Dynamic Development Flashcards
Explain the definition of ‘development’
Progress of the country in terms of economic growth, the use of tech and human welfare
Know the ways in which countries can be classified, such as AC, EDC and LIDC.
AC is a well developed financial market with a very diversified structure and a rapidly growing service sector/tertiary for example the UK, Japan, USA, Australia
EDCs do not share all of the required characteristics as an AC but are not eligible for poverty reduction and growth trust funding: China
LIDC is a country that is eligible for poverty reduction growth trust funding from IMF such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Afghanistan
Know the rough global distribution of ACs, EDCs and LIDCs.
Majority of advanced countries are in the West such as Western Europe, North America, and Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Majority of ACs are colonial powers
LIDCs and EDCs are mainly countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, and Oceania
How developed is Ethiopia
Ethiopia is an LIDC (Low Income Developing Country) located in the east of Africa. It
is landlocked and shares land borders with five countries such as Sudan and Eritrea.
Its capital, and largest city is Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia’s landscape varies from the densely vegetated Western Highlands to arid
desert in the Eastern Lowlands. The country has suffered from periodic drought and
famine for decades.
Economic:
● Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing
economies in the
world with roughly 10% growth annually over
the last
decade.
● GNI per capita of $790. Sub-Saharan Africa’s
GNI per
capita is $1750, UK $40,967
● 70% of the population are engaged in agriculture, which
explains the overall low GDP per capita.
● The service sector has now overtaken the agriculture sector
as the highest contributor to GDP, this is often a key sign of
development with particular emphasis on tourism, education and health.
● Its largest export is coffee.
Social:
● Large population of 109 million (2nd most populous African nation).
● Life expectancy of 66 is below that of the world average of 72.
● As healthcare improves, death rates decline, life expectancy increases. This is causing
the population to expand and a need for even more resources in healthcare and
education placing an economic burden on the government.
● Huge improvements in gender equality at school now see male and female enrolment
in primary education being almost the same (89% vs 83%) and higher than the
regional average. This is up from below 20% in 1995.
Politics:
● Long history of civil war and political unrest. There had been recent stability seeing
increases in tourism but recent conflict has again risen up in the Tigray region leading to forced migration into Sudan.
● In 2018, Ethiopia made headlines when it appointed its first woman President,
established a 50% female cabinet that includes a female Minister of Defence, and
appointed the first female Chief Justice.
Be able to describe the various social measures of development and explain how they illustrate the
consequences of uneven development, including:
GNI per capita, in poorer countries where there is lots of work in the informal sector people’s income will not be taken into account. Data about income is sensitive, people may not always be honest, the average figures can be misleading, as few very wealthy people in the country can distort the data
Birth Rate: Birth rate is quite a good measure however some countries can have a low birth rate even if countries are relatively poor for example Cuba. The work of women such as child care is not representative of the measures, birth control policies can also distort can such as China (the one child policy)
Infant mortality: it’s good as it reflects the levels of healthcare and service provision, but not all dead children are reported in poorer countries.
Life expectancy: it’s good as it reflects the levels of healthcare and service provision, but data is not always reliable because people surviving infancy may live longer than expected in poorer countries
Literacy Rates: Hard to measure especially in LIDCs this can be due to lack of monitoring and failure to consider local languages and oral traditions. Warzones and squattle settlements are difficult areas to measure literacy rates
● Outline the human and physical factors influencing global uneven development.
Physical causes: weather and climate: Africa experiences limited and unreliable rainfall, relief, mountainous countries tend to have poor infrastructure, landlocked countries which lack the development of sea trade, tropical environment can spread malaria and cholera, water shortages (Africa and the Middle East) water is essential for life and development.
Human causes: poverty, lack of money slows development, it prevents improvements towards living conditions, trade, LIDCs have limited access to trade, LIDCs were colonised by powerful nations such as the UK - which stunted their development. War.
Explore the factors that make it hard for countries to break out of poverty:
Debt: many LIDCs were coerced into exploitative loans, poverty has meant that most of these debts are still unpaid. However some donor countries have cancelled their debts to release LIDCs from restrictive agreements.
