Transcript Development PPT - geo

DEVELOPMENT
The syllabus says:
Concept of development
 Understand that development is not only concerned with economic
growth, but includes other aspects such as providing for people’s
basic needs, equity and social justice, sustainability and
interdependence.
 Understand also that development applies not only at the
global/international level but also at the local and national level.
 Appreciate that the cause of poverty and inequality are
fundamental to understanding the concept of development.
Issues of development
 As an intelligent IB geographer you should also be aware of some
of the issues surrounding these indicators.
 All of these indicators come from a very Western point of view.
The most frequently used (GDP) is directly linked to money. Is it
fair to value all societies by this?
 On the discovery of Aboriginals in Australia Captain Cooks men
offered them gold in return for their digging sticks – potential
souvenirs! No matter how much gold was offered the Aborigines
would not part with their sticks. For them gold has no value. Is
money held in such high regard around the world?
 You must also remember that a high GDP does not necessarily
mean there is fair distribution throughout the country.
 With economic development comes stress. Cancer and heart
disease is very rare in the developing world yet are the biggest
killers in the Western World.
 Development leads to destruction and pollution of the natural
environment. In the last two centuries development has done
more damage to our world than the thousands of years before.
 You must use your own opinion on several matters especially
when answering extended questions.
Indicators of development
 Be aware of the various indicators used to measure development,
their validity and their limitation. These indicators range from the
simple component indices, that usually measure only economic
development (GNP per capita or energy consumption per capita),
to the multiple component indices that are more inclusive and
attempt to measure the quality of life (Human Development Index).
Patterns of development
 Draw broad conclusions about the spatial pattern of development
at the global scale using a variety of measures.
 Recognize patterns within a country (core – periphery) and
comment on changes over time in these spatial patterns.
Measuring differences in
development
Indicators of development
Indicators of development have several uses:
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They allow us to use a figure for comparing different countries.
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Countries can be ranked in an attempt to fairly allocate aid payments.
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Indicators give us an idea about what the country is like economically, socially,
even environmentally.
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They do however have limitations that you should be aware of. These are
discussed later.
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You need to be able to define the main indicators, explain what they mean and
discuss their strengths and weaknesses. You should be aware that this is not a
complete list of all indicators as that would be impossible.
The main indicators
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - this is the value of all
goods and services produced within a country. It is
usually measured in US$ and calculated per capita. This
makes comparisons between different countries easier.
Alternatively you could be faced with Gross National
Product (GNP). The difference is that GNP also includes
goods and services produced by that country overseas.
GDP is probably the most widely used indicator. It implies
a lot about the country. If the figure is high it suggests
they have a large number of productive industries
producing goods. It also suggests that the service
industry is well developed. (Services include things such
as hospital and schools. If the figure is low it suggests
that the country has few industries and few services so
therefore a poor standard of living.)
Infant mortality
This is the number of infants that die prematurely. You need to check the
figures because it could be the numbers that die before they are one or
five. It could be as a percentage of the births or a per thousand figure.
Just check carefully before using.
This will tell us the state of the countries health service, food provision
and water quality:
Birth rate

A simple one, the number of people born per thousand people per
year. A high birth rate indicates a low level of development due to a
lack of contraception or the need for large families. (See The
Demographic Transition Model in the Population section). A low
birth rate indicates a high level of development.
Death rate
This is number of people who die per thousand people per year. It
will be a clear indicator of the level of health care, quality of water,
sanitation, accommodation, and food supply.
Literacy rates
This is the percentage of people
that can read and write. Clear
indication of the availability of
education and also the extent to
which people can get into
education – for example in India
many children cannot get in to
school as they have to work to
help support their families.
 There are of course other indicators but these are the
main ones. If you come across another just think about
what it shows and why.
 As you have seen each of these indicators have
advantages and disadvantages. In an attempt to
minimise these disadvantages composite indicators
have been developed. Examples of these include the
"Human suffering index" and the "Human
development index". Each of these uses several
indicators to try and avoid the disadvantages of one.
Human suffering index
The country is ranked from 0 to 10 for each of the following
indicators (0 is very good, 10 very bad):
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Life expectancy
Daily calorie supply
Access to clean water
Per capital income
Civil rights
Political freedom
Inflation
Communications
Percentage in secondary school
Immunisation of infants
 The countries scores are totalled and then ranked accordingly.
The worst a country could have is 100, the best 0.
 Using this score the worst countries would be Mozambique,
Somalia and Afghanistan whilst the best would be Denmark, The
Netherlands and Belgium.
Human Development Index
 This uses fewer indicators than the above. It simply uses wealth,
health and education. It is calculated each year. The best country
get “1” the worst “0”. This score is compared to GDP tables. If a
country is higher up the HDI table than the GDP table then it must
be successfully investing in health and education. If it is below
then there is room for improvement.
 Currently, several countries including Pakistan, Vietnam and Cuba
are doing well whilst Namibia, Morocco and Algeria poorly.
Global inequalities
A divided world
 We can use a variety of these indicators to show us the general
pattern of development around the world. You need to be able to
explain why these differences exist:
Historic
There are three significant historical factors:
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1. The UK was particularly fortunate to discover large quantities of high
quality coal:
This coal was used in early industries such as iron smelting. This led to
wealth that could then be spent on:
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Education: meaning a more skilled and able workforce.
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Experimentation: meaning innovating new technology. This included
guns that could be used to secure new colonies. There was also
significant investment in the armed forces.
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Exploration: exploring the world and colonising much of it looking for
new raw materials and markets to exploit.
