chapter 4: international development

• Development indicators


  • Economic indicators
  • Health indicators
  • Social indicators
• Economic indicators


  Indicators that are to do with money and the economy
• PPP - Purchasing Power Parity


  • The value of US$ in a country and how much it can get a family in that country
• GDP - Gross Domestic Product


  A monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries
• GNI - Gross National Income


  The sum of incomes of residents of an economy in a given period
• FDI - Foreign Direct Investment


  A substantial, lasting investment made by a company or government into a foreign concern
• Why is it good to attract foreign direct investors?

  Directly: creates more job opportunities, allows the host country to collect more taxes. Indirectly: towns get more developed (water supply, electric supply, roads built)
• Health indicators


  Indicators that are to do with health and healthcare
• Countries with high life expectancy


  • Japan, Singapore, Italy, Germany, UK
• Countries with low life expectancy


  • Russia
• Social indicators


  Indicators that are to do with the people of the country
• Sectors of employment


  • Primary sector (jobs relating to people working with the earth - farming, mining, fishing, etc)
  • Secondary sector (production of goods - factories, manufacturing, processing, etc)
  • Tertiary sector (service workers, professional workers - doctors, nurses, engineers)
  • Quaternary sector (people who work with technology, information, financial planning, research, and development - consultancy, project management, education and research and development)
• China has the largest secondary sector in the world, with Vietnam and India in the second and third place respectively
• Malaysia is in between the tertiary and quaternary sectors in which we have achieved an abundance of tertiary sector jobs and not much of quaternary sector jobs
• Singapore has already achieved a good amount of quaternary sector jobs and people working in those sectors
• Human Development Index (HDI)


  A composite statistic of health, education and economic indicators (per capita income indicators) used to rank countries into four tiers of human development
• The highest HDI ranking in the world at this moment is 0.96-0.97%
• A country has a higher HDI when

  • Lifespan is higher
  • Education level is higher
  • GDP per capita is higher
  • Fertility rate is lower
  • Inflation rate is lower
• HDI doesn't look at many other developmental issues, for example China being in the 0.7 category while it is one of the most developed and advanced countries in the world
• Positives of HDI


  • Looks at three factors instead of one (economic, educational, health)
  • Makes it easy to compare countries
  • Shows development in education and health factors
• Negatives of HDI


  • Does not ensure fairness and equality
  • Only counts the average
  • No indication in the education index about access to education for all groups in society
  • Data from developing countries may not be accurate or easy to confirm
  • Doesn't measure unequal distribution within the country
• Determining factors of quality of life

  • Life expectancy
  • Healthcare
  • Access to electricity
  • Employment rate
• Factors that affect development

  • Social: education, women's place
  • Environmental: limited water and food supply, poor climate, natural hazards
  • Economic: debt, trade links
  • Political: war, corrupt government
• Development is the process of change that improves peoples lives
• underdeveloped countries tend to have a lower standard of living, lower life expectancy, and lower literacy rates
• The Human Development Index measures human well-being by taking into account a combination of life expectancy, education, and income.
• Human development can be measured using indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality rate, adult literacy rate, gross national product per capita, and enrollment ratio in primary school.
• There are different types of aid provided by developed nations to underdeveloped ones, including grants, loans, technical assistance, and military support.
• Factors affecting development include social aspects like education and gender roles, environmental issues like limited resources and natural disasters, economic challenges like debt and trade relationships, and political instability caused by conflict and corruption.
• Human development can be measured using indicators such as life expectancy, health care, access to electricity, employment rate, and social inequality.
• Underdeveloped countries often face challenges related to poverty, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to basic needs like clean water and healthcare.
• Poverty is defined as lacking access to basic needs such as food, shelter, healthcare, and education.
• Income inequality refers to the unequal distribution of wealth within a country or region, with some individuals having significantly more resources than others.
• Governments may give aid through bilateral agreements with other governments or multilateral agreements between several governments.
• Aid can come from governments or private organizations like charities and NGOs (non-governmental organizations).
• there are around 200 countries which are all at different stages of development
• The HDI combines data on life expectancy, educational attainment, and income into one measure that reflects overall human wellbeing.
• poor countries face a lot of challenges that stop them from being more developed
• there is a big developmental gap between rich countries and poor countries
• a country's development is measured by sets of data which are converted into sets of development indicators