Geography-Economic development Flashcards
What is development?
When a country is improving
What improves when a country improves?
The people living theres, quality of life improves e.g. wealth, health and safety. Just wealth is economic development
Why is it hard to measure development?
Because it includes so many things so you have to compare development indicators
What are the economic development indicators?
Gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita
What is GDP?
The total value of goods and services a country produces in a year, often in dollars. Its a measure of wealth and gets higher as a country developed
What is GDP per capita?
GDP divided by the total population. Its a measure of wealth and gets higher as a country develops
What are the social development indicators?
Birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate, people per doctor, literacy rate, access to safe water, life expectancy, psychical quality of life index (PQLI) and calorie intake
What is birth rate?
The number of live babies born per thousand of the population per year. Its a measure of female education and availability of birth control. It gets lower as a country develops
What is death rate?
The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year. It measures the quality and access to healthcare and gets lower as a country develops
What is infant mortally rate?
The number of babies who die under 1 year old, per thousand babies born. It measures sanitation and healthcare and gets lower as a country develops
What is people per doctor?
The average number of people for each doctor. It measure access to healthcare and gets lower as a country develops
What is literacy rate?
The percentage of adults who can read and write. It measures access to education and gets higher as a country develops
What is access to safe water?
The percentage of people that can get clean drinking water. It measures sanitation and gets higher as a country develops
What is life expectancy?
The average age a person can expect to live to. It measures quality of and access to healthcare and gets higher as a country develops
What is physical quality of life index (PQLI)
This is a number thats calculated using life expectancy, literacy rate and infant mortality rate. Its a measure of lots of things and gets higher as a country develops
What is calorie intake?
The average number of calories eaten per day. Its a measure of the access to a healthy and varied diet and gets higher as a country develops
What is another development indicator?
Human development index (HDI)
What is human development index?
A number thats calculated using life expectancy, literacy rate, education level and income per head. Its a measure of lots of things and gets higher as a country develops
What is the disadvantage of economic indicators?
They can be inaccurate for countries where trade is informal (not taxed). They’re also affected by exchange rate changes as they’re usually given in US dollars)
What is the disadvantage of social indicators?
The are more difficult to measure but give a better indication of quality of life, also there aren’t any indicators for important factors such as human rights
What are other disadvantages?
The measures are misleading on their own as they are averages, they don’t show up elite groups in the population or variations within the country. Using more than one measure avoids this problem
How were countries classified in the 1960’s?
As first world, second world or third world countries
What are first word countries?
Rich countries with lots of manufacturing and services including the USA, western Europe, Australia and Japan
What are second world countries?
Communist countries with lots of manufacturing including eastern Europe (Poland), the USSR (Russia) and China
What are third world countries?
All other countries
Why did some people not like this categorisation of countries?
They thought it was disrespectful to label a country as third world
From the 1980’s onwards, how have countries been categorised?
As MEDCs and LEDCs based on their economic development
What were MEDCs?
More economically developed countries
What were LEDCs?
Less economically developed countries
What are MEDCs?
Generally found in the north including the USA, European countries, Australia and New Zealand
What are LEDCs
Generally found in the south including India, China, Mexico, Brazil and all the African countries
What is the Brandt Report?
Developed in the 1980’s, it discussed the divide of rich countries to the north and poorer countries to the sound, the line used to show the divide is called the Brandt line
What cant this simple classification show?
It cant tell you what countries are developing quickly and which aren’t developing at all. Also the classifications are based on wealth which doesn’t always match development level e.g. literacy can be high when GDP is low
What are the new categories?
Most developed countries, newly industrialised countries, middle income countries and least developed countries
What are most developed countries?
These are the most developed countries in the world e.g. the UK, Norway, USA, Canada and France
What are newly industrialised countries (NICs)
These are rapidly getting richer as their economy is moving from being based on primary industry e.g. agriculture to secondary industry e.g. manufacturing. These include China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa
What are middle income countries?
These countries aren’t really poor but they aren’t really rich either, they’re developing quickly but not as quick as NICs. These include Albania, Bulgaria and Poland
What are least developed countries?
These are the worlds poorest countries with the lowest quality of life. These include Ethiopia, Chad and Angola
What are environmental factors that affect how developed a country is?
A poor climate, poor farming land, limited water supplies, lots of natural hazards and few raw materials
How does a poor climate affect how developed a country is?
Too hot/too cold they won’t be able to grow much which reduces the amount of food produced, can lead to malnutrition (Chad, Ethiopia) lower quality of life. Fewer crops to sell, less money to spend on goods/service, reducing quality of life. Government gets less money from taxes so less to spend on developing the country
How does poor farming land affect how developed a country is?
IF the land in a country is steep or has poor/no soil, then they won’t produce a lot of food which has the same effect as a poor climate
How does a limited water supply affect how developed a country is?
Some countries don’t have a lot of water, e.g. Egypt and Jordan. This makes it harder for them to produce a lot of food. This has the same effect as a poor climate
How does a lot of natural hazards affect how developed a country is?
A natural hazard is an event that has the potential to affect peoples’ lives or prosperity. They’re called natural disasters when they effect peoples lives/property. Countries with lots of natural disasters spend a lot of money rebuilding after disasters (Bangladesh) so they reduce quality of life for the people affected and they reduce the money the government can spend on development projects
How does few raw materials affect how developed a country is?
Countries without many raw materials like coal, oil or metal ores may makes less money because they have less products to sell, meaning less money to spend on development. You can still be not very developed if you have raw materials because they don’t have the money to build things like roads and ports to sell them
What are three main political factors that slow development?
Unstable government-may not invest in healthcare, education, improving economy etc. =slow development.
