Development and Human Welfare

Development

economic and social prgress that leads to an improvement in the standard of living and quality of life for an increasing proportion of the population

Strands of Development

• Social: quality of life, healthcare, education, clean water, political freedoms, and gender equality

• Political: democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, and low levels of corruption

• Economic: income levels, employment rates, industrial growth

Contributors to Development

• Economic

• Social

• Technological

• Cultural

• Food and Water Security

Economic Contributor to Development

• providing tax revenues for governments to invest in education, healthcare, infrastructure

• trade, foreign investment, industrialisation

• informal economy

Social Contributor to Development

• access to education and healthcare → improve human welfare and productivity

• infant mortality, literacy rate, sanitation level

Technological Contributor to Development

• improves agricultural yield

• connects people to markets

• enables leapfrogging

Cultural Contributor to Development

• cultural attitudes to education, gender roles, entrepreneurship

• e.g. gender equality in education

Food and Water Security - Contributor to Development

• having reliable access to sufficient, nutritious food → prevent malnutrition and high health costs, increase productivity

• acces to clean water by improving water infrastructure → prevent disease spreading, agricultural failure, reduces time spend collectign water

• food and water insecurity → resources go into survival rather than growth

Measurements of Development

• GDP per Capita

• HDI

• Gini Coefficient

• Index of Corruption

GDP per Capita

• total value of goods and services produced by the economy of a country during a year

• easy to compare between countries

• doesn’t account for nature of economic activity (military spending), hides inequality, does not take into account size of country

HDI

• composite index combining life expectancy, GNI per capita and years in education, scored from 0 to 1

• captures health, education and wealth

• doesn’t include inequality, political freedom, or environmental quality, assumes variables are of equal importance

Gini Coefficient

• measure of inequality, scored from 0 (perfect equality) to 1, which analyses the distribution of wealth or income among the citizens of a country

• captures inequality in countries with high GDP and HDI

• doesn’t measure absolute poverty levels

Index of Corruption

• published by Transparency International, score from 0 (most corrupt) to 100 on perceivived levels of public sector corruption

• high corruption diverts resources, erodes piblic trust, undermines effective governance

• based on perception, not hard data

Patterns of Uneven Development

- Development Pathway: as countries develop, they move along the development pathway (developing → emerging → developed) at different speeds.

- Dependency Theory: low levels of development in poorer countries in periphery result from control of global economy by richer countries in core: core interferes with internal politics of the periphery, unfair trade, where periphery sell cheap resources and buy expensive products

Factors causing Uneven Development

• Social

• Historic

• Economic

Social

• lack of investment in education → less skilled workforce → country trapped in poverty, only primary job sector

• gender inequality → women denies education and work

• health (more able to work)

Historic

• neocolonialism

• european countries colonised countries and took their resources to sell for profit

• investment in colonies was focused on products and infrastructure that would help Europe exploit the country and its people

• Borders were often decided by European countries

• created lasting instability, debt, and underdevelopment

Economic

• global shift in manufacturing caused production to move to developing countries

• developing countries rely on primary produce → lower profits, lower price paid for goods, low labour costs

• spending money paying off debt and interest rather than investing in development

Impacts of Uneven Development

Italy, North-South Divide

• Poverty

• Unemployment

• Inadequate Housing

• Inadequate Physical Infrastructure

Poverty

• Lombardy in the north has GDP per capita equal to 127% of EU average, while Calabria in the south has GDP of only 56%

• North: wealthier, better quality housing and services

• South: periphery, suffers more with economic recession since 2007, dependent on agriculture and public sector jobs (lower wages)

Unemployment

- North: more jobs in manufacturing and services and a growing quaternary sector, close to large European markets, fertile lowland with irrigation water available, good supplies of energy

- South: high unemployment rates, little employment outside agriculture (much emigration in search of work), poor-quality grazing for sheep and goats, climate of hot dry summers and cold wet winters is not ideal for agriculture, rocks are mostly limestons and form thin soils

Inadequate Housing and Infrastructure

- North: better-quality housing and services, and a higher standard of living, good supplies of energy (natural gas in Po basin and HEP from the Alps), large cities, for example Milan, Turin are connected by an efficient transport system

- South: mountainous land makes communications and settlement difficult, poor transport links with the rest of country

Development Pathway in relation to Population Pyramid and Demographic Transition Model - Stages

Stage 1: High Flunctuating

Stage 2: Early Expanding

Stage 3: Late Expanding

Stage 4: Low Fluctuating

Stage 5: Decline

Stage 1: High Flunctuating

- The birth rates are high and fluctuate due to little or no birth control, high infant mortality (encourages couples to have more children), and chilldren viewed as an asset and status symbol.

