(2) measuring development

Question 1

What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?

Answer 1

• it is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living
• health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth
• education dimension is measured by mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age
• standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita

Question 2

What is the usefulness of HDI?

hint: 9

Answer 2

1. was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone
2. Back in 1990 when HDI was first presented, the emphasis was mainly on economic growth
   - today, the entire community accepts that development is more than increasing per capita GDP. HDI has been canonized in all standard textbooks on development economies or development studies, and is considered the most serious alternative to GDP per capita
3. is a more holistic indicator as it has multiple criteria as compared to GDP, which is a single criterion
   - comprises not just economic aspects of growth, but include social and human development
   - all 3 components are seen as the essential building blocks of life –> if not available, many other opportunities remain inaccessible
4. by ranking each of the 3 aspects of human development, it will allow authorities to identify areas of weakness that a society might wish to devote additional resources to improving, e.g. health and education spending
5. gives direct value to factors, which help create opportunities for individuals to reach a higher and more fulfilling standard of living that may not be captured by the income/economic measure alone
6. enable comparisons of the performance of a country or between countries over time
7. can be used to question national policy choices, asking how two different countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different HDI values
   - these contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities
8. measures relative deprivation from optimum level of development –> a gauge as to how far a country is from reaching the max HDI value
   - e.g. HDI of 0.66 can mean that an economy has, on average, attained 66% of what is possible and has room for improvement
9. is still relevant today despite the many changes in the world
   - continues to be among the most well-known and accepted measures of development, and are seen as critical components to per capita income and dollar-a-day poverty measures

Question 3

What are the limitations of HDI?

hint: 7

Answer 3

1. is a composite measure which provides a single number
   - hence, cannot provide a comprehensive picture of the state of human development in any situation
   - just focuses on the basic dimensions of human development and does not take into account a number of other important dimensions of human development
2. is composed of long-term human development outcomes, thus it cannot measure short-term human development achievements
3. is an average measure and thus masks a series of disparities and inequalities within countries
   - does not reflect income, ethnic, gender inequalities and regional differences
   - is possible for a country with high HDI to have significant proportions of people concentrated at the bottom of the economic ladder, hence such inequalities are not reflected in the final HDI figure
4. income enters into the HDI not in its own right, but as a proxy for resources needed to have a decent standard of living
5. does not consider political freedom and respect for human rights as an indicator of development
6. not all countries have sufficient data available to calculate HDI
7. Human Development Reports have become relatively unimportant, easily dwarfed by the ever-increasing free online availability of data, most notably World Bank’s online World Development Indicators, and the many non-state actors compiling data
   - no one needs the Human Development Report to learn about new development data

Question 4

What is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?

Answer 4

• it is a measure of poverty designed to capture the multiple deprivations that each poor person faces at the same time with respect to education, health, and other aspects of living standards
• provides a comprehensive and in-depth picture of global poverty
• hence is regarded a s a high resolution lens on poverty, can be used as an analytical tool to identify the most prevailing deprivations

-is the product of the incidence of multidimensional poverty and intensity of multidimensional poverty
MPI= H x A

Question 5

What is the usefulness of MPI?

hint: 3

Answer 5

1. can be broken down into its constituent parts, revealing the overlapping needs of families and communities across a range of indicators which so often have been presented in isolation
   - helps policymakers to see where challenges lie and what needs to be addressed
2. can be adapted using indicators and weights that make sense at the country level to create tailored national poverty measures
   - can be seen as a useful guide in helping governments tailor poverty measures that reflects multiple local indicators and data
3. used to create a comprehensive picture of people living in poverty, and permits comparisons both across countries, regions and the world, and within countries by ethnic group, urban/rural location, as well as other key household and community characteristics

Question 6

What is the limitations of MPI?

hint: 6

Answer 6

1. indicators may not reflect capabilities because flow data are not available for all dimensions
2. health data are relatively weak and overlook some groups’ deprivations especially for nutrition
3. careful judgments are needed to address missing data
   - to be considered multidimensionally poor, households must be deprived in at least 6 standard of living indicators –> makes MPI less sensitive to minor inaccuracies
4. intra-household inequalities may be severe, but these could not be reflected
5. while it includes intensity of poverty experienced, it does not measure inequality among the poor
6. estimates presented are based on publicly available data and cover various years, which limits direct cross-country comparability

Question 7

what is the North-South Divide? (based on Brandt Report 1980)

Answer 7

• based on GNP per capita
• DCs with high GNP per capita in the North
• LDCs with low GNP per capita in the South

Question 8

what are the critiques of the North-South Divide?