Governments are corrupt-some people get richer by breaking the law and others are poor and have a low quality of life.
If theres a war-country loses money that could be spent on development, directly reduces quality of life
What are economic factors that affect how developed a country is?
Poor trade links, lots of debt and an economy based on primary products
How does poor trade links affect how developed a country is?
World trade patterns seriously influence a country economy and so affect their level of development. If a country has poor trade links, it won’t make a lot of money so there’ll be less to spend on development.
How does lots of debt affect how developed a country is?
Very poor countries borrow money from other countries and international organisations e.g. after national disasters. This money has to be paid back (sometimes with interest) and any money a country makes is used to pay back the money, so isn’t used to develop the country
How does an economy based on primary products affect how developed a country is?
Countries that mostly trade primary products(raw materials) tend to be less developed as you don’t make much profit as their prices fluctuate sometimes lower than cost of production, this means people don’t make much money so government tends to spend less on development. Countries that trade manufactured goods tend to be more developed this is because yo usually make a good profit selling manufactured goods and force down the price of raw materials from poorer countries
What social factors affect the development of a country?
Drinking water, the place of women in society and child education
How does drinking water affect how developed a country is?
More developed=more clean water available. If only water people can drink is dirty then they’ll get ill which reduces a persons quality of life, ill people cant work so they don’t add money to the economy and they also cost money to that so if a country has unsafe water, they have more ill people and less money to develop the country
How does the place of women in society affect how developed a country is?
More developed if women have an equal place with men in society, women who are equal are more likely to be educated and work. Women who are educated and work have a better quality of life and the country has more money to spend on development as there are more people contributing to the economy
How does child education affect how developed a country is?
More children go to school means more developed the country is. This is because they’ll get a better education and so will get better jobs, this improves the quality of life and increases the money the country has to spend on development
What is aid?
Aid is given by one country to another country in the form of money or resources (e.g. food, doctors)
What is the country called that gives aid?
The donor, the one that receives is the recipient
What are the two main sources of aid?
Governments (paid by taxes) and non-government organisations (NGOs paid by voluntary donations)
What are the two different ways of giving aid?
Directly to the recipient, called bilateral aid to indirectly through an international organisation which distributes the aid, called multilateral aid
Bilateral aid can be tied, what does this mean?
Its given with the condition that the recipient country has to buy goods and services it needs from the donor country to help its economy, however this can be expensive for the recipient so the aid doesn’t go as far
What is short term aid used for?
Resources that help the recipient to cope during emergencies such as food
When does short term aid work?
It has an immediate impact so more people will survive the impact
What are the disadvantages of short term aid?
The stage of the recipient country stays unchanged overall, if either country is slow to react, aid may not get to where its most needed and the aid may not reach those who need it due to theft and transport problems
What is long term aid used for?
Money or resources that help recipient countries to develop e.g. to build dams/wells to improve clean water supplies or to construct school to improve literacy rates
When does long term aid work?
Over time the recipient countries become less reliant on foreign aid as they become more developed
What are the disadvantages of long term aid?
It can take a while before the aid benefits a country e.g. hospitals take a long time to build
What are the disadvantages of both type of aid?
The repent countries may become dependent on aid and never use their own money as they get more from others and also the aid could be missed if the government is corrupt and use the money for their own personal gain
How can aid be sustainable?
It must help development in ways that don’t irreversibly damage the environment or use up resources (including money) faster than they can be replaced
What is an example of a sustainable aid project?
A scheme hat helps people switch from earning money by deforestation to earning money in a more environmentally friendly way. This reduces environmental damage and makes sure trees are still there for future generations
What is an example of an unsustainable aid project?
Investment in large, shallow water wells in areas with little rainfall. Use of the wells could use up water faster than its replaced, this would mean that the amount of water available for future use would be reduced
What is the case study for aid?
FARM-Africa helps the development of Rural Africa
What is FARM-Africa?
A NGO that provides aid to eastern Africa, funded by voluntary donations, it was founded in 1985 to reduce rural poverty, it runs programmes in five African countries-Ethipopa, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
What four projects have been operating in Ethiopia since 1988?
Rural women empowerment, prosopis management, community development project and sustainable forest management
What is the rural women empowerment programme?
Works in various regions, problem is there are few opportunities for the women to make money meaning low faulty of life and cant afford things like healthcare. Whats being done is women are trained and given livestock to start forming, loan schemes set up to launch small businesses and legal training to advise women on their rights, have helped around 15160 people, once businesses are set up they are sustainable and keep earning money
What is the proposis management programme?
Works in afar regions, problem is proposis is a plant introduced by management to stabilise soils has become a pest invading grazing land making farming difficult, whats being done is farmers are shown how to convert it into animal feed which is sold and generating income. Helped around 4400 households. Once farmers are taught the technique they can carry on using it and earning money making is sustainable
What is the community development project programme?
Works in Semu Robi, problem is frequent droughts make farming difficult, reducing farmer income leading to malnutrition, rural area so veterinary care for livestock is difficult, whats being done is people given loans to buy small water pumps to irrigate their farmland, reducing effects of drought and people trained in basic veterinary care so can keep healthy livestock. Helped around 4100 people. Project means people are able to farm more crops and animals, can then earn more money but if too much money is used, it will run out so unsustainable
What is the sustainable forest management programme?
Works in Bale, problem is forests cut down, make land for crops and livestock, also for firewood which reduces resources for future generations, whats being done is people taught how to produce honey and grow wild coffee, these are sold so people make money without cutting down trees, also taught how to make fuel efficient stoves use less wood reducing deforestation. Helped around 7500 communities, less deforestation means more trees for future also can make money the,selves by selling coffee and honey so its sustainable