Transcript 1. Measures of regional and global disparities

What’s the story?
Which place is the most developed?
Measuring Development
• Objective – To learn the best way to
measure and monitor the level of
development in a country in a useful and
reliable manner.
• Outcome – a completed composite model of development and an
ability to be able to criticise other techniques.
Have a go at these..
• Development is?
• 7 least developed countries on earth
• 7 most developed countries on earth
• Why is it hard to define?
‘The rich are getting richer and
the poor are getting poorer’
True or False?
Gaps are important!
• https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinso
n
What is development?
According to the UN - "Development is change for the
better. Development should involve meeting the needs
of people socially, economically and environmentally,
and should improve their standard of living."
The 3 essentials of development include:
•the ability to lead a long and healthy life
•to acquire knowledge
•to have a decent standard of living…
Development involves political, economic and social
freedom, and opportunities for being creative and
productive.
Now people are including SUSTAINABILITY
Most of the world is actually quite
undeveloped..
What indicators can you use
to work out how developed a
country is?
Traditional measures of development
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Gross National Product (GNP)
Now use GNI
• GROSS NATIONAL INCOME
‘total value of goods and services
produced within a country together
with the balance of income and
payments from or to other
countries’
an example of GNP
Country
MEDC’s
LEDC’s
Estimated 2012
GNP US$
Per capita
Luxembourg 71,000
USA
44,000
Brazil
8,800
Philippines
5,000
Somalia
600
Malawi
600
What are the problems with using
GNI as a measure of
development?
What are the problems of using GNI
per capita as a measure of
Development?
•It doesn’t take into account inequalities in income
within countries, it only shows a national average. E.g.
Saudi Arabia has a high GNI, but most money belongs to
a few people
•Doesn’t include subsistence sector
•It doesn’t show regional variations (SE and NE Brazil)
•It does not take into account the local cost of living
•It fails to pick up on the social and environmental costs
of development (e.g. air pollution)
•A high GNI doesn’t necessarily mean money spent on
other indicators e.g. health, education
What is the North/South
Divide?
• By using GNI we can see that there is a
big divide between the ‘rich’ north and
the ‘poor’ south
• Otherwise known as the Brandt line
after Willy Brandy ‘discovered’ in 1966
that most MEDCs are in the northern
hemisphere.
Brandt line
This term is now outdated
Poverty line is now USED
Poverty line
• Established by World Bank to determine
which people in world are poor
• Set at $1 a day per person
• Suggest why this indicator can not be
used across all countries
Hmm.. How can we check the gap?
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Measurement effectively began in the 1970’s. Willy Brandt published a report on the
wealth of nations. He used total money in the countries to draw up a crude map
It’s where the terms first, second and third world come from
It only includes wealth per person in the countries measured.… a bit flawed! What
else do you think should be included in any measurement?
Next up – during the early 1980’s the UN used
Gross Domestic Product
• Measuring development levels is a challenge.
• Traditionally development has measured using economic
data such as GDP or GNI per capita.
• You add up the total wealth in the country generated in a
year and divide by the total population.
• These measures fail to recognise:
1. Income distribution
2. The local value of money
3. The non-money economy e.g. barter and exchange
Development is not just about money…
• It is also important to recognise that
development has social and quality of life
aspects
• Measures such as life expectancy, education
level, access to sanitation are important
• What else should be included in any
measurement?
As a result, in 1986 the Overseas development Council
introduced the first composite model for measuring development.
•
Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)
Life expectancy + Literacy rate + Infant Mortality rate
•
It was deemed good to start with but by the mid 1990’s many HiC’s were
scoring the same for all three indicators.
•
Another criticism was that it didn’t include money directly..
Eventually in 1992 the UN came up with the
current method of measurement and comparison
• The Human Development Index (HDI)
• Life expectancy at birth + Literacy rate + Enrolment rate
+ GDP per capita PPP - then it is ranked.. They
measure every year and publish a ‘Development Report’
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/trends/
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/default.html
• What do the 2010 HDI figures tell us about – who is
developed and what is happening to the gap
The Human Development Index
• Since 1990, the UN has urged the use of
the HDI as a measure of development. It
is a more accurate and reliable measure
of development as it includes three
indices of well-being.
– Life Expectancy
– Literacy and Schooling
– Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
• HDI is out of 1, therefore the closer to 1
the more developed the country
Top countries in 1999 on HDI Iceland, Norway, Canada
Bottom countries in 1999 HDI Sierra Leone, CAR, DR Congo
Philippines in 2009 was 102 in the world out of 179 (in the
medium category)
Has the top and bottom changed since then…?
Is the gap getting wider according to HDI…?
https://data.undp.org/dataset/Table-1-Human-Development-Indexand-its-components/wxub-qc5k
HDI Report 2009 (based on 2007 data)
Can you think of any problems
with HDI?
What are the limitations of the HDI?
• Doesn’t focus on health and Environmental Issues
• Does not take into account youth and infant
malnutrition
• Masks regional disparities
• It shows relative not absolute development, so that
if all countries improve at the same rate the
poorest countries will not get any credit for
progress.
Philippines Case study - HDI
However national averages can
conceal a great deal of information
HDI Map 2010
HDI is now perhaps in need of updating
• It now suffers from the same problem as PQLI (see data table)
• Mind you, any tool for measurement is flawed due to logistics, time,
money, reliability.. Still, we shall have a go.
• Its time for a new one and we are going to design it….
• That’s where you come in!
Back to the excel file…
Design your own development
‘composite measurement’ tool
• What shall we add to the excel file supplied?
• What do you think is important?
• We will use this excel file to compare countries
in 2010 – is yours different to the UN?
• We will compare the size of the gap since 1990
when you complete your hw.
Source….
• http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/data/
• http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr20
00/
• Going back further.. The atlas!
Is the gap between the winners and
losers closing?
Since 1980, the percentage of people living
in extreme poverty has fallen from 40% to
20% of world population.
But, because of population growth the total
number of people is extreme poverty is still
very high.
• The development gap relates to global inequality
• Around 2.8 billion people live on under $2 per day
(‘moderate poverty’)
• Some 1.1 billion people live on less than $1.25 per day
(‘extreme poverty’)
• Over time a greater proportion of wealth has
concentrated in the hands of the richest 20% of people,
compared to the poorest 20% of people
• Who are the current winners and losers
globally? According to the UN …
What is the development Gap?
• It is the gap between….
• Has it been like this for a long time?
• The winners and losers are pretty much the same as ten,
twenty years ago.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/trends/
http://www.sacmeq.org/statplanet/StatPlanet.html
• Is the cliché ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’
true? Is the gap at least closing….?
Task – Compare the value of a variety of methods of measuring wealth
and development disparities. (15)
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GDP/GNI
PPP
Poverty line
PQLI
HDI
MDG’s
A new composite
Shocked?
• https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_sh
ows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen