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Disparities in wealth and development

Index

Measurements of Region and Global Disparities

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Project/Awareness:
Poverty in our local community. 
This could involve a variety of different projects ranging from surveys, to food collections, working in 'soup' kitchens to increasing awareness by presentations/project. It could link art and photography, by maybe taking photos of volunteer working etc. Local organisations include: “Restos du Coeur” or “Les anges de Monaco”
Key terms
  • Development: the use of resources to improve the quality of life in a country.
  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.
  • Gross National Product (GNI): comprises of GDP together with its income received from other countries e.g. interest, dividends etc 
  • Purchasing Power Parity (PPP): the conversion of a figure such as GDP into US dollars based on the value of money in that country. It takes into account cost of living. 
  • Adult literacy rate: the percentage of the adult population with basic reading and writing.
  • Malnutrition: the condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function.
  • Per Capita: per person e.g. GDP per capita is the total GDP divided amounts the population of that country.
  • Development gap: the difference in income and quality of life in general between the richest and the poorest countries sin the world.
  • Human Development Index (HDI): a measure of development which combines three important aspects of human well being: Life expectancy, Education and Income.
  • Newly industrialized countries (NICs): countries that have undergone rapid and successful industrialization since the 1960s.
  • Infant mortality rate: the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. 
  • Marginalization: the process of being pushed to the edge of economic activity, of being largely left out of positive economic trends.
Infant mortality rate 
Make notes on the causes of infant mortality rate and describe the global trend.
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Interactive map
The most common causes of death in children under-five are:

  • Birth asphyxia, failure to initiate and sustain breathing at birth, which accounts for about a quarter of all newborn deaths across the world. Effective resuscitation at birth can prevent a large proportion of these deaths.
  • Pneumonia, the prime cause of death in children under five. The major risk factors include malnutrition and indoor air pollution. Measures to prevent it include vaccination and breastfeeding, and children who suffer from pneumonia need access to antibiotics and oxygen.
  • Pre-term birth complications– pre-term birth is rising in most countries, and is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under five, after pneumonia. Low-birth-weight babies are more likely to survive if they are kept warm by skin-to-skin contact with the mother.
  • Diarrhoeal diseases, which are a major cause of sickness and death among children in developing countries. Breastfeeding helps prevent diarrhoea among young children and treatment with oral rehydration salts combined with zinc supplements is safe, cost-effective, and saves lives.
  • Malaria, which kills one child every minute. Insecticide-treated bed nets prevent transmission and increase child survival.
  • Measles, which is a leading cause of childhood mortality. Measles can be completely prevented with two doses of a safe, effective and inexpensive vaccine but in many developing countries, poverty, poor health systems and a lack of information can make it difficult for families to secure preventative vaccinations for each of their children.
  • Malnutrition, which makes children more vulnerable to severe diseases, is an underlying factor in about one-third of all child deaths.
It is hard to establish accurate figures for newborn mortality rates because many early deaths go unreported or are wrongly classified, so these statistics are an estimation.Neonatal mortality has been declining worldwide. The number of deaths among babies in the first 28 days of life decreased from 4.4 million in 1990 to 3.1 million in 2010.

There was also a 28% reduction in newborn mortality rates (NMRs) over the same period of time, from an estimated 32 deaths per 1,000 live births to 23 deaths per 1,000 live births. But progress is slow and unequal in different countries.

  • A child's risk of dying is highest in the first 28 days of life – the neonatal period.
  • 6.9 million children under the age of five died in 2011, and 43% of these deaths occurred during the first 28 days of life.
  • Children in sub-Saharan Africa are about 16.5 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in developed regions.
  • In low-income countries, one child out of every 10 dies before the age of five, whereas in wealthier nations, this number is only one out of 143.
  • Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who haven’t.
  • Approximately 380 people die from measles-related complications each day, most of them are children under five.
  • In Africa, one child dies from malaria every minute.
  • The global under-five mortality rate has dropped from 87 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 51 in 2011 but this is not sufficient to reach the MDG4 target of a two-thirds reduction of 1990 mortality levels by the year 2015.







Compare infant mortality rates on GapMinder
Education
Education is the key to socio-economic development. It is one of the components of the HDI and examines:
  • adult literacy
  • school enrolment

Female education is one of the World Bank's largest aims and the UN sees education as the vital in its efforts of achieving sustainable development. 

