Topic 8: EQ1 Flashcards
What is global development guided by?
The decisions and geopolitical interventions of national governments and international organisations. These interventions take many different forms, from development aid to military campaigns.
Many interventions are made by powerful and wealthy governments and organisations on the grounds that they should help the poorer parts of the world. Despite sounding laudable, there are often hidden agendas.
What are used to measure human economic development?
GDP and GNI (which includes net income from abroad) have been used to measure development at a national level. They continue to be used today but are usually expressed in per capita terms. Similar, GDP with PPP taken into account is also used.
What is the issue with using GDP and GNI to measure development?
Development involves much more than simply just economic progress. As a result, the term ‘human development’ seems to be a much more appropriate term. Development also includes improving people’s wellbeing, quality of life and contentment. Indicators such as life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality and literacy and healthcare are all used to measure development today.
What is the happy planet index?
This is a leading global measure of sustainable wellbeing. It is based on experienced well-being, life expectancy and ecological footprint.
The countries which record the highest values on the HPI are not necessarily the most developed countries. However, some of the lowest values do come from the least developed countries.
What 3 countries have the highest HPI ranking?
Costa Rica - 64.0
Mexico
Columbia - 59.8
Why do countries such as USA and Belgium have relatively low HPI scores?
This is mainly because of their heavy ecological footprints. In contrast, the top-ranked countries seem to combine a comfortable level of experienced well-being, a good life expectancy and a fairly light ecological footprint.
What are the issues with HPI?
Two of the three measures are based on highly aggregated data. Furthermore, it cannot be seen as reasonable to expect all people to perceive their well-being the same right across the nation. Only the life expectancy data can be fairly considered reliable.
What does HDI provide?
This provides a good way of measuring the state of global development. It takes into account three important dimensions of the development process:
-Life expectancy (an indicator of health and well-being)
-Education (years of schooling)
-Economic growth (per capita income).
What are two particularly useful aspects of HDI?
1) It relies on statistical data that is collected frequently and widely on a national level.
2) This allows it to be used to monitor development progress over a year or period of years.
What is the KOF index of globalisation?
This measures the strength of links between countries, using economic social and political criteria. It indirectly measures development as countries with the strongest links are likely to have developed in terms of trade, investment and socio-political power.
What does the World Happiness Index show?
This considers dystopia as a benchmark against which to measure a country’s level of social support, generosity, life expectancy, corruption, GDP per capita and freedom to make choices.
What is the freedom index?
This considers the political rights, civil liberties and freedom status. In 2016, the Middle East and North Africa had the lowest freedom, and the best was in Europe (86% free).
What is the issue with GDP per capita?
It fails to recognise the the disparities between the very rich and the poor,
Why are nations such as Norway, Australia and Switzerland at the top of the HDI rankings?
This is because these nations all have fairly high levels of taxation, which allows for their governments to provide the necessary healthcare and education services to have good life expectancy and education levels, two of the three aspects of HDI.
Why is there a debate about if economic development leads to social development or vice versa?
Some people argue that the economic development is vital in order to provide the money which is needed so that social developments can be made. However, others argue that without the social improvements like better health first, the economy will not be fit enough to be working in order to provide the economic stimulus to make change.
What is an example of a code of conduct which wouldn’t be seen as appropriate in many parts of the world?
The sharia law. Differences in beliefs, values, morals and codes of conduct means that in different societies there are very different perceptions of what human development is all about.
What is it generally agreed development should focus on today?
-health
-life expectancy
-Human rights.
Some would also add a fourth objective of caring for the environment. Protecting the environment is vital for the well-being of both the physical world and its inhabitants.
What do most agree the advancements in health, life expectancy and human rights will be driven by?
Economic growth. However, as this is often caused by exploitation of natural resources, it will have impacts on the environment. This explains why improvements in environmental quality aren’t always included in essential development objectives.
What is the Sharia Law?
The law of Islam. It currently applies in some of the world’s richest nations (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) as well as some of the poorest (Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen).
Of all the world’s legal systems, Sharia Law is perhaps the most intrusive and strict, especially with regards to women. It doesn’t comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UK and many other ‘Christian’ countries are concerned this law operates as a parallel legal system.
What are some rules according to Sharia Law?
-Theft is punishable by the amputation of the right hand
-A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death.
-A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim women is punishable by death
-Women can only have 1 husband, but men can have 4 wives.
-A man can beat his wife for insubordination
-A woman cannot drive
-A women cannot speak 1-on-1 with a man who they aren’t related to or isn’t their husband.
Who is Evo Morales?
After winning a 3rd term of office in Bolivia’s 2014 presidential election, he became Bolivia’s first indigenous president, but he has experienced a remarkable rise from humble beginnings growing coca, the source of cocaine.
He is widely known for his anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist rhetoric, as well as the exploitation of Bolivia’s natural gas and mineral resources, and deriving the wealth amongst the people, helping to lift 500,000 out of poverty. Bolivia still remains one of the poorest Latin American countries, with about 1/4 of Bolivians still living on $2 a day.
What is the morales model like in terms of development?
It is seen as a socialist model, but it doesn’t look beyond giving all Bolivians a share in the wealth derived from the country’s natural resources.
The model has a rather limited view of development, with little to say on development aspects such as freedom of speech, equality and education.
Why is education so crucial to development?
A literate, numerate and enterprising skilled workforce is precious human capital. Education promises better jobs and higher wages, which leads to the benefits of a raised quality of life.
Education also provides knowledge on other factors crucial to a better quality of life, such as knowledge of human rights, and information on good personal hygiene, diet and and general health to improve longevity.
What is the negative indicator of education?
Illiteracy, which is well over 25% in much of Africa and South Asia. In other parts of the world such as Europe and Australasia it is below 5%.
Do all countries recognise the human right of access to education?
No, and substantially more countries have issues over gender discrimination, with females becoming increasingly barred or deterred from access to other levels of education - secondary and tertiary.
Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai illustrated the deep rooted ignorance and violence which prevents females from exercising their right to education in Pakistan, but the issue occurs in many nations across Africa, India and the Middle East.
What is access to education impeded by?
Obstacles such as:
-Ethnicity
-physical and mental disability
-social class
-Wealth
How is UNESCO helping with providing education?
It has done much to ensure ‘every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development’. Despite this effort, literacy rates are more than a 1/4 lower for women than men in many parts of Africa and South Asia.
How can the world be split up by life expectancy?
Much of the world now has a life expectancy which is over 65. On exception of this, however, is Africa. The traditional subdivision of the world into ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ isn’t entirely clear cut. However, the developing world is muddied by high values in South America, North Africa and throughout Asia. We should also distinguish, however, between emerging nations and the least developed.
Is there gender differences in life expectancy?
In nearly all populations, female life expectancy is greater. It can be a difference of 5 years or more in the developed nations. UK life expectancy for men is 78.4 years, where as its 82.8 years for women. The gap is smaller in developing nations, and the opposite trend can even be seen in places such as Botswana, where men’s life expectancy is higher. This is due to high maternal mortality rates.
What countries have the highest and lowest life expectancy?
Japan is highest (84 years), and Sierra Leone is lowest (46 years).
What factors other than life expectancy can help portray global health standards?
-Number of doctors per 100,000 people
-% of population with regular access to essential drugs.
The second measure shows an 3-way global subdivision, of developed countries (over 95%), emerging countries (50-95%) and least-developed countries (>50%)