Answer 8

-whilst there is a rough geographical correspondence in regions such as Europe, Africa, North and South America, the pattern is really more complex because of continuous economic development

• economic wealth of the South is extremely diverse
• comprises countries that range from a booming, half-industrilaised nation like Brazil, to poor landlocked countries or island countries such as Chad or Maldives
• many countries in the South are emerging and newly industrialising economic (India, China, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.)
• a few Southern oil-exporting countries have higher per capita income than some of the Northern countries
• in addition, some LDCs have made rapid progress to achieve developed world states (e.g. Singapore)

Question 9

what are rich industrialised economies?

inter-region development gap

Answer 9

• e.g. Germany, USA, Japan, known as core economies
• were the first countries to industrialise in the 19th and early 20th century
• have now shifted from manufacturing to service activities (sectoral shift), while manufacturing activities have increasingly been relocated to NIEs and LDCs
• GDP per capita remains high
• suffer from de-industrialisation - the long term absolute decline in jobs and production (output) in the manufacturing sector
• de-industrialisation impacted traditional ‘sunset’ industries of steel-making, coal, shipbuilding, textiles and heavy engineering –> are heavy industries which involve low-value, labour intensive and dirty work

Question 10

what are oil-exporting economies?

inter-region development gap

Answer 10

• e.g. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
• during the late 20th century, the world economy became increasingly dependent on oil
• while price of most primary products were falling, the price of oil increased
• were in a strong position to negotiate with the rest of the world the price of oil –> high GNP per capita

Question 11

what are former centrally planned economies?

inter-region development gap

Answer 11

• e.g. Russia, Romania
• for much of 20th century, were riled by communist government and industries were under government control rather than private companies
• since 1989 and the decline on communism, most of these countries have re-entered the global economy
• transitional economies (transit from former centrally planned to free market economies) –> re-entering global economy has been a difficult time of re-adjustment
• GNP per capita remained average or even fallen as their industries struggle to modernise and compete in the global market

Question 12

what are newly industrialising economies (NIEs)?

inter-region development gap

Answer 12

• a select group of developing countries that over the last 30-40 years, have sustained a high rate of economic growth
• e.g. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong
• experienced phenomenal GDP growth rate, even higher than that of DCs, and some consider themselves to be developed countries
• High GDP per capita
• attractive destinations for FDI –> part of the global shift of economic activity from DCs to Asian NIEs and then to LDCs
• manufacturing sectors accounts for at least 30% of GDP
• high trade-to-GDP ratio, e.g. Singapore’s 400%
• when Japanese companies first decided to locate abroad in the 1960s in the quest for lower labour costs, they looked to the most developed of their neighbouring countries - South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore
• however, as economies of 1st gen NIEs grew stronger and more diversified, cost of wages increased significantly
• Japanese and Western TNCs began to seek locations in 2nd gen NIEs (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) where recent improvements in physical and human infrastructure now satisfied their demands but where wages were still low
• with time, process repeated itself to include 3rd gen NIEs (China, India, the Philippines), emerged in late 1980s/early 1990s

-economic success led to sharp rise in income, improvement in jobs, wages,, education, healthcare, housing, overall quality of life

Question 13

What is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China ad South Africa) economies?
(inter-region development gap)

Answer 13

• emerging economies, account for 45% of world’ population and amongst the world’s fastest growing economies
• control 15% of global economy, 13% of global trade volume, and 41%of world’s foreign exchange reserves
• by 2050, would be wealthier than G6 industrialised nations (USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy)
• economic strengths: low labour costs and abundant resources
• China and India are already dominant suppliers of manufactured goods and services, lower labour and production costs make them attractive to TNCs
• Brazil and Russia are global suppliers of raw materials: Brazil in soy and iron ore, Russia in oil and natural gas
• BRICS suffered the least in 2008-9 global financial crisis than the world as a whole
• due to high domestic demand for their own manufactured goods and lower reliance of exports
• have begun to pull the global economy out of the crisis

Question 14

what is least developed countries (LDCs) economies?

