Health, Human rights and Intervention

Question 1

GDP per capita, strengths and limitations

Answer 1

• total value of goods and services produced by s country each year (level of income)
• World Bank uses GDP to divide countries into high, middle and low income
  Strengths:
• most widely used indicator
• easily measured
• PPP = comparison between countries
• effectively highlights increasing development gap
• idea of development potential
  Limitations:
• US$ doesn’t account for cost of living
• does not give indicator of levels of inequality within a country
• no guarantee money will be spent on development
• not everything of value can be measured (domestic work, informal economies)
• some argue development should be measured across a continuum, not in groups

Question 2

HDI, strengths and limitations

Answer 2

• measures development as an individual’s ability to make choices
• uses 3 indicators, GDPPC (purchasing power), life expectancy, literacy rates
  Strengths:
• allows anomalies to be spotted
• brings human welfare to the centre
• can distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ growth
• most effective when ranking is broken down into individual indicators
• givers economically poor countries recognition for their improvements in wellbeing (e.g. Costa Rica)
  Limitations:
• just an average, inequalities within a country not accounted for
• human rights included
• similar to GDP
• does not include material footprint

Question 3

PQLI, strengths and limitations

Answer 3

Physical quality of life index
- uses indicators life expectancy, literacy rates, infant mortality
Strengths:
- gives recognition to importance of social development
Limitations:
- overlap between infant mortality and life expectancy
- no recognition to income
- overshadowed by HDI

Question 4

Gender-related Development Index, strengths and limitations

Answer 4

• Gender sensitive extension of HDI
• uses same indicators of HDI (GDPPC, life expectancy, literacy rates)
• creates a ‘development score penalty’ to highlight gender gaps in wellbeing
  Strengths:
• acknowledges issues of inequality
• can effectively compare a country’s GDI score to its HDI
• gives importance to gender in development
  Limitations:
• cannot be used independent from HDI
• data not always readily available
• problematic assumptions on life expectancy
• only looks at gender

Question 5

Sustainable development index, strengths and limitations

Answer 5

• combines HDI, CO2 emissions and material footprint to produce a weighted score between 0 and 1
  Strengths:
• includes impact on environment
• prioritises consumption and not production
  Limitations:
• difficult to get statistics on material footprint with GPNs
• ignores differences within a country

Question 6

Happy Planet index, strengths and limitations

Answer 6

• leading global measure of sustainable wellbeing introduced in 2006
• uses indicators of wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of outcomes (within a country’s population) and ecological footprint
• experienced wellbeing * life expectancy * inequality of outcomes/ ecological footprint
  Strengths:
• easy to understand
• people’s opinions on their own wellbeing
• includes environmental aspects
  Limitations:
• not used widely
• ignores human rights and political freedom
• wellbeing is subjective
• does not cover all nations
• may not be accurate
• criticised for weighting ecological footprint too heavily

Question 7

the 3 fundamental building blocks for human development

Answer 7

• healthy and educated population (human capital)
• investment in infrastructure, transport and communications
• good governance, innovation, enterprise and ease of business

Question 8

4 aspects of human development progress

Answer 8

• economic progress, better jobs, rising incomes
• social progress, education, housing, health
• cultural progress, gender and racial equality, tolerance of diversity
• political progress, democracy, freedom of speech
• environmental progress, falling pollution, protection of habitats

Question 9

Sharia law

Answer 9

• Islamic law applying the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and the Quran
• some countries such as Saudi Arabia use Sharia law as state law
• many Muslims believe Sharia law is flexible and fully compatible with contemporary human rights and western ideas of development
• sometimes used by countries to justify an authoritarian approach and restrict the rights of women
• illegal to charge interest
• concerns that Sharia may be used as a parallel legal system in the UK, ignoring laws