Trade: Global trades favours rich countries, TNCs tend to be based in ACs and exploits LIDCs for their raw materials. For LIDCs to develop they need to have a better balance for trade (trade deficit). Political instability: many LIDCs have unstable and corrupt governments and limited levels of democracy such as in Libya. Businesses are reluctant to get involved in unstable countries hence investment will be limited.
Is Ethiopia likely to stay poor? (By Louis)
Where is Ethiopia: Ethiopia is located in the centre of East Africa it is landlocked and it borders 6 other countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia it is the continents 2nd largest country and second most populous, Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country, it has a variety of landscape from highlands to deserts the country has suffered from periodic drought for decades.
How has Ethiopia’s economy developed?
Ethiopia is an LIDC, with an HDI of just 0.485 (one of the world’s poorest countries and it’s had a very slow growth in wealth since 2005. It has a lot more exports than imports, trade deficit of minus 12.4 billion dollars, its main export is coffee, only 15% of its country has internet access, it has a high birth and high death rate, meaning it would be at stage 1 of the demographic transition model. High birth rate but high death rate due to not enough knowledge of contraceptives, not enough access to good doctors can cause diseases to spread, water can be contaminated leading to cholera.
Ethiopia’s economic growth rate: there are several reasons why Ethiopia’s economic growth is slower, Ethiopia has a very large and growing population as the healthcare gradually improves, death rates will decline therefore life expectancy increases and the population expands, this means that more people will be using the same amount of resources and Ethiopia is stuck in a life of poverty :(
Technology: There is very limited development in technology (and for toothpaste other people spit in their mouths) due to low income
Society: 80% of people in Ethiopia are engaged in traditional agriculture accounts for 80% of all exports, change in innovation slows down potential investments
Politics: Land-grabbed by Saudi Arabia but there has been a history of civil war within the country such as the Eritrea crisis however since 2012 there has been a relatively stable government
The Rostow Model: While Rostow’s model offers a useful framework for considering economic development, it assumes equal access to resources.
ACs are in stage 4 and 5
Ethiopia is in stage 2
The extent to which the relevant Millennium Development Goals have been achieved for Ethiopia
Massive government spending has led to improvements in health and education.
The following goals that have and have not been met include:
✔ MDG2 (primary education): primary school enrolment increased from 50% in 1990
to 96% in 2015.
✔ MDG4, (child mortality): infant mortality has more than halved from 97 per 1000
births in 1990 to 45 per 1000 births in 2015.
X MDG 1 (poverty and hunger): nearly 24% still live in poverty, 40% of children are
malnourished.
X MDG 7 (sustainability), Soil erosion and
desertification are widespread, causing
drought.
What stage of Rostow’s Model is Ethiopia?
Ethiopia is at Stage 2 of the Rostow model (pre-conditions for take off). This is because, although it is still a relatively traditional society, there are gradual improvements to health care, education and technology. There is commercial agriculture and mining, boosted by Chinese and US investment. It’s reliance on exporting primary products and still relatively small industrial sector means it is not yet ‘taking off’ (stage 3) based on the model.
Pros and Cons of the Rostow Model
Pros of the model:
Ethiopia has moved since the 1990s out of stage one and almost out of stage 2 by
now.
- Most countries move to some degree through this model because reducing dependence on agriculture and increasing the service sector, increased consumer spending and reducing reliance on imports are important for economic growth.
- Ethiopia is still in significant trade deficit which means it is importing more than it
is exporting.
- It has gone through political change which may have suggested stage 3 BUT it
is now in conflict within the Tigray region.
Cons:
- This is a Eurocentric linear model and expects growth through industrialisation first, rather than the service sector which is what is actually driving Ethiopia’s growth currently (and at 35% contribution to GDP, is the most important economic
sector) - which is what we expect when moving out of stage 3.
- Doesn’t consider how countries could go backwards, for example through the
impact of climate change, conflict or pandemics such as covid.
What factors are affecting Ethiopia’s development?
Political
+ Recent Chinese investment has led to improvements in transport infrastructure
(tarmac roads) and some industrial infrastructure to help with their mining projects
+ The USA provides considerable financial support to the agricultural sector following 9/11 as part of their efforts to discourage radicalisation in the middle-east / N Africa.
