Development Dilemmas

Development can be defined as an improvement in standard of living and quality of life

Economic development - An improvement to a country's economy due to increased trade including an increase in GDP per capita leading to more financial stability, a reduction in income disparity, increased personal wealth and a more industrial and service based economy

Social development - An improvement to infrastructure and social care such as education, housing, health care and welfare state as well as water and food security

Political development - An increase in political freedom and human rights as well as a reduction in corruption within the government, better political relations and increased democracy

• Social indicators e.g. infant mortality (the number of children who die per 1000 children born), people per doctor (number of patients ÷ number of doctors), life expectancy
• Political indicators e.g democracy score (between +10 and -10)
• Economic indicators e.g. GDP (the total value of all the goods and services provided by a country), GDP per capita (the value of all the goods and services provided by a country per person)

Advantages: GDP is a measure of how influential a country is, GDP per capita takes population size into account, economic indicator

Disadvantages: doesn't show disparity, doesn't directly tell you social indicators, only one indicator

• Combined indicators e.g. Human development index/HDI (a combined measure of development between 0 and 1 calculated using 3 measures - GDP per capita, life expectancy, adult literacy)

Advantages: both an economic and social indicator, more aspects of development are considered, takes population size into account

Disadvantages: doesn't take political development into account

The development gap is the difference in standard if living and quality of life that exists between developed and developing countries

The development gap is characterised by differences in:

• life expectancy (Sierra Leone - 58, UK - 81, China - 76)
• infant mortality (Sierra Leone-107.8‰, UK-3.6‰)
• birth rate (Sierra Leone-4.78 ,UK-1.90)
• literacy rate (Sierra Leone-43.3% ,UK-99%)
• GDP per capita (Sierra Leone-1,690 PPP$, UK-38,160 PPP$, China- 11,850 PPP$)

The development gap between LEDCs and MEDCs is increasing as developing countries have poorer industry and therefore are unable to keep up with the rates pf development of developing countries

Economic development (GDP per capita):

• 1970 - 1650$ - Sierra Leone is considered a well resourced country with many diamond and titanium resources
• 1975 - economic decline begins, president declares state of economic emergency(1985)
• 1991 - civil war begins, civil war has a crippling affect on the economy
• 2002 - economy begins to rebuild as civil war ends due to UN troops intervention
• 2010 - 1350$ - Oil reserves are rediscovered leading to economic growth

Social development (Life expectancy):

• Relatively low life expectancy (47ish), WHO declares lack of investment in healthcare, civil war begins(1991)
• Peace agreement does not last(1995), civil war finally over(2002) after intervention from other countries & UN
• 2010 - free healthcare for all nursing mothers and small children
• 2016 - ebola crisis

Political development (Democracy score):

• 1961 - Gained independence from British Empire
• 1980-1995 - -5 - Siaka Stevens creates a dictatorship(1980), Non-elected president(1985), civil war starts(1991)
• 2002 - +2 - civil war is over, first ever democratic elections
• Democracy score still increasing - presidents are still peacefully elected

Barriers to future development:

• Civil war destroyed much of the country's infrastructure e.g. roads

INDIA

(Urban) Core Regions - areas that contain the greatest concentrations of services, jobs, investments and wealth within a country e.g. Maharashtra (including Mumbai) and West Bengal (including Kolkata). These regions contain major cities.

(Rural) Periphery Regions - areas that contain the lowest levels of wealth within a country e.g. Bihar, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir.  Levels of wealth, development and standard of living often decrease with distance from the core region.  These regions are mostly rural.

The Multiplier Effect - investment is made industry, services, homes etc. which creates opportunities which leads to growth and other opportunities

The Cycle of Poverty - money is not available for investment in machinery or land improvement so people in poverty remain in subsitence farming, get little income and therefore remain in poverty

Disparity between Maharastra (core) and Bihar (periphery)

Why Bihar (a periphery region) remains poor

The land produces less

• Sharecropping - half of crops given to landlord
• Most of work done by hand and most people have small plots of land

Few people attend school

• Children needed to work farms
• Education not necessary for traditional lifestyle
• Lower castes unable to access more skilled, higher wage jobs  ->  unable break the cycle of poverty

Larger families than urban areas

• Poor health -> high infant mortality -> high birth rate
• Children need to work on farms

Women are poorer

• Women's role is domestic and they have few rights -> marry early so no education
• Women's literacy rate lower (34% compared to average 44%)

Top-down development - governments or private companies make the decisions.  These decisions are imposed on people as there will be benefits.  Experts have to plan it then local people are told about it without little chance of changing it.  The benefits of these decisions trickle down to the poor.  E.g. Sardar Sarovar Dam

Benefits

• 3.5 billion litres of drinking water per day
• 1,450 megawatts of electricity produced
• 1.8m hectares of farmland irrigated

Costs

• 234 villages drowned - 320,000 forced to move
• Good quality farmland submerged
• Few villages can afford electricity for homes

Overall

• The local impacts are negative, the benefits are on a wider scale
• Large scale farmers benefit from irrigation but subsitence farmers won't
• People who benefitted the most live in affluent areas like Mumbai
• Economic benefits outweigh social negatives - dam built to boost economy

Bottom-up development - Local communities working together with experts to identify their needs.  It gives local people control in improving their lives with experts assissting the process e.g. Biogas in rural India set up by ASTRA

Benefits for people:

• Results in a smoke and ash free kitchen - reduction in lung problems
• Freed from having to collect firewood - children can go to school, 80% of families use this time to get extra income
• Around India 4 million cow dung biogas plant built  - 20,000 jobs mostly in rural areas

Benefits for the environment:

• Cattle are now kept in the family compound to make manure collection easier - would previously have grazed forests, eating saplings etc.
• Slurry which remains after fermentation richer in nutrients than raw animal manure - guarantees higher crop yield
• 277 tonnes of CO2 emissions savings have been achieved

Limitations:

• Less suited to urban areas (less organic matter)
• Not designed to result in large scale economic change but instead improve local quality of life
• Still dependent on investment

Stage 1 - Traditional society Subsitence farming

• Limited technology,static society - Vast majority of people in primary employment (subsitence farming)

Stage 2 - Transitional stage (preconditions for take off)

• Commercial exploitation of agriculture and extractive industry
• Vast majority still in primary employment, more people in secondary employment

Stage 3 - Take off Industrialisation

• Development of a manufacturing sector - Declining primary employment, rapid growth in secondary employment

Stage 4 - Drive to maturity Industrialisation

• Development of wider industrial and commercial base
• Few primary jobs, stable amount of secondary, rapid increase in tertiary employment

Stage 5 - High mass consumption Consumer society

• Widespread consumption of consumer goods (cars, televisions etc.)
• Very few primary jobs, decline in secondary, vast majority in tertiary employment

The depedency theory states that countries develop at the expense of others

• Developing countries sell primary goods to developed countries for low prices
• Developed countries process these raw materials into secondary goods and sell them to devloping countries for higher prices