iner-region development gap

Answer 14

• nearly half the population of the 48 LDC - some 400 million people - remain in extreme poverty, compared with less than a quarter in any other DC
• mainly landlocked with inhospitable climate
• low GDP per capita, weak human assets, and high degree of economic vulnerability - high proportion of population live on less than US$1 a day; found mainly in Africa (sub-saharan) and Asia(Bangladesh, Laos, Myanmar, etc.)
• highly marginalised and poorly integrated into the global economy - left out of global flow of trade, investment (FDI) and production
• narrow economic base - heavily dependent on a single commodity for export earnings
• highly dependent on food imports which are strongly affected by rise in food prices and unfavourable terms of trade
• vulnerable to external shocks especially international commodity price volatility - have little surplus to deal with shocks and domestic savings are very low
• need external aid t break out of vicious cycle of poverty and to fund social services, large-scale infrastructure projects and industrial development
• little prospect for rapid economic development in the foreseeable future

Question 15

what is heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) economies?

inter-region development gap

Answer 15

• e.g. Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Somalia, many African Sub-Saharan countries
• unable to industrialise and economy is still dependent mainly on export of primary products for their income
• most primary products (apart from oil) have fallen in value in world market – have volatile prices depending on the demand for these primary raw materials
• imports from other countries are highly prices, thus placing HIPCs to experience unfavourable terms of trade, causing them to become poorer
• many borrowed money from international banks or richer governments to help them develop, but now have to repay large debts
• are trapped in the cycle of poverty and debt –> GNP per capita is low and continues to fall
• marginalised by globalisation

Question 16

how is the economic development like in Myanmar?

intra-region development gap, Myanmar VS Singapore

Answer 16

• has consciously resisted globalisation and the western ways of materialism and commercialisation of culture till recently
• isolated its economic system since independence in 1948 and distanced itself from global forces in order to achieve self-sufficiency under the repressive military junta rule
• military junta rule controls all business operations and each firm in Myanmar is owned by a general who is ranked high up in the hierarchy of the Burmese military; firms are set up and run for the benefit of the junta
• hence foreign investors and firms find it difficult to operate in Myanmar as doing business there is often dangerous and not profitable
• instead of creating a self-contained economy, Myanmar’s decades of isolation has produced economic stagnation as the rest of the world does not trade with or invest much in the Burmese economy
• in 2017, GNI purchasing power parity was just over US$5,800. UN placed it among the ‘least developed country’ category together with Chad, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh
• the plight of the Rohingyas refugees exodus to Bangladesh highlights social issues such as human rights of minorities facing the country

Question 17

how si the economic development like in Singapore?

intra-region development gap, Myanmar VS Singapore

Answer 17

• has chosen to plug into the global economic system since independence
• highly dependent on international trade - trade to GDP ratio was over 400% in 2006-8, one of the highest in the world
• adopts an outward looking export-orientation strategy as its developmental model
• very open economy - lowered trade and investment barriers, and liberalised domestic markets through privatisation and deregulation
• top location for FDI - aggressively pursues TNCs to set up operations (has over 7000 TNCs in the country)
• wealthiest country in SEA
• GNI purchasing power parity in 2017 was US$90, 500, best-educated, best-housed, healthiest population, highest standard of living in SEA, has attained developed country levels of income and social welfare

Question 18

what is the urban-rural divide?

intra-nation development gap

Answer 18

• the more affluent central (urban) regions have prospered relative to the outer poorer (rural) regions
  e. g. 2011 in China, rural per capita net income was 6,977 yuan, compared to urban per capita disposable income of 21,810 yuan

Question 19

what is the intra-urban divide? (within cities in the same country)
(intra-nation development gap)

Answer 19

• increasing differences between rich and poor neighbourhoods
• global cities in DCs are makred by wide economic polarisation among residents
• increased polarisation between highly paid, highly skilled, multi-skilled workers and lowly paid, lower skilled workers

Question 20

what is the coastal-inland divide?

intra-nation development gap

Answer 20

• China’s coastal provinces VS island provinces
• e.g. province of Shangahi is 5 times wealthier than the poorest one, Gansu, which has a similar-sized population
• Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, launched in late 1970s such as setting up of Special Economic Zones, helped seaboard provinces to catch up with inland provinces by manufacturing things and shipped them abroad
• in 1990s, coast pulled ahead. Then after 2000, gap began to narrow again as worldwide commodity boom increased demand for raw materials produced in the interior
• but convergence is ending, GDP growth slowed across the country since 2015, especially in poorer regions
• seven inland provinces had nominal growth below 2%, a recession by Chinese standards

Question 21

what is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?