+ Countries such as Saudi Arabia have ‘land-grabbed’ and bought up large tracts of productive land from the government to farm cash-crops (e.g. coffee) for export. Conflict in the Tigray region in late 2020 has led to economic destabilisation and is a threat to not only the population but to business growth and particularly tourism.
Social
Whilst women have seen huge gains in employment and education, some jobs are restricted due to their perceived danger or physical labour, such as mining and farming, which makes up the majority of jobs in Ethiopia, this can limit options for females to progress in these areas.
● High birth rates (fertility rate of 4.35 per female) leads to a rapidly growing population.
This is an issue which is being rapidly tackled. 70% of women now use contraception compared to almost none in 1990.
- Although contraception is increasingly available, some men and women can be discouraged from using contraception due to misconceptions of the products and belief that large families show fertility in both men and women which canbe a source of pride.
- Many farmers lose out to the land grabs described above.
- Whilst educational enrolment has improved vastly, the current economically active
population still has a low literacy rate impacting their attractiveness to foreign companies. (44% for females and 59% for males).
Environmental
● Ethiopia experiences unreliable and unpredictable rainfall, affecting farming and
water supply. The monsoon seasons sometimes fails.
o With 70% of the population engaged or dependent on agriculture for income,
any climatic problems have a devastating effect on the majority of the
population.
▪ This is a long term issue because global warming is increasingly leading to
unpredictable weather patterns and more extreme weather events.
● Desertification is common in the more fertile eastern areas as farmers are driven to over-farm and over-graze the remaining land.
This leads to soil erosion and thus soil infertility.
- This could have a long term economic and social impact as 32% of the country’s GDP is still based on agriculture so any decrease to this
would see the country become poorer and reduce the government’s ability to spend on further development.
Describe the country’s international trade, such as potential reliance on a single, or few, commodities and how this influences development
● Ethiopia has a trade deficit. For instance, in 2015, it imported more good ($17.6 billion) than
it exported (5.4 billion). Its exports: Ethiopia’s total export earnings by value declined by 6% in
2018/2019 from the previous year.
● Ethiopia’s exports are dominated by agricultural products (80% according to USAID) such
as coffee, food and flowers. 33% of the country’s GNI is from agricultural exports. ●
Dependence on agricultural products means the economy is vulnerable to factors affecting
production. For instance, the drought and flash floods.
● Ethiopia’s main imports include petrol, trucks and wheat. Despite exporting food grown
there, they still import wheat to feed their own people!
● The country aims to be less dependent on exporting low-value goods and more focused
on manufacturing with investments from TNCS.
● In 2018 it attracted foreign direct investment inflows worth US$3.3 billion.
Evaluate the benefits and problems of trade and Trans National Company (TNC)
investment for Ethiopia’s development.
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have played an important role in Ethiopia’s recent economic growth. There is a growing tourist economy – Ethiopia has volcanoes, deserts,
mountains and 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites of historical importance. They now have 2.5m workers involved in the tertiary sector, employed by TNCs such as Hilton Hotels.
✔ Large companies provide employment and training.
✔ The investment has created employment opportunities and raised incomes.
✔ The government benefits from export taxes, providing money that can be spent on
improving education, healthcare and services.
X TNCs can exploit the low wage economy ($50 a month in comparison to $175 a
month in an EDC for the same job), capitalise on the less strict working conditions
regulations, and avoid paying local taxes.
X TNCs often employ western managers so Ethiopians are stuck doing menial jobs within the business (particularly evident in tourism)
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of international aid or debt relief for Ethiopia’s development
Ethiopia has benefited from international development support through aid and debt relief. It
received just under $5bn in 2018. Five million people receive food aid each year. Charities such as Oxfam have been working to support Ethiopians for over 30 years.
Aid:
✔ Helps to rebalance global poverty so serves an important ethical role
✔ If used well can kick start effective, sustainable long term projects
✔ Has been used to improve agricultural practices, including mapping of underground
water sources for improved irrigation. As well significant increases in education
provisions.
Disempowering and not sustainable: the country gets almost 60% of its income from
aid.
Corruption can see money being syphoned off which means not all of it goes to
benefit those who need it most.