Discuss the following two sets of data. What patterns can you see in the world?
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World literacy rates
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The Education For ALL (EFA) Development Index (EDI) is a composite index using four of the six EFA goals
Nutrition
Nourishment is an important indicator because it can affect peoples ability to work, get educated and fight disease. Again the elimination of hunger is a Millennium Development Goal (number one). The leading cause of death in children in developing countries is protein-energy malnutrition. In the most recent global recession UN studies show that:
  • The hours of work needed to feed a family of five increased by 10-20%
  • 50 million women or 40% of pregnant women in developing countries are anemic.
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Daily Calorie Intake per capita
World bank data on the precentage of population that is undernourished per country. 
Human Development Index (HDI)

Human development index (HDI): HDI was developed in 1990 and is used by the United Nations to measure levels of development, HDI looks at three variables:
  • GNI per capita
  • Life expectancy
  • Comparing expected years of schooling for current school children and mean years of schooling for adults age 25 (the old system just looked at adult literacy)

The HDI calculations score all countries between 0 and 1. The map below shows that according to HDI the most developed countries are in Western Europe North America and Australia while the least developed countries are in Central Africa.

HDI is what is known as a composite measure. This simply mean that more than one variable is taken into account, for HDI three variables are looked at. It can be harder to collect all the data for composite measures, but they do give a more complete and accurate picture of a country's are area's development.

Examine the HDI data from the UNPD Compare the graphs and describe the distribution on the map.
Problems and Limitations of Development Indicators

Although development indicators can be useful for governments, NGO's etc. to know where to target investment or where for industries to locate a new factory, or even for where an individual to move to, they do have their limitation. These limitations include:
  • Countrywide statistics disguise intra-country variations. For example if you look at the map below, the east of China is a lot richer than the west, but if you looked at China's overall GDP you would not know this.
  • In many countries data is inaccurate or incomplete. Some countries also refuse to release certain pieces of information or data.
  • Most development indicators (with the exception of HDI) focus on only one aspect of development.
  • Most indicators use averages and tend to neglect or highlight the sectors of the population that are marginalised.
  • Indicators are always out of date. Once information has been collected, analysed, presented and published a lot of things can have changed either for the better or worse.
  • Development indicators can be manipulated, used or ignored to suit peoples needs. One indicator may suggest an area is developed while another may suggest an area is undeveloped.
Project:Define and examine the spatial distribution of indices of infant mortality, education, nutrition, income and HDI.  Explain what these indexes show. 

The task is to make a YouTube or a short video (maximum 5 min) examining the five sets of data and looking at their world distribution and discussing it. 
To find interactive maps to discuss you can use:
  1. Kmlfactbook 
  2. IndexMundi
  3. Chartsbin
  4. National Geographic - Map maker
How you create this you will need to screen capture the interactive map as you navigate around it and then record audio explaining what we can see and give a few reasons why.

There are many methods to accomplish this.
  • Windows : LiteCam
  • Mac : Screen recorder using QuickTime player

Origin of Disparities

Key Terms
  • Gini Coefficient: a statistical technique used to show the extent of income inequality in a country. With values between 0 and 1, a low value indicates a more equal income distribution while a high value means more unequal income distribution.
  • Cumulative causation: the process whereby a significant increase in economic growth can lead to even more growth as more money circulates in the economy.
  • Slum: a heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor. 
  • Urbanisation of poverty: the gradual shift of global poverty from rural to urban areas with increasing urbanisation.
  • Indigenous population: people descending fro the original ethnic groups to populate a country. Other ethnic groups migrating to that country at later period of time may come to dominate the indigenous population in various ways. 
  • Privatisation: the sale of state-owned assets to the private sector.
Look at the maps below and describe the distribution of incomes in the world
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Gini Coefficient 2013
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The Brandt line
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Poverty Cycle
Parental Education
Read through the BBC article on education and the the Global Post Article discuss and make some notes on how it can impact disparities.

Project: Zimbabwe
Your Task is to create a presentation on how there are disparities and inequalities in Zimbabwe. You will need to find information on the disparities caused by:
  • Ethnicity
  • Residence
  • Income 
  • Employment
  • Land Ownership 
  • Parental education
Part 1:
  • Introduction: Where is Zimbabwe and outline the history of Zimbabwe.?
  • What is the situation like now in Zimbabwe. Give some statistics (these should cover the key areas of study)?
Resources:
  1. BBC Timeline 
  2. Problems in Zimbabwe 
  3. President Mugabe 
  4. Overview of the economy
Part 2: Ethnicity 
  • Race problems between white farmers and black population. Outline if there any racial issues in Zimbabwe, do not just look for black and white differences but also tribal differences. 
Resources:
  1. Article on white farmers in Zimbabwe 
  2. Wikipedia link
Part 3: Residence and Land Ownership
  • Mainly look at the land reform policy in Zimbabwe