Question 10

Bolivia under Morales

Answer 10

• Evo Morales won 3rd term in 2014
• Bolivia’s first indigenous president, from a poor background
• represents Movement Towards Socialism party, anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist
• represents philosphy of indigenous peoples, put ‘Law of mother earth’ into place to deal with climate crisis and ‘buen vivir’
• shared the wealth of Bolivia’s natural gas and mineral resources, lifting half a million Bolivians out of poverty
• however has little to say about human rights aspect of development
• to reach buen vivir, Bolivia needs to have food and energy sovereignty, renewable and efficient energy, organic farming, less poverty, access to clean water and sanitation, moving Bolivia’s economy away from mining exports

Question 11

Buen vivir

Answer 11

Indigenous South American philosophy
- to live well in a community in a healthy environment
- the larger community and nature is more important than the individual

Question 12

human capital

Answer 12

A skilled workforce, being literate and numerate

Question 13

what is access to education impeded by

Answer 13

• gender
• ethnicity
• disability
• social class
• wealth

Question 14

UNESCO

Answer 14

the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
- done a lot to ensure every child has access to a quality education

Question 15

deprivation

Answer 15

• when an individual’s wellbeing and quality of life fall below a level regarded as a reasonable minimum
• measuring deprivation usually relies on indicators relating to employment, housing, health and education

Question 16

portraying the global state of health

Answer 16

• number of doctors per 100,000 people
• percentage of the population with regular access to essential drugs
• developed countries > 95%
• emerging countries 50%-95%
• least-developed countries < 50%

Question 17

spatial variations of deprivation in the developing world

Answer 17

• there is a positive correlation between life expectancy and per capita income
• with diminishing income, the following critical necessities of life become less guaranteed
• food
• safe water
• proper sanitation
• healthcare

Question 18

spatial variations of deprivation in the developed world

Answer 18

• societies in the developed world are typically polarised, showing extremes of poverty and wealth
• the lifestyle of the better-off also carry health risks such as obesity, smoking, alcoholism, heart disease
• variations in countries in terms of spending on health and education
• countries where healthcare is largely in the private sector and paid for either through social health insurance or on an as and when basis imp[acts the poor accessing healthcare

Question 19

Spatial variations of deprivation within countries - ethnicity

Answer 19

• differences in lifestyle (behavioural and diet
• widening inequalities in access to and quality of healthcare
• economic factors such as low incomes, low educational achievements influencing occupations

Question 20

Spatial variations of deprivation within countries - socio-economic groups

Answer 20

• large difference between occupational groups (7 years decrease in life expectancy between professional and unskilled occupations in the UK)
  due to:
• differences in lifestyle and housing conditions
• attitudes towards health and diet
• different levels of safety at work

Question 21

Why are Aboriginal people dying earlier than Australians?

Answer 21

• 10.6 years lower for med, 9.5 years lower for women
• UN - QOL for Aboriginal people is 2nd worst in the world
• poor housing
• dispossession of original land
• low education level
• high unemployment level
• ethnic discrimination
• inability of politicians to address Aboriginal problems
• drug and alcohol abuse
• heavy smoking

Question 22

why there might not be a perfect correlation between health expenditure and life expectancy

Answer 22

• low sanitation
• lifestyle differences and diet
  Japan - balanced diet, elderly encouraged to keep active in the community
  US - gun crime, drug abuse, vehicle accidents, access to healthcare, higher inequality, obesity
• deprivation and inequality
• administration of insurance companies

Question 23

Correlation between level of democracy of a country and spending on education and health

Answer 23

• full democracies usually spend a higher percentage of GDP on healthcare and education e.g. Denmark spends 10.1% on healthcare and 7.6% on education
• authoritarian regimes usually spend a lower percentage of GDP on healthcare and education e.g. Ethiopia spends 3.5% on healthcare and 4.7% on education
• an anomaly to this is Cuba, which is an authoritarian socialist regime, but spends 11.7% of GDP on healthcare and 12.8% on education
• broadly, greater democracy leads to higher levels of spending. Authoritarian regimes may spend more on military, police and security, leaving a smaller slice for education and healthcare
• overall wealth also plays a role, developing countries may spend proportionally more on infrastructure to stimulate economic growth
• population demographics also play a role. Japan spends a lot more on healthcare than education because of its ageing population