Answer 21

• was adopted by 189 member states of the UN Genral Assembly in 2000
• seen as an attempt to bridge the enormous magnitude of the inequalities that stem from the effects of globalisation

Question 22

what is the usefulness of MDGs?

hint: 10

Answer 22

1. represents an extremely important consensus of all world’ governments in favour of specific time-bound objectives which is set out
2. simple, transparent and easy-to-communicate framework
3. seen as setting out the elements of a basic safety-net for poor people - a set of conditions of life which no one should be expected to live
   - hence are intended to embrace not only all counties but also all people within each country
4. represent a set of multiple rather than a single development indicator
   - are built on pre-existing work (Green GDP, HDI, Physical Quality Life Index PQIL), hence offer a more holistic approach to measuring development
5. is seen as a influential and useful tool for advocacy, and a positive influence on data collection
   - have high degree of international legitimacy
   - short, relatively jargon-free, and deal in concepts that the public can both understand and relate to
6. have been monitored to an unprecedented degree, and greatly improved inter-agency collaboration on statistics has been achieved
7. more targeted campaigns drawn heavily on it (e.g. White Ribbon Alliance for safe motherhood)
8. used as a campaign platform, raising awareness of the MDG framework
   - work by OECD Development Centre: for 7 out of 8 European countries surveyed, there was a significant increased in awareness of the MDGs between 2004 and 2007
9. used by advocacy groups in the South where most LDCs are found
   - in Bolivia, maternal mortality data used to argue their case for additional resources from Central Government
   - in Vietnam, presentation of a report showing progress on MDG indicators at sub-national level was influential with Parliamentarians
10. has caused social-sector spending as a proportion of total government expenditure in poor countries to increase

Question 23

whof the total of 160 targets identified, 6 have been met or at are the limitations of MDGs?
(hint: 14)

Answer 23

1. progress has been uneven
   - in sub-saharan, over 40% of the population still live on less than US$1 per day
   - of the total of 160 targets identified, 6 have been met or very close to being met
   - in some 40 other cases, the target is expected to be met by 2015
   - however, in the case of 34 targets, no progress has been made or deterioration and reversals have occurred
   - in a further 66 cases, it is not expected that the MDG target will be met
2. lack of consultations at its conception to build ownership led to the perception of a donor-centric agenda
3. inadequate incorporation of other important issues, such as environmental sustainability, productive employment and decent work, inequality
4. the dismay results for poorer regions raised the question of whether the mechanisms are in place to achieve the MDGs
   - e.g. forms of global taxation such as a so-called Tobin-style tax, could raise the annual monies needed to establish universal primary education in one go, rather than moving slowly towards the target over 15 years
5. seen as encouraging the belief that people in rich countries can largely avoid making changes in their own lifestyles
   - likewise for most middle-income countries, the MDGs may be seen as not particularly ambitious or relevant
6. in most countries the focus is quite selective, with economic growth and social-sector spending being given a good deal of attention, while such aspects of hunger and nutrition, environment and technology transfer were often ignored
   - the governance agenda focused on the rule of the law and eliminating corruption, not on democracy, freedom of the media or human rights
   - Gender empowerment and partnership were sometimes mentioned rhetorically,but often without explicit action plans
7. growing amount of data cited in high-level reports is still based on poor quality information, extrapolation and guesswork
   - not clear that the expanding number of surveys and data collection exercises has had a positive and sustainable impact on local capacity
8. goals were too demanding and unrealistic in the attempt to create an incentive for more rapid progress
   - countries should not simply download global targets to regional and country level
   - should use the global benchmarks to set their own targets for the same dimensions, but at a pace that make sense for them –> encourages national ownership
9. lack of consistency regarding whether the Goals should apply to all DCs or to individual countries and regions
   - not considered something feasible for every country
10. gender inequality persist
    - women continue to face discrimination in access to work, economic assets, participation in private and public decision-making, and are also more likely to live in poverty than men
    - women remain at a disadvantage in the labour market
    - globally, about three quarters of working-age men participate in the labour force, compared to only half of working-age women
    - women earn 24% less than men globally, with higher rate of unemployment than men
11. big gaps exist between the poorest and richest households, and between rural and urban areas
    - in developing regions, children from poorest 20% of households are more than twice as likely to be stunted as those from wealthiest 20%
    - children in poorest households are four times as likely to be out of school as those in the richest households
    - under-five mortality rates are almost twice as high for children in the poorest households as for the children in the richest
    - in rural areas, only 56% of births are attended by skilled health personnel, compared with 87% in urban areas
    - about 16% of rural population do not use improved drinking water sources, compared to 4% of urban population
    - about 50% of people living in rural areas lack improved sanitation facilities, compared to only 18% of people in urban areas
12. climate change and environmental degradation undermine progress achieved, and poor people suffer the most
    - global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by over 50% since 1990
    - about 5.2 million hectares of forest were lost in 2010, an area about the size of Costa Rica
    - over-exploitation of marine fish stocks led to declines in the percentage of stocks within safe biological limits, down from 90% in 1974 to 71% in 2011
    - species are declining overall in numbers and distribution, hence are increasingly threatened with extinction
    - water scarcity affects 40% of people in the world, and is projected to increase
    - poor people’s livelihoods are more directly tied to natural resources, and as they often live in the most vulnerable areas, they suffer the most from environmental degradation
13. conflicts remain the biggest threat to human development
    - -by the end of 2014, conflicts had forced almost 60 million people to abandon their homes - the highest level recorded since WW2. If these people were a nation, they would make the the 24th largest country in the world
    - everyday, 42,000 people are forcibly displaced and compelled to seek protection due to conflicts, almost 4 times the 2010 number of 11,000
    - children accounted for half of the global refugee population under the responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2014
    - in countries affected by conflict, proportion of out-of-school children increased from 30% in 1999 to 36% in 2012
14. millions of poor people still live in poverty and hunger, without access to basic services
    -about 800 million people still live in extreme poverty and suffer from hunger
    -over 160 million children under age 5 have inadequate height for their age due to insufficient food
    -currently, 57 million children of primary school age are not in school
    -almost half of global workers are still working in vulnerable conditions, rarely enjoying the benefits associated with decent work
    -about 16,000 children die each day before celebrating their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes
    -maternal mortality ratio in the developing regions is 14 times higher than in the developed regions
    just half of pregnant women in developing regions receive the recommended minimum of four antenatal care visits
    -only an estimated 36% of the 31.5 million people living with HIV in the developing regions were receiving ART in 2013
    -in 2015, 1 in 3 people still use unimproved sanitation facilities, including 946 million people who still practice open defecation

