Living Standards in a Changing World

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Living Standards in a Changing World
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Human Development Index
http//www.chf4youth.ca/disastrix/

• Every year the United Nations ranks UN member
  countries according to standard of living in the
  Human Development Index. It includes life
  expectancy, literacy rate, and GDP per capita.
• Per Capita GDP- gross domestic product is the
  value of all goods and services produced in a
  country in one year. Per capita is the amount
  each person produces.
• The 2009 report showed that people in 85
  countries were worse off than they were in the
  1980s.
• The wealth of 200 richest people in the world in
  2008 was greater than the combined income of
  approximately 40 of the worlds population.
• Despite the efforts of the UN and non-government
  organizations (NGOs) such as Save the Children
  and Oxfam, the gap between the rich and poor
  countries continues to grow.

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The Divided Planet

• Developed countries- mostly the more
  affluent(wealthy) countries.
• Infrastructure-transportation, communication,
  links, schools, hospitals.
• Newly Industrialized countries (NICs)- those
  building up industries and infrastructure, such
  as Indonesia and Brazil.
• Developing countries- those that do not have a
  modern infrastructure or many industries.
• Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs)

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Closing the Development Gap

• In 2000, a major worldwide initiative was
  launched to close the gap in living standards
  between developed and developing countries.
• All United Nations member states adopted eight
  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• By 2015, the world would have less poverty,
  hunger, and disease, greater survival rates and
  prospects for mothers and their infants,
  education for all, equal opportunities for women,
  an improved physical environment.

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Measuring Living Standards

• Levels of economic development are hard to
  measure accurately.
• Developing economies have many people who make
  goods at home and trade them in local
  communities.
• The wealth of a country is not shared among the
  people. For example, in Qatar the 2009 GDP was
  121, 400 US because of the income from the sale
  of oil resources.
• Quality of life includes health, levels of
  nutrition, life expectancy, literacy rate, and
  the status of women and children
• A person living in poverty in Canada has access
  to government programs that provide a safety net
  of services, such as health care and education.
  In developing countries, a very poor urban family
  is likely to live in a dwelling made from scrap
  materials with no electricity, sanitation or safe
  ware.
• Quality of life depends on more than meeting the
  necessities of life. Many are denied freedom of
  expression, economic freedom, and the right to
  safe and clean environment.

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An Urban World and Globalization

• More people live in cities than ever before.
  Various reasons can push people to leave land and
  others are attracted to cities for a better life.
• The UN-HABITAT State of the Worlds Cities
  2006-2007 report found that poor people living in
  urban areas are as badly off than rural
  populations. They face similar issues in health,
  education, employment, mortality (death rate per
  1000 people), and malnutrition.
• Many people in the developed world believe
  globalization ( spread of ideas, information, and
  culture around the world) brings free trade,
  cheaper goods, and access to technology, which in
  turn contribute to wealth and standard of living.
• Many see this as a threat because their job may
  be sent to a country with cheaper labour or fewer
  environmental protection policies.
• China and India have benefited from globalization
  and have seen a rise in their standard of living.
• Many developing nations are in debt and their
  industries and natural resources are controlled
  by multinational corporations (MNCs).

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Measuring Poverty

• Measured differently in developed and developed
  countries
• Poverty line-unable to afford a minimum of food,
  clothing, shelter, health care and education
  services
• in developing countries, the poverty line is
  about 1.25 per person per day
• The World Bank in 2008 showed 1.4 billion (one in
  four) people in developing countries were living
  on less than 1.25 per day
• Statistics Canada uses a low income cut-off
  (LICO) to determine those living in
  povertyhousehold that spends 70 of its income
  on food, clothing, and shelter.
• The National Council of Welfare (NCW) differs
  from Statistics Canada in determining LICOs. The
  NCW uses after-tax income to measure poverty.

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The Poverty Trap

• About 1 billion people in developing countries go
  hungry every day. Yet the world produces enough
  food to feed every single people on Earth.
• The problem is that poor people can not afford
  the food that is available.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
  World Bank (agencies of the United Nations) gave
  loans and development assistance to help improve
  standards of living through economic growth.
• They encourage developing countries to engage in
  megaprojects to promote economic growth.
• Many of these initiatives caused environmental
  damage and did not improve the countries
  economies.
• In the 1960s, Western banks loaned billions of
  dollars to newly independent African countries
  for megaprojects. These nations main income came
  from exporting minerals and agricultural
  products. A world economic slowdown led to a
  collapse in prices for these commodities, making
  it difficult to repay the loans.

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The Cycle and Burden of Debt

• Western banks and their governments encouraged
  the IMF and the World Bank to lend countries
  money to pay off their debts.
• Today African countries owe 227 billion.
• IMF told these countries to also restructure
  their economies to help repay their debts. IMF
  encouraged foreign investment, cash crops for
  export and private companies to run some govt
  services. These measures are called structural
  adjustment programs (SAPs)
• Poor countries are forced to sacrifice spending
  on health and education to meet the demands of
  SAPs and repay debts.
• Many countries that are in debt have few natural
  resources or receive low prices for them on the
  world market. Their resources are under control
  of foreign multinational corporations.
• West Africa produces 70 of the worlds cocoa,
  but it must sell its crops to four multinational
  corp. that control the price. Very little of the
  profit filers back to the farmers. This makes it
  difficult to pay back their debts.

