INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
TOO MANY PEOPLE…
• A rapidly growing population places a strain on the country
• The number of resources and job opportunities are limited in
a country.
• People will be deprived of basic necessities like food and
water and economic opportunities.
REASONS BEHIND BIRTH RATES THAT
ARE STILL HIGH IN MANY LEDCS
• Lack of/don’t use/cannot afford contraception
• Lack of education about contraception/about problems of large
families
• Children needed for work/to earn money/for farming; needed to look
after elderly/no pensions
• Children needed to do household chores, or example, fetching
wood/water, cleaning the house, and looking after younger children
• Traditional views about large families/polygamy/families wanting a
male child
• Religious/cultural views on contraception/abortion/family size
• High infant mortality/they have more babies so some will survive
• Early marriages/teenage pregnancy
• Lack of emancipation for women/women don’t have careers/lack of
education for women
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• No access to sexual (family) health clinics, including abortion, etc.
CONSEQUENCES OF HIGH POPULATION
GROWTH -> OVERPOPULATION
(PEOPLE>RESOURCES)
• Insufficient resources (food, housing, etc) for people
• Strain on government spending on schools and health
services
• Widespread poverty
• Poor health
• Illegal housing, squatter settlements (poor living conditions,
social problems)
• Overcrowding, Insufficient housing and land for people
• Increased rural-urban migration to seek work
• Unemployment
• decreased economic growth
•4 Job and wealth distribution is uneven
(S)LOW POPULATION GROWTH
• The birth rate is low
• The choice of having fewer children
• Delaying the age of women start to have children
• The cost of raising children may reduce the number of children
a woman has
• The death rate is low and fluctuates
• The availability of contraception and family planning
• Higher levels of education lead to lower fertility rates as more
women are in formal employment
• Anti-natalist policies encourage women to have fewer children
• Natural disasters: famine, drought, etc.
• Diseases such as HIV/AIDS
• War/conflict
• 5Few, Later or No marriages (Singlehood)
CONSEQUENCES OF LOW POPULATION
• Shortage of workers
• With increasing numbers of the population being retired, there
are not enough workers to replace them
• Fewer innovations
• Closure of some services
• Higher taxes
• An ageing population puts more pressure on health service and
pension payments
• There is predicted to be a shortage of 380,000 workers for
elderly care by 2025
• Taxes have to be increased to pay for healthcare and pensions
• School closures
• Fewer children mean that schools and childcare facilities may
close with the loss of jobs
• An average of 450 schools close each year due to falling
numbers
• Economic stagnation
6 • The economy does not grow due to a lack of workers and the
closure of businesses and industry
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
MODEL
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CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT
STRUCTURE
LEDC NIC MEDC
• High primary (farming) • Strong manufacturing • Farming mechanised
• Little mechanisation on sector • Automation of
farms • Many transnationals manufacturing or transfer of
• Little manufacturing move to NICs to take manufacturing to NICs
• In early stages of advantage of cheap • Very strong tertiary sector
economic development labour and land with large numbers
• Informal service sector in employed in health,
the cities is quite strong education and tourism
• Growth of jobs in the
knowledge economy based
on the processing of
knowledge and information
8 using telecommunications
IMPORT AND EXPORT
• A product that is sold to the global market is an export
• A product that is bought from the global market is an import.
• Imports and exports are accounted for in a country’s
development.
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BALANCE OF TRADE
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WHY ARE SOME COUNTRIES POOR AND
OTHERS ARE RICH?
• Over-dependence on agriculture: farming is the most common work in less-developed
economies. Most people work to feed themselves and their families and sell off any
surplus. This means that there is little or no trade happening , which results in poor
incomes, no economic growth or development.
• Domination of international trade by developed economies: the wealthier developed
economies have exploited poorer countries by buying up their natural resources at low
prices and selling products made from them in international markets at higher prices. Rich
countries also protect their industries by paying subsidies to domestic producers,
increasing global supply, and in turn, lowering prices. Poor economies cannot compete
with these very low prices, and they lose their jobs and incomes.
• Low levels of savings because of low incomes and widespread poverty.
• Lack of capital: low incomes in under-developed economies lead to a lack of savings that
could be invested in industries.
• Poor investment in infrastructure: good infrastructure in transport, health and education is
essential for growth and development.
• High population growth: rapidly expanding populations (due to high birth rates) in less-
developed countries will reduce the real GDP/income per head.
• Wars and conflicts deplete resources: there is little scope for development when the
country
11 is a war zone.
WHAT ARE TRADE PROBLEMS
FOR LEDCS?
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REASONS FOR IMBALANCE OF
TRADE BETWEEN MEDC AND
LEDC COUNTRIES
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TRADING BLOCKS
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WHAT ARE DEVELOPMENT
INDICATORS?