2. Colonialism:
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This is the policy of obtaining and maintaining colonies. Basically, country
A goes into country B and says we are now in charge! - Nice! Many
European countries with greater armies and firepower were able to do this
over most of Africa.
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If you look at the historic reasons for colonialism you should start to
appreciate how this hinders the development of some countries but
promotes others. In the nineteenth century many countries from Europe
went across to Africa to colonise them.
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They wanted their raw materials to feed the industrial revolution that was
taking place in their countries. This means that the materials from Africa
were used to increase the wealth of the countries in Europe but obviously
hindered the African countries chances of generating great wealth.
3. The Slave Trade:
 This took the strongest men and women from many African
countries to work for European countries in strengthening their
economies. Basically providing an incredibly cheap labour force to
make them money. This again increased the wealth of the
European countries and reduced the chance for African countries
to develop.
Economic
1. Debt:
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One of the greatest problems faced by less developing world countries is
their level of foreign debt. By struggling to pay debt countries cannot
invest in education, medical care, transport route and are often giving up
more of their raw materials as pay off. Many countries particularly in Africa
owe staggering amounts of money.
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Ethiopia owes more than $10 billion. This is more than 13 times its foreign
earnings. Ethiopia pays 4 times as much on debt repayment as it does on
home expenditure. In the mean time 100 000 children die each year from
diarrhoea.
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You may have read about president Clinton put a system in place to write
off debt. This is a good start and will be discussed in the reducing
inequalities section.
2. The trade game:
 Less developed countries are disadvantaged by the world-trading
pattern. They primarily produce raw materials, which are sold to
developed countries that manufacture a product. The profits on
the raw material are very low whilst those on the manufacturing
good are high.
 Profits on the raw materials are kept low because so many
countries are producing it. It is not unknown for that manufactured
good to be sold back to the country that produced the raw
material!
Coffee is a good example:
 The UK imports 90% of its coffee as beans that it processes. On
this it makes considerable profit. It prevents the developing world
from setting up their own coffee processing plants by putting such
a heavy tax on imported coffee that it would be unprofitable for
them – i.e. It would be so highly priced because of the tax that no
one would buy it.
3. Within the developing world the problems they face have often been
made worse by political corruption:
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In Zaire for example the late President Mobuto is reputed to have had a
personal fortune of over £5 billion, much of which was money siphoned of
loans from the World Bank.
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In the time it took him to accrue this fortune the development of his
country went into reverse. It was not even able to maintain the existing
road networks.
4. When looking at the development of countries around the world it
is always worthwhile considering the multiplier effect:
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The simple principal is that if you have any investment in an area it will
stimulate further investment. For example a new car plant in an area is
likely to encourage linked industries to set up.
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This could simply be the local catering van for the workers or textile
industries making seat covers, engineering companies making shock
absorbers or a new tyre plant. This gives more people work and therefore
a wage that they will be inclined to spend so creating more jobs. The
economy continues to grow.
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Countries in the developed world have benefited significantly from this
whilst those in the developing world have not.
Environmental
1. Many less developed countries are located on or about the
tropics. This means that they are in a situation where they will be
prone to hurricanes:
 These can have a devastating effect on a countrys attempt to
develop. Hurricane, which recently hit Central America, put back
the development of Honduras by approximately 30 years.
 Their economy was left in ruin, as it was almost entirely dependent
on single crop agriculture – bananas – for the export market.
These were destroyed by high winds and flooding.
2. The discovery of coal as discussed earlier would also fall into this
category.
Successes in the
developing world
 It would be wrong to class the entire developing world as being
exactly the same. Differences exist within the countries and
between the countries.
 Two of the significant groups are discussed below:
Oil rich nations
 The 1970’s saw huge increases in the price of oil as Arab
countries withheld supply. This meant that any developing
country with oil suddenly had a source of great wealth.
 Those without faced a major disadvantage as they too had to pay
the inflated price for fuel.
 The consequence for countries with oil was that they could now
invest money in trying to alleviate poverty and promote education
and health.
 Many also invested in industries that refined oil adding great value
to their export. Additional profits were invested in overseas
ventures or loaned to other countries. As a consequence many of
these countries found great wealth.
 The average wage of a person in Kuwait is the highest in the
world! (The sheik who controls the country´s oil is one of the
richest people in the world taking 50% of all oil profits – this will
obviously have some effect on the average income calculations).
 Kuwait has about 699 people per doctor – the UK has 619. It also
has 100% access to clean water and 94% primary school
enrolment. (Figure for 1989, from Collins Longman Atlas).
Newly industrialised countries
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Newly industrialised countries
are those that have recently had
substantial growth in their
manufacturing output and
consequently exports. They
include South Korea, Singapore,
Taiwan and Hong Kong.
 Many have followed a similar system. Firstly the country invests in
industries that can produce goods they would normally import and
supports these new industries by putting extra taxes on imported
goods to make them un-competitive.
 Then when these industries are established they look to replicate
many of the products in the world export market. They concentrate
on high technology industries, first mimicking existing products then
improving them. Their economy typically grows by about 6-8% a
year.
 South Korea, for example, took advantage of its links with the USA.
The USA, Japan and Europe provided the country with significant
aid payments that it invested in iron, steel, shipbuilding, textiles and
chemicals so it no longer had to import these.
 It also imported raw cotton and developed a textile industry. Once
these were all established it invested in industries that would export
products such as computers, televisions and microwaves.
 As a consequence, South Korea has full primary school enrolment
and a growing GDP. In 1989, it was $4081 per person. (Collins
Longman Atlas).