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Debt Relief

• The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
  Initiative was launched in 1996 by the
  International Development Association (IDA) and
  IMF. The goal was to ensure that poor countries
  are not crippled by their debts.
• The HIPC provides debt relief to poor countries
  with external debts that severely burden export
  earnings.
• By the end of 2008, the World Bank and IMF had
  committed more than US57 billion to help HIPC
  restructure their debts.
• Many governments of developed countries have
  forgiven the HIPC debt.
• Canada has forgiven all overseas development aid
  debt to HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries)
  except Myanmar (formerly Burma) which has a
  military dictatorship.
• more bilateral aid for development (assistance
  from one government to another) money given as
  grants now (instead of loans)

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The Vulnerable Ones  Women and Children

• Male-dominated societies in developing countries
• Women and children may have no legal rights
• Women may even be killed to satisfy a familys
  honour.
• May have to eat whatever is left after men have
  finished their meals malnutrition
• Women may have to work more than 12 hrs each day
• They are responsible for more than 2/3 of the
  food production and are often left to support the
  family when men migrate in search of work.
• Literacy rate is lower among women than men in
  the developing world.
• Only 1/3 of girls in rural India go to school
  compared to more than half of boys.
• Girls are kept at home to look after the younger
  children and help with chores.

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Education is the Solution

• A decline in the number of children a woman has
  in her lifetime frees her to improve her lot and
  that of her children. Studies show that
  better-educated women tend to marry later and
  have fewer children. Because they are literate,
  they have a better understanding of
  contraception, and may be able to resist family
  pressures to have more children.
• The children of educated women are also more
  likely to survive because their mothers know the
  importance of immunization, clean water, and good
  nutrition.

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Children in Crisis

• Famine, disease, war, and a host of other
  problems prey on societys most vulnerable
  people.
• Children in some developing countries have few
  educational opportunities and are often exploited
  as child labour. Some are even trapped in the sex
  trade.
• The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF)
  published a Progress of Nations Report (PNR) on
  the welfare of children. It is based on the
  mortality rates of children under the age of 5,
  the percentage of children who are moderately or
  severely underweight, number of children who do
  not attend primary school, risks from armed
  conflict, and risks from HIV/AIDS

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Working Children

• Abandoned children in cities survive by begging,
  stealing, or selling sex.
• Root causes of child labour are poverty and no
  access to education.
• The first two Millennium Development Goals are to
  aim to wipe out extreme poverty and achieve
  universal primary education.
• Children forced to work in unsafe conditions.
• Many children are forced to work as bonded labour
  to help pay off their families debts.
• The International Labour Organization (ILO)
  estimates there are 100 million girls working as
  child labourers. Girls are sometimes pulled out
  of school to earn money so their brothers can get
  an education. They have double the burden as they
  have to work and complete house duties.

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Boys cleaning new carpets in Fayum, Egypt.
     Rural farming boy in Bolivia tends his flock
of sheep.
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Mauritanian girls weave a straw rug.
Columbia boy shifts through trash for items of
value to sell.
Young boys carrying bricks at a construction site
to earn a living in New Delhi, India.
Children selling handicrafts in Bangkok,
Thailand.
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Clean Water A Basic Human Need

• In 2002, about 1.2 billion people around the
  world did not have access to clean or enough
  water.
• Climate change, which has contributed to extreme
  droughts and damaging floods, is adding to the
  problem.
• Open water sources are contaminated. Rivers that
  supply water are also used for washing and
  disposing waste.
• Irrigation for agriculture takes the largest
  share of water supplies in the developing world.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates
  that improving drinking water, sanitation, and
  hygiene could prevent about 10 of diseases
  worldwide.
• Cholera and typhoid are among the diseases caused
  by bacteria that breed in unclean water.

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The Scourge of Epidemics

• Malaria is prevalent in 106 countries, affecting
  half of the worlds population. More than 240
  million cases of malaria were diagnosed in 2008.
  At least a million of these people will die. Many
  of them will be under the age of five.
• Why is it an epidemic in the developing world?
• Help is not available in slums, forest clearing
  in South America and Asia allows sunlight to warm
  standing water, creating breeding grounds for
  mosquitoes.
• THEY CANNOT AFFORD VACCINES
• Way of preventing malaria is to use
  insecticide-treated bed nets to protect people
  from being bitten while they sleep.
• DDT, a chemical that nearly eradicated malaria in
  the 1960s is also effective but it was banned
  because of its over use in agriculture.

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HIV/ AIDS Pandemic

• Treatments are too costly for those who suffer in
  developing countries.
• HIV/AIDs pandemic affects 33 million people
  worldwide
• More than 2 million children under 15 years of
  age were living with HIV and 430 000 children
  became newly infected.
• Sub-Saharan Africa remains the centre of this
  epidemic.
• Those dying from the pandemic are often
  productive workers so this will have long-term
  effects culturally and economically. (Botswana)
• There are at least 1 million AIDS orphans in
  sub-Saharan Africa.
• These children may face poverty, homelessness, or
  loss of education and are often forced to take on
  the role of parent to younger siblings.
• The international community has been slow to
  react to the seriousness of the problem.
• It requires the cooperation of many national and
  international agencies.
• Canada has been one of the leaders in
  establishing the Joint United Nations Programme
  on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

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Helping to Improve Living Standards

• Foreign aid
• Official development assistance (ODA) is
  delivered by governments.
• Non-government organizations (NGOs) give another
  type of aid.
• Multilateral aid is funded by a number of
  governments, and usually involves large-scale
  programs like dam building.
• Bilateral aid goes directly from one country to
  another.
• Much bilateral aid is tied aid, giving conditions
  attached. For example, donated money must be
  spent on goods bought from the donor country.

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Canadas Foreign Aid Program

• In 1968 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his
  government created the Canadian International
  Development Agency (CIDA) to administer Canadas
  aid to developing countries.
• CIDAs priorities basic human needs, women in
  development, infrastructure services, human
  rights, democracy, and good government, private
  sector development, and the environment.

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World Map Gapminder

• www.gapminder.org