- The death rates are high and fluctuate due to high infant mortality, poor diet and famine, poor housing and hygiene, and little to no healthcare.

- Natural change hovers between natural increase and decrease.

Stage 2: Early Expanding

- High birth rates due to high population of young adults

- Falling death rates due to lower infant morality, improved healthcare and hygiene, better nutrition, safer water and better waste disposal

- Population begins to increase rapidly

Stage 3: Late Expanding

- Falling birth rates due to widespread birth control, preference for smaller families, expense of bringing up children and low infant morality rate

- Falling death rates continue

- Rate of population growth slows down as the rate of natural increase lessens.

Stage 4: Low Fluctuating

- Low birth rate due to effective birth control, and more working women choosing to delay the age they start having a family

- Low death rates due to improving healthcare.

- Natural change hovers between increase and decrease.

Stage 5: Decline

- Death rate slightly exceeds birth rate

- Natural decrease and a decline in population

International Strategies

- Aid

- Trade

- Agreeements

Aid

transfer of money, goods and expertise to assist developing countries and to help improve the quality of life

- governments often give aid on certain conditions (purchase of weapons or a trade agreement)

- Immediate technology is lower level of technology that is more accessible, easily understood, does not require high levels of training and useful to the people of a developing country.

- Voluntary aid is the aid provided by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Oxfam and the Red Cross

Types of Aid

- Multilateral: governments of developed and emerging countries donate mainly money to large international organisations (such as the World Bank or UNESCO), which allocate that aid to countries believed to be most in need.

- Bilateral: government of a country gives the aid (grants, loans, technical help) directly to the government of a receiving country.

Trade

- Trade allows developing countries to export sales, which allows importing what is needed to progess its economic development, such as machinery, vehicles, and fertilisers.

- World trade does not always operate fairly: terms favour the developed and emerging countries at the expense of the developing countries.

- Fairtrade is NGO, seeks to obtain fair price for goods exported from developing countries to rest of the world, helps small-scale producers be economically secure.

Agreements

Most leading organisations are aimed at ensuring poorest countries are not discriminated against when it comes to international trade.

Different Views on the Development Gap

Developing Country

Top Down - Nigeria's Coastal Railway

- CRCC sought to build 1400-km express coastal railway line, link Lagos in west to Calabar in east, crossing huge delta of the Niger River.

- create new coastal growth corridor, encourage development across delta, reduces dependence on oil

- links two railway lines that serve interior of Nigeria.

- cost nearly US$12 billion, predicted to create 200 000 construction jobs and 30000 permanent jobs

- 85 per cent of funding will be provided as loans from China and 15 per cent by Nigerian govemment

- In 2016, with fall in global price of oil, Nigeria's economy was in recession so project put on hold

Developed Country

Top-down

- HS2 is high-speed railway, will link London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester

- approved by UK parliament and will be funded by government money and private investment

- aims to encourage economic growth, productivity, and investment in the North of England, reduce the UK's North-South divide

- Some question cost-effectiveness, predicted to cost US$128 billion, project being put on hold due to economic uncertainty of UK's exit from EU

Define Development Gap

difference in levels of development and standards of living between countries/regions

Top-Down

- government led, inolved major infrastructural or industrial intiatives

- Advantages: manages whole of national or regional economy

- Disadvantages: expensive (unsustainable debt, conditioned loans), needs heavy borrowing, does not involve local people, does not benefit local people, costly to operate and needs technical maintanence

Bottom-Up

- centred on people and focuses on helping them to help themselves, encourages the involvement of and benefits local people, involves NGOs providing financial aid and technical expertise

- Advantages: cheaper, use appropriate technology, more eco-friendly, sustainable (can be self-repaired and maintained), responds to real needs of communities, immediate

- Disadvantages: smaller