HDI
human development index
human development report published by united nations
- meaures adult literacy, life execpectancy and per capita GDP
- purpose is to give a crude indication of different levels of economic and soical development amoung countries
- huge gap between ten bottom and ten top
- wealth of 200 richest people is greater than the combined income of 41% of the worlds pop, efforts by NGOs are being made to close this gap
GDP
gross domestic product
measure of the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year
- if you divide this by the #people in a country you get the averge GDP per capita
comparing living standards
- levels economic development are hard to measure accuratley in developing countries
- developed world has accounting systems that can determine things like the level on industrialization, value of servieces and exports/imports
- also hard to compare levels of development
- developing nations have many people who make goods at home and trade and money may not be used in these transactions
- if avrg wealth not shared amung most people the average income figure does not reflect the standard of living in that country
ex Saudi Arabia (wealth is concentrated in few wealthy families) - standards of living also measure quality of life( health, nutrition levels, life expectancy, status of women & children, literacy)
infrastructure
things like transportation communication links, electric power distrobution, schools, hospitals
measuring poverty
- measured differently in developed/developing countries
- World bank: less than $1 / person / day
- critics perfer to look at individual countries and determine at what level people are unable to afford a min. of food clothing shelter health care and education
- quality of life also depends on freedom of expression, economic freedom and the right to a safe and clean environ.
- in some developing countries the homeless and illerate may be denied the right to vote etc.
measuring poverty in canada
- we used to measure poverty as below a set income but it didnt take into account the differences in cost of living across the country
- redefined as spending more than 56% of income on necessities of life
- 5.1 mil under pov line
measuring poverty in the US
- meausred as the “cost of a min adequate diet multiplied by 3 to allow for other expenses” 1998 = 11$ / day
the position of women
- many females have lower status than men
- may have no legal rights
- may be killed to satisfy family’s honour
- may have to eat after men (whatever is left) causing malnutrition
- women in developing country may have to woekr 12+ hrs /day to make enough money to ensure family survival
- way lower literacy rate than men
women in niger
- one of the least developed countries
- life expectancy U49, literacty U 15%
- recent drop in price of uranium has reduced the countrys export earnings, donor aid is being withheld
- women are taking larger role in economy selling and making pottery, cloth anything
- as a traditional muslim society they must obey the wishes of their male relatives
- poligonomy is widespread, avrg marrying age = 15, avrg # babies/ women is 7.5
children in crisis
famine, disease, war and other problems prey on societys most vulnerable
- even if they survive first 5 yrs children is some nations have few educational opportunites and are often exploited or in sex trade
PNR Progress of Nations report
published by the united nations childrens fund on the welfare of children
- has a child risk index that measures the risk of children in countries from 1-100
- measure is based on 5 factors: mortality rates of kids U5, % moderatley - severly underweight, # kids who do not attend primary school, risks from armed conflicts, riks from the disease HIV/AIDS
Under 5 mortality rate (U5MR)
- differnce in rate between developed/ing countries in widening, sometimes 50X higher (ing)
- link to poverty is clear, more than half of the deaths are due to malnutrition
- UNCIEF states 3 mill kids die each year due to diseases that are related to poor sanitation and lack of hygenine and clean water
Children at War
- approx 540 mil kids in the world live in dangerous and unstable conditions
- many think the UN convention on the rights of the child should disallow military recruitment U18
Working Children
- many developing nations kids work to support fam
- abandoned kids live by their wits, begging, stealing or selling six
- no labour laws that regulate saftey conditions or hours children work
Clean Water
- est. 1.2 bill dont have clean water
- open water sources = contaminated, rivers that supply water are used for washing, disposal of waste
- irrigation and agriculture take the largest share of water supplies in the developing world; many countries have dry seasons
- lack of water affects health and agriculture
- aid programs land up helping those who can pay, leaving poor with filthies water
- WHO estimates 80% worlds diseases caused by contaminated water ex. cholera, typhoid, bilhazia is a parasite in contaminated water, enters body through cuts or ingestion - results in loss of energy and anemia
HIV/AIDS
- origin traced back to a virus that spread from chips to humans in west africa
- lots of AIDS orphans, life expectancy reduced significantly, cultural and economic effects
- scarse resouces will have to be used to deal with the epidemic and it will likely add to problems of poverty, illiteract, malnutrition
- international community has been slow to react, price reduction hasnt helped a lot
- dealing w/ issue requires multilateral cooperation of many national and international agencies ex UN AIDS, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank
solutions and spending
- since WWII developed world has been providng aid to nations of s. america, africa and asia
- lack of political stability in newly emerging colonies made the transition into independence hard and foreign aid was chosen as the way to foster development
- as amount of aid grew the political and hummanitarian motivies of donors became interconnected
- fraction of military spending could give universal acces to basic social seriveces
foreign aid
- multilateral aid
aid funded by a number of govs and usally involves large scale programs like dam building often it is tied aid ( aid given w. conditions)
- critisism is that that they are tied too much to the trade system that benifits the industrialized countries and devling expense
- can recieve through many sources including international bodies, national gov agencies, religeous groups
Canada’s foreign aid program
CIDA distributes aid projects through UN agencies, directly to govs & through NGO’s
- supports foreign aid projects in over 100 countries, objective is to work with people in developing countries and develop the tools for them to meet their own needs eventually
- NGOs work at personnal level, often are more effective the the large gov sponsered projects
- ex. bangledesh women abandonded work on CARE scheme repair roads, some of their wages is held back and given to the as a lump sum to invest
- recently gov have followed NGOs in promoting small scale sustainable projects
Burden of Debt
- IMF (International monetary fund) and world bank were set up at end of WWII as agencies of the UN to provide assistance to help countries improve on their standards of living through economic growth
- encouraged developing countries to engage in megaprojects ex. dam building, irrigation - many caused envrion. damage
- western banks became eager to lend billions to newly independent african countries - exporting minerals & agriculture products
