DEVELOPMENT

THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT

DEVELOPMENT refers to the process of improving people’s

quality of life and standard of living through economic,
social and environmental progress.
• ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT- refers to an improvement in
terms of using resources and producing goods and
services to improve the economy of a country or region.

• SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT- refers to an improvement in

standard of living and quality of life.
 THE
THECONCEPT
CONCEPTOF
OFDEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT refers to sustainable use
and protection of the natural resources to ensure the
environment is not damaged for future generations.
Ensuring environmental development means that we make
efforts to:
• Reduce pollution
• Conserve water, forests and wildlife
• Using renewable resources
Social development means that :
• people are able to afford healthy nutritious food
• More people are educated
• More people are able to access health care services
(private doctor or public clinics and hospital)
• people have high life expectancy
• Low crime
• Live in decent housing (RDP)
• Eradicating POVERTY
Economic development means:
A country is producing more goods (more manufacturing
industries) and services
A country is using its resources (gold, coal, oil, water and other minerals)
to earn foreign income through export (selling to other countries)

There is high employment in the country

Low poverty and income inequality

Improved infrastructure (roads, clinics, libraries, pipelines, powerline)

Improved services (education. Health care, safety)

Ways of measuring development
• Development is measured by using indicators
• Indicator is a factor that can be measured and which give one
an idea about what a country is like economically, socially and
environmentally.
• Indicators are used to classify countries as developed or
developing
• Developed country- is a rich country with high standard of
living and quality of life, high income, advanced infrastructure,
strong healthcare and education systems.
• Developing country- is a country with low income income
levels, low standard of living, and quality of life
 SOCIAL INDICATORS ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Levels of education and literacy GDP ( Gross Domestic Product)

rate
HDI (Human Development Index). GDP per capita
Education, health and income

Gender Inequality Employment rate

Access to basic services such as Poverty

water, electricity and clinics

High diseases rate ( indicates Balance of trade

limited access to healthcare)
Ways of measuring development
Human Development Index (HDI)
• . Development is measured using the Human Development Index
(HDI)
• HDI- measures average (health) life expectancy, level of
education literacy rate and income for each country in the world.
• Each country is given a score between 0 and 1 -the closer a
country gets to 1, the more developed it is.
• Literacy rate – refers to the percentage of people who can read
and write
• Life expectancy- refers to the average number of years a person is
expect to live
 Developed vs developing country
Developed developing
Rich countries First world Poor countries Third world
countries countries

Higer income and high Low income and low

employement employment
More economically developed Less economically developed
High standards of living Low standard of living
High literacy rate Low literacy rate
high life expectancy Low life expectancy
FACTORS AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT

Historical Trade Technology and

reasons imbalance industrialization

Political Health and

Education
stability welfare
FACTORS AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT
HISTORICAL COLONIALISATION
• Colonialism was the policy or practice of taking over political
control of another country and exploiting its resources.
• Most countries in Africa were colonised by the colonial powers.
• Colonialisation led to the extraction of resources by developed
countries.
• There were no laws which govern the use or exploitation of
resources.
 HISTORICAL COLONIALISATION (cont.)
• The developing countries were the victim of exploitation by the
large companies and investors.
• There was also exploitation of labour where local people were
used for unskilled labour and foreign expertise were used for
skilled labour.
• Colonialism increased the level of development of the colonial
powers through increased wealth.
• Colonialism had negative impact on the colony as they were
stripped off their resources.
TRADE IMBALANCE

• Developing countries have to export to developed countries

and their orders were cut back which impacted negatively
on the developing countries.
• Trade imbalance occurs when income received form
exports does not equal the cost of imports.
• When imports are greater than exports a trade deficit
occurs.
• Hence this can cause slow economic growth or
development.
 UNFAIR TRADE

• Trading countries create trade barriers to protect their

business.
• Trade barriers affect countries that want to sell them goods.
• Some countries have subsidies, trade tariffs and
embargoes.
• It is often the developed countries which introduced unfair
practises.
• The developing countries often suffer and are forced to sell
their product at reduced prices.
 TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRIALISATION
• Many developed countries move away from heavy
industries into new era of Information Technology (IT).
• The developed countries decided to move away from
heavy industries due to negative impacts on the
environment such as pollution form industries.
• The developed countries advance in technology by
using communication to develop rapidly.
HEALTH AND WELFARE
• Countries with people who have high life expectancy
benefitted from productive workforce.
• These people are able to work for many years and
become more experienced and skilled in their work.
• A wealthy population has more chance of being healthy
population.
• Poor countries do not have basic needs and their life
expectancy is low.
 EDUCATION
• A highly educated population has the skills to
improve technology which keeps the country
developing more and more.
• For the country to become industrialised it needs
sufficient skilled people.
• In developing countries there are not much skilled
people and there is a shortage of entrepreneurs.
• In developing countries there are not much work
opportunities and unemployment is high.
POLITICAL INSTABILITY
• Political instability has impacted negatively to the
development in such countries .
• Wars prevented countries from developing and also
resulted to the decline of development.
• During wars infrastructure is damaged, economic
reserves are used to buy weapons and the skilled
people leave the country.
• Other forms of political instability are caused by corrupt
leaders, undemocratic governments, violent dictators
and incident of civil unrests.