The Development Gap Flashcards
What were the negative impacts of the earthquake on Haiti’s social development?
1) looting due to the collapse of the prison and general chaos - the theft of other people’s possessions hinders their standard of living and quality of life
2) many people are now without food, shelter or access to medical care - lacking basic necessities makes it very difficult to advance in life e.g. because food is more of a primary concern than education
3) loss in GDP leads to even less money Bing available for education and healthcare. This will lead to the future population being less educated and more vulnerable if they cannot access schools or hospitals
4) 20% of all jobs were lost after the earthquake
Example of an attempt made by people in a poorer part of the world to improve their quality of life? Describe it
Bhutan - tiny, remote and impoverished kingdom, mainly Buddhist culture, low GDP per capita of $7,000, low literacy rate 52%, generally bad measures of development which would suggest a low quality of life YET it is referred to as ‘the happiest country’
Bhutan is run on the philosophy of Gross National Happiness - every human should aspire for happiness, being with others, sharing interests, participating in cultural life - leads to strong community feeling, healthy family relationships, strong sense of values - overall being happier
What is the White Revolution and what are its aims?
The White revolution is a surge in milk production based on low-level technology that started in India in the 1970s
Aims: to allow people to make the most of the resources they have and increase the livelihoods of the rural poor by improving heir nutrition and incomes through employment
How: by improving the generic stock of dairy cattle, providing veterinary care, providing information to farmers and keeping the milk cold
How is the EU trying to develop Bulgaria?
SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development) - gives money to Bulgaria and two other countries to invest in agriculture
Funds earmarked for Bulgaria have been partially frozen until the government shows its making progress in fighting corruption
What is standard of living?
The access people have to the necessities in life or a measure of their material wealth. They are measurable, tenable factors - quantitive index.
How does fair trade help reduce global inequalities?
1) buyers of fair trade products also pay extra on top of the fair price to help develop the area where the goods come from eg build schools or health centres
2) only producers that treat their employees well can take part in the scheme - can’t discriminate on sex or race and employees have to have a safe working environment, this improves quality of life for the employees
3) helps farmers develop business skills - sustainable
4) allows farmers direct market access
How is the work of Heifer International sustainable?
- when recipient farmers donate the calf to neighbours, the system becomes sustainable as increasing numbers of local people benefit
- pregnant cows produce offspring, who will also produce milk, which future generations can sell
- training is sustainable as knowledge can be passed down
- sustainable renewable energy
How do problems with water quality and quantity (social factors) make global inequalities worse?
Quality: illnesses reduce people’s quality of life and ability to work
Quantity: people going to collect water instead of going to school or work
What are conditions for corruption?
1) an exploitable natural resource
2) scarcity of public assets
3) low wages in the public sector
4) high levels of state intervention/planning
5) high income inequality
6) inefficient administrative and judicial systems
Why is there a global imbalance of trade?
1) Poor trade links - when a country only trades a small amount with a few countries it won’t make a lot of money so there is less to spend on development
2) Economy based on primary products - you don’t make much profit by selling primary products
3) Primary product dependency - prices can fluctuate so if there a low prices for the product, the price could fall below the cost of production, meaning the country has less money
Give some examples of trading groups
EU
NAFTA
ASEAN
Disadvantages of short term aid for the recipient
Occasionally, well-meaning governments and organisations fail to provide exactly what is needed
How does the CAP try to reduce differences in levels of development within the EU?
1) Farmers are subsidised to grow certain products
1) When food prices are low, the EU buys produce and guarantees farmers a reasonable income
3) It puts a high import tax on foreign produce so people in the EU are more likely to buy food produced in the EU, protecting farmers, so they are able to sell their produce
4) Increases funds to the Rural Development budget which provides funding for rural areas
* All of these help improve farmers’ quality of life and standard of living
Advantages of bilateral aid for the donor
Tied aid - donors can choose where money is going
What are imports
The goods that one country but from another
How do Structural Funds try to reduce differences in levels of development within the EU?