Question 24

what is the post-2015 UN development agenda about?

Answer 24

-maintain the focus on human development and the eradication of poverty as ultimate objectives, and respond to a number of challenges that have become more pressing

Question 25

what is (1)inclusive social development?
(four core dimensions of the post-2015 UN development agenda)

Answer 25

• ensuring people’s rights to health and education, including universal access to quality health and education services
• priorities for social development and investments: preventive, curative and promotional health services; reproductive health services; access to essential medicines; non-communicable and infectious diseases; safe water; sanitation and hygiene; early childhood and adolescent development; childhood education; training and lifelong learning; access to modern energy services
• focus on effective governance of systems for social development, ensuring universal coverage and quality service delivery that is also affordable to the most deprived groups

Question 26

what is (2)environmental sustainability?
(four core dimensions of the post-2015 UN development agenda)

Answer 26

• preserving environmental sustainability: stable climate, stopping ocean acidification, preventing land degradation and unsustainable water use, sustainably managing natural resources and protecting the natural resources base
• more efficient use of energy, greener consumption and promotion of energy-efficient technologies
• education for sustainable development provides values, skills and knowledge needed for shaping new attitudes, and consumption and production patterns conducive to sustainable development
• building “knowledge societies”, more sustainable lifestyles, access to life-long education, freedom of expression and cultural and linguistic diversity

Question 27

what is (3)inclusive economic development?
(four core dimensions of the post-2015 UN development agenda)

Answer 27

• implies universality and focuses not only on those defined as poor, but also on vulnerable populations in precarious livelihoods
• governments develop broader structural development policies enabling adequate generation of productive employment and decent work, reduction of poverty and inequalities, low-carbon, resource-and-waste-efficient economic growth, and welfare protection
• prioritize productivity-enabling investments that generate inclusive and green growth
• in sustainable agricultural and industrial productivity, physical infrastructure, information technology, in health and education of all people
• ensuring access to land, natural resources, energy inputs and services for smallholder farmers to support truly sustainable food production and consumption
• also reduces poverty, as large numbers of poor and hungry families depend on farming as their main source of livelihood

Question 28

what is (4)peace and security?
(four core dimensions of the post-2015 UN development agenda)

Answer 28

-includes freedom from political persecution, discrimination and all forms of violence

• most urgent for highly vulnerable populations (e.g. women and girls, children, people with disabilities, refugees, migrants, etc.)
• preventing conflicts and ensuring security dependent not only on goodwill and solidarity, but also on effective systems of justice and recourse
• strengthening cultures of peace and tolerance and building state capacities
• prevention and reduction of all forms of violence and abuse (e.g. trafficking in human beings, sexual abuse, labour exploitation, etc.)