YouTube from 1998 before the Land Reform Policy of 2000
Resources:
  1. Wikipedia Land Reform
  2. Who owns the land in Zimbabwe?
  3. Are Zimbabwe's farmers winning? 10 years later.
  4. Land Reform ghost lingers on


YouTube from 2013 indicating that Zimbabwe has started to recover. 
Part 4: Disparity in Income and Employment
  • What was income like in 1998-2000 compared to now?
  • Was it more evenly distributed then or now?
Resources:
  1. GapMinder Zimbabwe 
  2. Surreal disparities abound as Zimbabwean currency crumbles
  3. The polarised lives of Zimbabwe's rich and poor
Part 5: Conclusion
  • Give an overview of the situation now.
  • What is your assessment of the disparities present in Zimbabwe now?
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Example Available

Disparities and Change

Key Terms
  • Modernisation theory: a deterministic approach based on the economic history of a number of developed countries. Distinct economic and social changes are required for a country to move from one stage to another. 
  • Dependency theory: blames the relative underdevelopment of the developing world on exploitation by the developed world, first through colonialism and then by the various elements of neocolonialism. 
  • World system theory: based on the history of the capitalist world economy. Countries fall into three economic levels, and can move from one level to another if their contribution to the world economy changes.
  • Life expectancy at birth: the average number of years that a newborn baby is expected to live if the age-specific mortality rates effective at the year of birth apply throughout their lifetime.
  • Extreme poverty: the most sever state of poverty with an inability to meet basic needs. It is now defined as living on less than $1.25 per day.
  • Maternal mortality rate: the annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100 000 live births .
Print presentation and make notes on how countries have developed and how this has influenced global disparities.
development_theories.ppt
File Size: 1239 kb
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Life Expectancy Patterns
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Historical life expectancy
What can increase life expectancy?
  • Improved diet and increased food production
  • Better provision of clean water
  • Immunisation programmes to eliminate diseases like small pox and reduce others like TB
  • Better medical care
  • Improved post natal care (reduced infant and child mortality)
  • Better education about diet, hygiene, etc.
  • Higher standard of living
Discuss the changes in life expectancy in France since the 1800s
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Gapminder link
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Global life expecatncy
Income patterns
Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve plots the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the poorest individual or household. The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Thus a Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 1 implies perfect inequality (sometimes this will be converted into a score out of 100).
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World GDP per person
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Lorenz Curve
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World Gini Coefficient
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What does the Gini coefficient graph mean? Lorenz Curve
The graph shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area marked A divided by the sum of the areas markedA and B. that is, Gini = A / (A + B). It is also equal to 2*Adue to the fact that A + B = 0.5 (since the axes scale from 0 to 1).
Education Patterns
Ways education can be measured:
  • Adult literacy
  • Percentage of students in all stages of education
  • Percentage of university graduates
  • Education spending
  • Pupil teacher ratios
  • Male/female education equality

Reasons why education is important:
  • If people can read and write they are less likely to be exploited because they know what they are being asked to do and/or what to sign
  • They understand the importance of family planning and can reduce fertility rates and birth rates
  • They understand the importance of health, diet and medicine. They will know how to prevent diseases e.g. HIV and malaria, how to remain fit and healthy by eating a good diet and how to cure diseases when sick.
  • They have a better chance of getting a higher paid job.
  • They have a better chance of being independent and not relying on a husband/wife, their family, community or country.
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World literacy rates 2011
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Public spending on education as a % of GDP

Millennium development goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time committed to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day
  • Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People
  • Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
  • By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
4. Reduce child mortality rates
  • Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
 5. Improve maternal health
  • Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
  • Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
  • Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
  • Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
  • Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources
  • Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
  • Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply)
  • By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
Develop a global partnership for development
  • Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
  • Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
  • Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States
  • Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
  • In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
  • In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications
MDG progress.
the_millennium_development_goals.pptx
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2013_progress_english.pdf
File Size: 199 kb
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World Health Organisation - MDG overview and summary of progress
Plan and answer the IB Style Question: 
Assess the extent that there has been uneven progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals [15]
To do this you will need to make some notes on the 3 Goals we need to assess: Poverty Reduction, Education and Health
  • For each you should explain what the main goal is with its subsections
  • Where and to what degree will the targets be met?
  • Which targets have not been met and why?
  • What factors have made this target difficult to achieve?
  • Give named examples of these.
The information below should help you with the task
Poverty Reduction - Goal 1
Improvement in Education - Goal 2

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Changes in childrens' literacy rates
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Comparing Boys and Girls in Education
General MDG overviews