1) Gives financial support to under-developed and e economically weak EU regions
2) Provides specific aid for countries due to join the EU
3) Provides money for research and development, improving employment opportunities, reducing discrimination and improving transport links
Advantages of bottom-up aid for the donor
NGO aid, so individuals give to charity - feel good factor
Feeling of direct link between donor and recipient e.g. Sponsorship schemes like ActionAid
Disadvantages of long term aid for the recipient
1) tied aid - makes recipient country reliant on donor country
2) local people may not have sufficient skills and training to reach senior posts
3) agricultural change may not be sustainable - level of technology too high
4) lack of money for fuel, spare parts, etc
5) may not be sufficient funding to maintain schools and hospitals to an adequate level
6) local people may lost their land due to large-scale projects
Why is the UK more developed than Bulgaria?
The climate is temperate and there aren’t many droughts - creates good conditions for farming improving local and the national economy
It has good trade links, the UK has been a major trading centre for hundreds of years - high number of exports and good imports, good for economy
The UK has well-developed manufacturing and service industries e.g. insurance which are very profitable - improves economy
It has had a more stable political past with governments that invest in services and infrastructure to help the people
What is a trade surplus
When a country’s exports are greater than its imports and therefore, it gets wealthier
What is fair trade?
A system whereby agricultural producers in developing countries are paid a fair price for their produce. This aims to help them to achieve a reasonable standard of living
What is the main aim of the EADD?
To double the real incomes of 179,000 smallholder farmers (1 million people) by the end of the decade (2020)
Disadvantages of multilateral aid for the recipient
Large organisations are often slow to change and do not always target the real needs of people in poor countries
Advantages of multilateral aid for the donor
Money given to international organisations with specific interest who will target specific issues e.g. WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank
How do environmental factors affect development? (Give examples and explain why)
1) Natural disasters esp. repeated or combined - countries that have a lot of natural disasters have to spend lots of money rebuilding after they occur e.g. Bangladesh
2) poor farming land (steep or poor soil), limited water supplies, poor climate - all can mean that a country can’t grow and produce as much food. In some countries this can lead to malnutrition (low QofL). People have fewer crops to sell so less money to spend on goods and services (low QofL). This means that the government then has less money from taxes and less to spend on developing the country
3) few raw materials OR don’t have the money to develop the infrastructure to exploit them - make less money because they have fewer products to sell
4) landlocked - harder to trade cheaply
What is trade deficit?
When a country’s imports and greater than its exports. It may build up debts and therefore, get poorer
How can trading groups help poor countries, therefore reducing the imbalance of global trade?
1) tariffs can be eliminated - a poorer country can pay less for imported goods, therefore saving money to spend on development
2) if countries group together they can ask for higher prices for their goods, therefore making more money
Advantages of bottom up aid for the recipient
1) NGOs work with recipient communities, who have input into the project
2) every member of community asked for their opinion
3) money not lost to corruption
4) NGOs there for guidance
5) appropriate technology used, so projects are sustainable
What are the limitations of single measures of development?
1) Economic indicators can be inaccurate for countries where trade (the exchange of goods and services) is informal (not taxed). They’re also affected by exchange rate changes (they’re often given in USD)
2) social indicators are more difficult to measure but they give a better indication of quality of life. Also, there aren’t any indicators for important social factors like human rights.
3) the measures can be misleading when used on their own because they’re averages - they don’t show up elite groups in the population or variations within the country. Using more than one measure or HDI avoids this problem.
4) some factors take into account the population size e.g. China’s GDP per capita might be lower because 1.3 billion people live there.
5) death rate may be higher in MEDCs due to ageing population.
Why is Bulgaria less developed than the UK?
There are droughts in the summer and high snowfall in the winter, Bulgaria is also very mountainous e.g. the Rhodope mountains cover 12,223km2 of Bulgaria and the land in the mountains is steep and had poor soil - both make farming difficult, worsening the economy
Bulgaria was a communist country between 1944 and 1990 - the government didn’t invest in developing the economy
There have also been problems with political corruption since 1990 - this hinders development
How do international aid donors encourage sustainable development?
Invest in renewable energy - reduces environmental impact of using fossil fuels
Educate people about their environmental impact - reduces things like air and water pollution
Plant trees in areas that have been affected by deforestation - makes sure there are still trees to use in the future
What is quality of life?
The personal view of what people value in life and how happy they are with their lot. Thus not ‘measurable’ - a qualitative view.
How can fair trade have a negative affect on poor countries?
Fair trade producers can often produce too much because of the good prices they are given. An excess will make world prices fall and cause producers who aren’t in a fair trade scheme to lose out