Question 24

totalitarian regime

Answer 24

• a system of government that is centralised and dictatorial
• requires complete subservience to the state with control being in the hands of elites
• elites may be the military or powerful families or tribes

Question 25

how can social progress be accelerated

Answer 25

• government intervention, e.g. national health service, subsidised housing for the poor, free education
• social enterprise, businesses that trade for a social or environmental purpose
• social activism, intentional actions aimed at bringing about social change

Question 26

IGOs’ views of development

Answer 26

• World Bank, WTO, IMF
• focused on economic development
• sees economic development will advance broader human development
• used SAPs to make countries focus on economic development before social development
• believes economic growth will come from a free market that will eventually mean the wealth trickles down to the poorest in society

Question 27

why is the work of IGOs contested

Answer 27

• World Bank, WTO, IMF
• intervened in policies of individual governments
• often cut education and health spending as part of Structural Adjustment Plans (SAPs)
• neo-liberal belief of wealth ‘trickle-down’ is controversial and there is not one known successful case study of it

Question 28

How can governments and IGOs improve development?

Answer 28

• high levels of social spending (more services, minimum wage legislation etc)
• international aid
• policies to attract TNCs and FDI
• development loans
• settle trade disputes, so countries are not stopped from developing by unfair tariffs

Question 29

UN’s Millennium Development Goals aims

Answer 29

• a set of targets agreed in 2000 in a series of international conferences and summit meetings of the world’s leaders
• aim was to fight poverty and combat issues hampering human development
• allowed assessment of the progress being made at national level towards the overall goal of reducing the development gap between the poorest and richest countries
• progress report from 2015 (final deadline) demonstrates considerable progress worldwide but draws attention to the fact that progress has been uneven across regions and countries

Question 30

the 8 millennium development goals

Answer 30

1. Eradicate extreme poverty
   - reduce poverty and hunger by half
   - create productive and decent employment
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
   - Equal girls’ enrolment in primary school
   - women’s share of paid employment
   - women’s equal employment in national parliaments
4. Reduce child mortality
   - of under 5s by two thirds
5. Improve maternal health
   - reduce maternal mortality by three quarters
   - access to reproductive healthcare
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
   - halt and begin to reverse spread of HIV
   - halt and reverse spread of tuberculosis
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
   - halve proportion of population without improved drinking water
   - halve proportion of population without sanitation
   - improve the lives of slum dwellers
8. Develop a global partnership for development
   - use of internet

Question 31

outcomes of the 8 millennium development goals

Answer 31

1. Eradicate extreme poverty
   - poverty has reduced by half
   - poverty parameters ma have changed however
   - hunger has not halved
   - employment has fallen
2. Achieve universal primary education
   - increased from 83% to 91%
   - literacy rate improved
   - decreased in areas with conflict
   - gender gap narrowed, but not class gap
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
   - developing countries as a whole achieved target to eliminate gender disparity in education
   - average proportion of women in parliament has nearly doubled
   - increased proportion of female workers outside agriculture
   - women still experience significant gaps in poverty, wages, decision making
   - 3/4 men in labour force, 1/4 women
4. Reduce child mortality
   - global rate dropped by over half
   - declined in areas with highest rate (Sub-Saharan Africa)
   -failed to meet target of dropping by two thirds
   - high in poor and rural areas
5. Improve maternal health
   - mortality rate cut nearly in half, but failed to meet three quarters
   - only half the amount of women receive the recommended amount of maternal healthcare, but access has risen
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
   - antiretroviral drugs created and treatment increased
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
   - improved sanitation
   - increase in people living in slums
8. Develop a global partnership for development
   - internet access increased
   - debt decreased
   - aid to LDCs decreased