Watch the two following YouTubes and sites to make notes on the varied regional successes of the MDGs and why certain areas are not meeting the goals. 
Debate the overall level of success in meeting the MDGs.
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Info-graphic link to Africa and MDG progress

Reducing Disparities

Key Terms
  • Foreign direct investment: overseas investment in physical capital by transnational corporations.
  • Non-governmental organisations (NGOs): national or international private organisations, which are distinct from governmental or intergovernmental agencies.
  • Resource nationalisation: when a country decides to take part, or all, of one or a number of natural resources under state ownership.
  • Terms of trade: the price of a country's exports relative to the price of its imports, and the changes that take place over time.
  • Primary product dependent: countries that rely on one or a small range of primary products for most of their exports.
  • Trade deficit: when the value of a country's exports is less than the value of its imports. 
  • Fair trade: when producers of food, and some nonfood products. in developing countries receive a fair deal when they are selling their products. 
  • International aid: the giving of resources (money, food, goods, technology etc) by one country or organisation to another poorer country. The objective is to improve the economy and quality of life in the poorer country. 
  • Appropriate technology: aid supplied by a donor country whereby the level of technology and the skills required to service it are properly suited to the conditions in the receiving country.
  • Microcredit: tiny loans and financial services to help the poor, mostly women, start businesses and escape poverty.
  • Social business: forms of business that seek to profit from investments that generate social improvements and serve a broader human development purpose. 
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Research Project/Awareness:
Fair trade - an examination of where the foods served in the school canteen originate from. This covers concepts also in HL Geography such as Food miles and glocalisation.  The project could involve an awareness campaign aimed at the middle school (you could create a Youtube for example). It could also be included as part of a 'bake sale' using fair trade products, the funding of which could later be used for other CAS projects.
Group task:
This will be a collaborate assignement where you will work in groups (or individually) to meet the IB requirements in the four necessary areas:
  1. Trade and market access
  2. Dept relief
  3. Aid
  4. Remittances
After you have been placed in groups you will need to download your respective guidance sheet and complete all areas of the report.
Your task is to create a detailed presentation for the rest of the class.
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Examples available
criteria_for_marking_in_class_presentation_task.docx
File Size: 14 kb
File Type: docx
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Group 1:
Reducing disparities - Trade and Market access
Assignment guidance for Trade and Market Access
File Size: 125 kb
File Type: docx
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Examine in general how trade and market access can be beneficial for reducing disparities. Watch the two YouTubes

Read: 
Case Study: FairTrade

www.fairtrade.org.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4788662.stm
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/history.aspx
http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/fairtrade/products/bananas.cfm
http://www.globalissues.org/article/63/the-banana-trade-war
Group 2:
Reducing Disparities  - Debt Relief
Assignment Guidance for Debt Relief
File Size: 65 kb
File Type: docx
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Case Study: Live8
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Live8 Home page
Wikipedia Live8
Bob Geldof
The G8
YouTube series of documentaries by the BBC
Group 3:
Reducing Disparities - Aid
Assignment Guidance for Aid
File Size: 15 kb
File Type: docx
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  1. Where does Aid money go?
  2. What is Aid?
  3. Wikipedia on Aid
  4. Does Aid work?
  5. The myths about Aid 
  6. Why is foreign aid hurting Africa?
  7. Development Aid
  8. Overview of Aid
international_aid_key_issues_and_players.pdf
File Size: 224 kb
File Type: pdf
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Case Study: Haiti 
Group 4:
Reducing Disparities - Remittances


Migrants' billions put aid in the shade
Assignment Guidance for Remittances
File Size: 15 kb
File Type: docx
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Advantages of Remittances
  • Reduces unemployment
  • Reduces pressure on schools and hospitals (if migrants take children)
  • Reduces pressure on infrastructure (houses, water , electricity, transport)
  • Remittances go directly to friends and family so enter economy at local level
  • Migrants can return with new skills (language, ICT)
  • Improved relations with countries (Barack Obama recently visited El Salvador)
Disadvantages of Remittances
  • Remittances fall during economic downturn. This is probably the time remittances are most needed
  • It can create dependency i.e. a family relying on one or two members living abroad
  • Creates family division and family pressure/conflict (the need to provide!)
  • Increased dependency ratio in losing country, placing pressure on government
  • Brain drain. Usually the youngest, most educated and skilled choose to leave.
  • Reduces incentive of government to invest in education and job provision
  • Migrants are open to extortion (family members maybe threatened for money or migrants might lose money on exchange rates/transfer fees)


Case Study: Africa
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