is a poor region, but education is valued highly and girls get more schooling than boys.
92% boys, 94% girls (78% and 82% for secondary)
Latin America equal for primary (99) but 76% male and 81% female for secondary.
Variations of Health in the developed world
Health is important for human development, since poor health can have the following consequences for development:
Childhood diseases can lead to stunting and poor cognitive development, affecting education later in life.
Diseases such as malaria and HIV/Aids reduce the capacity to work, and therefore earning capacity.
Family members may have to spend long periods looking after ill relatives (rather than working), because health services are poor
Medical costs use up income that could be spend on food, education and housing.
DRC as one of the worlds richest countries
For example, the DRC is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural resources, however:
most of the population lives in a state of moderate to severe food insecurity, and 40% of children under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition
the water supply for 47.6% of the population is ‘unimproved’ <- comes from a river, spring, or open pond <- water borne diseases are rife
most women have their first child before the age of 20 - infant and maternal mortality rates are the world’s highest
Variations in the Developed world
The differences in life expectancy within the developed world are not as large as in the developing world, but are still significant. The average Japanese person can expect to live 13 years longer than the average Russian (about 84 and 71) . Some reasons for the variations:
Lifestyle: inactive lifestyles, combined with high fat/sugar diets, have contributed to 31% of adults in the UAE and 36% in the USA being obese, which leads to high levels of diabetes and heart disease, which lowers life expectancy. Alcoholism is a serious problem in Russia, especially among men.
Diet: Japanese and South Korean diets contain more fish, vegetables and rice than Western diets, which are high in meat protein, fat and sugar. Better diet may lead to lower levels of cancer, heart disease and skeletal/joint problems such as osteoporosis and arthritis.
Deprivation: about 40% of people in Bulgaria are at risk from poverty, despite its EU membership
Medical care: some countries, such as the UK, provide free healthcare for all (the NHS), which increases life expectancy. In the USA most people need expensive health insurance policies to cover health costs, which many cannot afford. Costs are greater when funded through private insurance and the private sector (economies of scale)
The USA has the highest health spending per capita in the world, yet it has an infant mortality rate of 5.97 per 1000, only the 38th lowest.
In Russia and Bulgaria, medical care is much less modern than in other developed countries and therefore less effective.
Variations of development in Britain
There are large variations in health and life expectancy within countries, even those with universal, free healthcare systems such as the UK. In the UK, male life expectancy at birth is around 71 in Manchester, but 86.1 in Harrow, in London. People living in Manchester have almost the same life expectancy as those in North Korea or Nepal!
In some small areas of Glasgow, male life expectancy is around 65. Blackpool (75), Middlesbrough (76), and Liverpool (76) also have male life expectancy rates lower than the national average of 79.5 for men. There are many reasons for this:
In deprived, post-industrial cities (traditional manufacturing industry closed), male unemployment is high, incomes low and levels of smoking and alcohol consumption are higher than the national average.
In north-east England, there is a much higher death rate, with a higher proportion of these deaths attributed to smoking and alcohol consumption, certain cancers, and respiratory and heart diseases.
Diet among low-income groups is often poor, with cheap, high-fat fast food consumed rather than fresh fruit and vegetables (spending on this lower in north east England).
The combination of low income and poor lifestyles leads to high levels of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, liver and kidney failure - and hence lower life expectancy.
Gender also plays a part - in the UK the life expectancy for women is 3.7 years higher.
Ethnic variations in Britain
Inequality in health and life expectancy can also result from ethnic differences:
Australians with European ancestry live nearly 20 years longer than Aboriginal people
ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander) men and women both live 10 years less than the average Australian.
This is due to:
relatively high mortality rates in middle age
high rates of chronic disease and injury
high levels of deprivation
a higher prevalence of modifiable and behavioural risk factors, such as smoking, drug taking and alcohol abuse
lower levels of education and employment
the social disadvantages they face
The root cause of these differences is poverty. Many Australian Aborigines live in isolated rural communities and have low-paid jobs. Levels of alcohol consumption, smoking and drug abuse are high. Food can be expensive in isolated communities, and access to healthcare is basic.
In 2009, the Australian government launched the Close the Gap initiative, which, by 2018, aimed to halve the gap in child mortality, and increase the proportion of ATSI students completing high school.
The relationship between economic and social progress
The relationship between economic and social progress is complex, however at the 2016 G20 summit in Hanzhou all 20 leaders agreed that global economic growth would lead to improved conditions for all people.
Social progress is the idea that societies can improve over time in economic, human and environmental terms. Governments play a key role in this, as their decisions can prioritise:
Economic development, through infrastructure spending, e.g. roads, railways, power grids and tax breaks to attract foreign visitors
Human development through spending on education, healthcare and benefits for disadvantaged groups, and promoting freedom and equality.
E.g. France spends 11.5% of GDP on health, or 2.8% in Bangladesh.
Environmental wellbeing, by reducing pollution (and its negative health effects), ensuring clean water and sanitation, and protecting ecosystems and species.
Most governments do all of these thing, but not equally. The Social Progress Index (SPI) attempts to quantify how well governments provide for their people. It is based on three factors:
basic human needs -> nutrition, medical care, shelter, water, sanitation and safety
foundations of wellbeing -> education, access to internet and mobile phones, life expectancy, pollution levels
opportunity -> personal rights, political freedom, gender equality, tolerance of immigrants and access to advanced education.
Neo liberal or néo-libéralisation
Reduced state intervention,
Free-market capitalism
Freedom for private businesses to trade and earn profits.
Promoting free trade between countries
with no or very few barriers (e.g. import/export taxes or quotas on the volume of exports)
Deregularising the free market
meaning money can flow easily and quickly between banks, businesses and countries.
Privatising state assets (e.g. water provision, transport).