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
INDICATORS
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SOCIAL/HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
• (i) Life expectancy - the average age to which a person lives, eg this is 79 in the UK and
48 in Kenya.
• (ii) Infant mortality rate - counts the number of babies, per 1000 live births, who die
under the age of one. This is 5 in the UK and 61 in Kenya.
• (iii) Poverty - indices count the percentage of people living below the poverty level, or
on very small incomes (eg under £1 per day).
• (iv) Access to basic services - the availability of services necessary for a healthy life,
such as clean water and sanitation.
• (v) Access to healthcare - takes into account statistics such as how many doctors there
are for every patient.
• (vi) Risk of disease - calculates the percentage of people with diseases such as AIDS,
malaria and tuberculosis.
• (vii) Access to education - measures how many people attend primary school,
secondary school and higher education.
• (viii) Literacy rate - is the percentage of adults who can read and write. This is 99 per
cent in the UK, 85 per cent in Kenya and 60 per cent in India.
• (ix) Access to technology - includes statistics such as the percentage of people with
access to phones, mobile phones, television and the internet.
• (x) Male/female equality - compares statistics such as the literacy rates and
employment between the sexes.
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• (xi) Government spending priorities - compares health and education expenditure with
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)
• To balance inaccuracies, indices tend to be an amalgamation
of many different indicators.
• In 1990, the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI)
is a weighted mix of indices that show life expectancy,
knowledge (adult literacy and education) and standard of
living (GDP per capita). As Vietnam has a higher literacy rate
and life expectancy than Pakistan, it has much higher HDI
value even though it has a similar per capita GDP.
• HDI – A socio-economic measure, it focus on three variables
of human welfare-
• life expectancy (health),
• adult literacy( education) and
• real GDP per capital(standard of living)
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SIGNIFICANCE OF HDI
• It is multidimensional as it includes indicators such as literacy
rate enrolment ratio, life expectancy rate, infant morality rate
etc.
• It acts as a true yardstick to measures development in real
sense. Unlike per capita income, which only indicates that a
rise in per capita income implies economic development, HDI
consider many other vital social indicators and help in
measuring a nation's well being.
• It highlights where the poverty is worse within and between the
countries.
• It helps as a differentiating factors to distinguish and classify
different nations on the basis of their HDI ranks.
• It helps a country in setting targets that can lead to
improvement in the quality of its citizens.
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FORMS OF AID
• Disbursement of money: Most disbursements are measured
in terms of money given, such as how many dollars were
donated or how many low-interest loans were extended.
• Goods: Food, machinery and technology
• Skills and knowledge: People who have skills and knowledge
are hired or volunteered to help people in poorer countries.
E.g. doctors, nurses, engineers
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WHY IS AID NEEDED BY MANY LEDCS?
• There is imbalance of trade leading to trade deficits
• Differences in development have led to global inequality
• There is a need to improve the basic infrastructure
• To encourage and promote self-help groups and sustainable
development
• To combat the effects of environmental hazards such as
earthquakes, drought and storms
• To combat the effects of human created disasters like war
and terrorism
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TYPES OF AID
• Emergency or short-term aid/ Relief - needed after sudden
disasters such as the 2000 Mozambique floods or the 2004
Asian tsunami.
• Long-term or development aid - involves providing local
communities with education and skills for sustainable
development, usually through organizations such as Practical
Action.
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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
AID
Advantages Disadvantages
Aid can increase the dependency of LEDCs on
Emergency aid in times of disaster saves lives. donor countries. Sometimes aid is not a gift, but
a loan, and poor countries may struggle to repay.
Aid may not reach the people who need it
Aid helps rebuild livelihoods and housing after a most. Corruption may lead to local politicians
disaster. using aid for their own means or for political
gain.
Aid can be used to put political or economic
Provision of medical training, medicines and
pressure on the receiving country. The country
equipment can improve health and standards of
may end up owing a donor country or
living.
organisation a favour.
Aid for agriculture can help increase food
Sometimes projects do not benefit smaller
production and so improve the quality and
farmers and projects are often large scale.
quantity of food available.
Encouraging aid industrial development can Infrastructure projects may end up benefiting
create jobs and improve transport infrastructure. employers more than employees.
It may be a condition of the investment that the
Aid can support countries in developing projects are run by foreign companies or that a
their natural resources and power supplies. proportion of the resources or profits will be sent
abroad.
Projects that develop clean water and
Some development projects may lead to food
sanitation can lead to improved health and living
and water costing more.
standards.
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SUSTAINABLE AID SCHEME
It is a pattern of helping the LEDCs keeping in mind of the
environment and future development
• Damages to the environment should be minimised as possible
• The projects must be cheap and easy to run
• Can be of small scale and then develop it in stages
• The aid should reach the poorest people as well
• The projects should use simple technology as the LEDCs may
have less technological access
• Should be in such a way that the local people are more involved
to keep in mind of their culture and traditions are not damaged.
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