Question 32

Sustainable development goals

Answer 32

• post 2015 development agenda to take over from MDGs
• consultations with major groups and stakeholders in 70 countries
• broader sustainability agenda
• address root cause of poverty and universal need for style of development that works for all people
• sustainable development
• democratic governance and peace building
• climate and disaster resilience

Question 33

Human rights

Answer 33

• rights inherent to all humans regardless of sex, race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion etc
• include the right to life, liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, right to work and education
• everyone is entitled to these rights without discrimination

Question 34

The UDHR

Answer 34

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1948
• the Holocaust catalysed the creation of the UDHR to stop the abuse of human rights
  30 universal rights
• individual/civil rights
• rule of law
• right of political expression
• economic and social rights
• rights of communities
• Soviet Union, South Africa and Saudi Arabia voted against it
• a declaration, not a treaty, so is not legally binding or enforceable, but members of the UN are bound to respect all the articles of the declaration

Question 35

how has the UDHR been used

Answer 35

Informs the actions of countries towards other foreign states
- to place political pressure on countries seen to be denying people basic human rights, and to press for change
- as a justification for economic sanctions against countries
- as a justification for military intervention in foreign countries seen to be committing genocide or widespread human rights abuses

Question 36

Why did not all countries sign the UDHR

Answer 36

• Soviet Union considered that the declaration did not sufficiently condemn Fascism and Nazism
• South Africa to protect its system of apartheid, as ethnic discrimination contravened the declaration
• Saudi Arabia because of the article that ‘everyone has the right to change their religion or belief’ and women’s rights

Question 37

Sovereignty

Answer 37

The legal right to govern a physical territory. Has 4 aspects:
- a government organised within a territory has authority over that territory
- the government controls movement of people and goods across the territory’s borders
- the government and territory is recognised by other governments
- other organisations outside the territory do not have higher authority

Question 38

why are human rights important

Answer 38

• framework on how governments worldwide should be treating citizens and communities
• education for people on what their human rights should be, more informed to protest human rights
• informs the actions of countries towards other states, violations of human rights can be backed up by other countries, political pressure to change
• equal opportunities to people
• important to stop huge violations from happening again such as the Holocaust
• community groups were asked to make the human rights articles, representative of what the population needs

Question 39

The Geneva convention

Answer 39

• helped to define war crimes
• 4 treaties applied at times of armed conflict to protect people not taking part in the war (including prisoners of war)
• ratified by 196 countries but not all have agreed to do the protocols

Question 40

ECHR

Answer 40

• European Convention on Human Rights
• comprised of a number of articles like the UDHR
• response of Holocaust and threat of the spread of communism
• European court of Human rights decides guilt upon violations of the convention
• UK believes it undermines sovereignty as European Court is higher than UK courts.

Question 41

UK Human Rights Act

Answer 41

• incorporates rights contained in the ECHR into UK law
• breach of rights can be heard in UK courts instead of the European court of human rights
• designed to ensure the parliament retains it sovereign lawmaking powers
• verdicts can still be appealed and possible overturned at the European court of human rights

Question 42

Human rights vs economic development

Answer 42

• Scandinavian countries, Netherlands, France, UK, Canada have signed up to all Un human rights agreements and are all ranked ‘free’ using the Freedom House ‘Freedom in the world index’. Usually the first countries to ‘call out’ human rights abuses abroad
• Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland and Switzerland are historically ‘neutral’ and are therefore the locations chosen for international agreements on human rights and their diplomats are often involved in settling disputes
• China, Malaysia, Mexico, the Middle East and parts of Africa usually prioritise development over human rights