This means they can be run to maximise profit
The belief is that this will aid development as the private wealth will trickle down, and that the poorest will eventually benefit from the strengthened economy.
Many countries are run to these neo-liberal principles, and IGOs have traditionally promoted it.
Intergovernmental Organisations are regional or global organisations of which countries are members; they manage aspects of the economy, global development and specific issues such as health or environmental issues.
These are more recently focusing on programmes to improve environmental quality, health, education and human rights.
Drawbacks to Neo-liberalisum
IGOs promote programmes such as structural adjustment, intervening in the policies of individual governments. This cuts health and education programmes, in the belief that this will improve the chances of economic growth.
There are concerns that neo-liberalism:
benefits businesses and TNCs far more than ordinary people, and so creates inequality, i.e. a growing gap between rich and poor
focuses on industrialisation, trade and jobs that tend to concentrate in cities, so rural areas miss out on economic growth and development
focuses on profit and economic growth at the expense of the environment
The World Bank
Part of the United Nations.
Lends money to emerging and developing countries to promote development
It funds projects such as roads, hydro-electric power, telecoms and water supply schemes
How it is helping education
A founding member of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), established in 2002
This was created to have achieve the second and third MDGs (Achieve universal primary education and promote gender equality and empower women)
The GPE invests in early childhood education for all children, and aims to develop a sound educational system for children through developing early reading and numeracy skills
It helps countries set up early reading assessment systems
Focus on the poorest and most disadvantaged children, (girls, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities or in conflict zones)
More recent work has focused on secondary and higher education.
Invested over $35 million in educational programmes between 2002 and 2015
How it is helping the environment
Launches the Climate Change Action Plan in 2016
Aims to help developing countries, like India, to add 30 gigawatts of renewable energy (enough to power 150 million homes) to the world’s energy capacity
Aims to provide flooding early warning systems for 100 million people, and develop investment in agriculture for 40 countries (all by 2020)
Part of a strategy to end poverty
The IMF
Promotes global economic stability, by intervening in countries that experience economic difficulties (usually focusses on heavily indebted countries)
In return for re-arranging loans at adjusted rates of interest, and at more affordable repayments, it has imposed Structural Adjustment Programmes on the indebted countries. These SAPs consist of conditions forcing the state to reduce its role in the economy (e.g. by privatising energy or water companies) and in social welfare (spending on health and education)
This resulted in health and education provision being reduced, with TNCs benefitting
Its aim is to reduce the risk of market crashes and recessions
Role of strengthening weakening currencies, and foster stronger economic development policies
Reducing Poverty
’Poverty reduction programme’
Countries are now required to develop their own medium-term development plans to receive aid, loans and debt relief. (instead of having to do SAPs)
It is currently working with the Haitian government to make the economy more resilient, especially after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. It aims to make Haiti an emerging economy by 2030.
The WTO
Promotes free trade through negotiations between countries,
in order to promote economic development and reduce debts
however, these have frequently resulted in environmental degradation (rainforest clearance, threats to biodiversity)
e.g. Indonesia, where rainforest has been cleared for palm oil production
Since the 1950s a series of negotiating rounds have removed barriers to trade, although further progress has been limited since the 1990s
Helping the environment
Most WTO trade policies now try to:
Restrict the international movement of products or species that are potentially harmful or endangered
Challenge trade agreements where there may be implications for climate change
However, there is a conflict of interest, since the most powerful countries in the WTO may be disadvantaged by limiting trade.
UN MDG and SDG definitions
MDC- Millenium development goals
SDG- Sustainable development goals
UN MDG
The UN MDGs ran from 2000 to 2015, and aimed to improve the lives of people living in developing countries (especially South Asia and Africa) through global response. They consisted of 8 goals and subsidiary targets. Examples are:
To halve the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day
To halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 and at all levels by 2015
Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate
Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
They were ambitious goals and targets, focused on meeting basic needs in terms of health, income, food supply, water and sanitation. How successful were they?:
the health target prevented 20 million deaths between 2000 and 2015
6.2 million deaths from malaria prevented, 37 million deaths from TB prevented
infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 53%
The rate of children dying before the age of 5 has fallen from 90 to 43 per 1000 (52% decrease)
numbers living in extreme poverty fell by 54%, from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015
undernourishment fell from 20% to 13% between 2000 and 2015
primary school enrolment increased from 83% to 9!%
maternal mortality fell from 330 to 210 deaths per 100,000 live births
parliamentary representation of women increased in nearly 90% of countries
improved access to sanitation for 2.1 billion
Drawbacks to the UN MDG
These are huge gains, but:
Only one of the goals (no. 7, halving the number of people without safe access to drinking water) has been achieved.
Also, some countries, especially China, account for a large slice of this ‘success’ and can mask more limited progress in parts of South Asia and Africa.
East Asia and Latin America have made better progress than other developing regions.
500 million of those the fall in extreme poverty came from China
Gender inequality has not improved as much as hoped, and conflict in many countries (Somalia, Yemen, DRC) has set progress back.
The poorest, and those disadvantaged because of gender, age, disability or ethnicity were not benefitted
All but one MDG focused on poverty reduction rather than wealth creation (Hans Rosling criticised this)
By 2015, 800 million people still lived in extreme poverty and hunger, and 800 million lived in slum housing in cities.
UN SDG
The SDGs replaced the MDGs for the period 2015-2030. They are 17 global goals that apply to all countries, not just developing countries (as with the MDGs). They too set targets for basic needs, but in addition have to focus on sustainable development, including:
clean energy -> renewable, low carbon
decent work -> for a decent wage, avoiding exploitation
sustainable cities -> for more than 50% of the world’s population living in urban areas
protecting oceans and ecosystems.
But, they are not legally binding.