List the four main areas of measurement
- Economic Measures
- Social Measures
- Humanist Measures
- Poverty Measures
Define economic growth
GROWTH = the monetary value of the country’s produce increases over time, relative to other countries
What is the common pattern of economic growth?
Subsistence –> Mass Production/consumption –> Service Industries
How is economic growth usually measured?
GNI - gross national income, per capita
the total amount of goods & services produced by a country in a financial year
What are the benefits of measuring development via GNI?
- ‘per capita’ means the statistics allow for differences in size of populations between countries
- GNI figures reveal the dramatic scale of inequality between the developed and developing worlds
- change year to year in GNI gives a measurement of economic growth
What are the negatives of measuring development via GNI?
- economic growth doesn’t cover all aspects of social development (a rise in GNI doesn’t necessarily mean education/health are improving)
- GNI per capita is still an average for the whole population, so hides inequalities like how big the rich/poor gap is
- continuous economic growth is very unlikely to be sustainable development – boom & bust is severely damaging for developing countries
Why is rapid economic growth an issue?
Although economic development is a good thing, failing to invest in sustainability leads to ‘boom and bust’ where those unable to save/buy assets will suffer
(Wealthy countries can deal with this because of state welfare and extent to wealth - e.g the furlough scheme )
What are the measures for social development?
Education: % of children eligible & attending school
Health: IMR, MMR
Democracy: participation in electorate (ROPA)
Gender Equality: M/F average years in education
How are social measures used to measure development?
Several measures of development combine different indicators of development to create a score for each country - then they can be put in rank order & development can be tracked
What is a humanist measure?
The Human Development Index (HDI)
- a UN measure for measuring development
What is the HDI?
- a composite measure that combines three figures to produce a score
- GNI per capita
- Education (yrs in education by 25, expected yrs in
state education) - Health (life expectancy in years & months)
What is the Human Development Report?
A sociological report that looks at more humanist measures that could be used to measure development
An alternative to the UN’s HDI
Focused on equality & reducing poverty - rather than a country’s economic/statistical success
What is are some positives of the HDI?
- takes into account more than economic health but social health too (broadens scope) - a country could be rich but have unhappy people so shouldn’t be deemed as ‘developed’
- generates a score allowing countries to be ranked against each other
- useful for giving a broad impression of the development
What is are some negatives of the HDI?
- doubts about the accuracy of statistics used because of difficulties collecting data in developing countries - figures not always available
- not all important aspects of development can be measured quantitatively
- the three measures of development used seem rather arbitrary
What other indices of development are used by the Human Development Report?
- The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
- The Gender Inequality Index (GII)
- The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)
What does the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) do?
A new measure in replacement of the Human Poverty Index (HPI)
It sees poverty as multidimensional - looking at measures of health, education & living standards
What does the Gender Inequality Index (GII) do?
It measures the disadvantages faced by girls/women in…
- reproductive health
- empowerment (educational attainment & political participation)
- Participation in the labour market
What does the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) do?
If a country’s people are all equal, its IHDI is the same as its HDI
If not, the IHDI goes down
How is poverty measured?
- GNI is used for countries (useful for comparing countries against each other)
- For individuals & families it’s more complex (need to know how poor they are in their country)
How does the definition of poverty differ between IGOs?
UN - the MDGs
The World Bank - income less than $1.25 per day
What is ‘relative poverty’ ?
Being poor compared to the average in your country
What measure did the UN introduce to tackle poverty?
MDGs - Millennium Development Goals
In 2000, the UN agreed to set goals that aimed to decrease poverty - set to complete them all by 2015 these were called the ‘Millenium Development Goals’
Why is poverty distributed unevenly?
- Climate/weather conditions
- Culture/cultural institutions
- Beliefs about money & weather
- Governmental structure/politics/corruption
- Heavy religion
- History/Imperialism/Colonisation/War
MDGs did not absolve poverty, what measurement was consequently brought in by the UN?
SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals
Introduced by the UN in 2015, there were 17 goals that focused on reducing poverty rather than eliminating it. The responsibility was often passed from Gov’s to NGOs.