Question 43

Arguments for and against prioritising economic development over human rights

Answer 43

For:
- human rights bring financial costs such as providing education and healthcare which could be better spend on economic infrastructure
- workers rights get in the way of profits and add costs to businesses
- rights such as freedom of the press bring no economic benefit
- once economic development is achieved, human rights can then follow, e.g. in the UK after the industrial revolution
Against:
- people may be more productive and innovative when they have the protected freedoms that human rights bring
- many of the world’s wealthiest countries are also those with the best human rights records

Question 44

democracy

Answer 44

countries with a system of government in which power is either held by regularly elected representatives or directly by the people

Question 45

Classifications of levels of democracy, freedom in the world index

Answer 45

• free, there is broad scope for open political competition and a climate of respect for civil liberties (North America, Europe, southern Africa, Australia, India, Mongolia, much of South America)
• partly free, there are some clear restrictions on political rights and civil liberties (some Eastern European countries, South-east Asia, Central America West and South east Africa, some of South Asia and South America)
• not free, basic political rights and civil liberties are absent or systematically violated (most of Africa and Asia)

Question 46

countries with the worst freedom rating

Answer 46

• largely those where political unrest prevails or is firmly suppressed
• lowest is Syria
• all but one have a very low GDP except Saudi Arabia which is in the top 10 richest countries due to its oil reserves

Question 47

Classifications of levels of democracy, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)

Answer 47

• Full democracy, civil liberties and political freedoms are fully respected and protected (19 countries, Norway, Canada, UK)
• flawed democracy, elections are fair and civil liberties are protected but there are problems e.g. the media is not free (57 countries, South Korea, South Africa, USA, India)
• hybrid regimes, elections ae not free and fair, the legal system is not independent of the government and corruption is widerspread (38 countries, Turkey, Bangladesh)
• authoritarian regimes, dictatorship or system where elections are meaningless, civil liberty abuses are common and the legal system is not independent, media censored (52 countries, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia)

Question 48

South Korea vs North Korea

Answer 48

• since North and South Korea were created (1948), their relationship have ranged from propaganda wars to outright war
• after the war (1950-3), the two states have followed two completely opposed ideologies
  North Korea:
• self-reliant socialist state
• holds elections but only involve one political party
• authoritarian regime
• people are forbidden to use the internet
• ‘rogue state’, possession of nuclear weapons and vast military resources, frequent threats against South Korea and violations of human rights
• food shortages and malnutrition, feeding people is of lower priority than defence
• most corrupt and least democratic country in the world

South Korea:
- embraced capitalism, become a high income advanced economy
- first free elections held in 1987
- firm government, powerful high tech chaebols (family owned businesses) such as Samsung, a commited labour force and technological innovation
- second most democratic country in Asia, public protests and heavy-handed police not unknown
- one of the highest in terms of education, healthcare and ease of business

Question 49

political corruption

Answer 49

• election rigging
• allowing private interests to dictate government policy
• taking decisions that benefit those who are funding the politicians
• diverting foreign aid and scarce resources into the private pockets of politicians
• accompanied with a serious threat to human rights
• creates an untouchable groups of powerful, wealthy people supported by a corrupt judicial system

Question 50

China (authoritarian) vs India (flawed democracy)

Answer 50

India:
- religious freedom, but religious violence and intolerance is common between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups
- freedom of speech is generally upheld, anti-government protests are common but so is police violence
- elections are the largest democratic ones in the world
- numerous privately owned media organisations
- human rights abuses and the caste system
China:
- Communist part members must be atheist, Christianity is barely tolerated, Buddhism and Islam suppressed, native Uighur Muslims locked up in camps
- internet is censored, ‘Subversion of state power’ used to crack down on people speaking up
- Chinese Communist party is the only political party
- press is not free, media is controlled by the Communist party and subject to government direction

Question 51

non-state players that may influence government policies

Answer 51

• TNCs
• IGOs
• criminal organisations
• terrorist organisations
• NGOs
• religious organisations

Question 52

Why have human rights in post-colonial states proved problematic

Question 52

Why have human rights in post-colonial states proved problematic