Disparities in wealth and development (Disparities and change)

Patterns and trends in income: 

There is a massive gap between the rich and the poor, with the richest 5th controlling 74.1% of the world's wealth and the bottom 5th controlling only 1.5%, However, many countries are seeing their national incomes increase (i.e. South-Korea, China and Vietnam are seeing rapid and prolonged growth in income)

In the last 25 years, the main chages in income between different regions of the world include:

-the continued rapid economic growth in the already rich countries relative to most of the rest of the world

-the decline in real income of sub-saharan Africa and Eastern Europe

-the relatively modest gains in Latin America and the Arab States

Patterns and trends in education: The overall trend shows that there has been a global increase in education (except some african countries such as Mozambique or the Maldives)

However, children in middle-eastern and north africa only receive half of the years of education in MEDCs

Reasons may include an overall increase in GDP per capita, which in turn allows increased funding for school, allowing more and more children to reach a satisfactory level of education

Patterns and trends in life expectancy:  

-for most countries in the world, more babies are surviving infancy and childhood.

-during the 1st half of the 20th century, rich countries saw the average life expectancy of their population increase by over 20 years. 

-in the 1950', female life expectancy  continued to rise, but male life expectncy slowed significantly. In most MEDC's, women outlive men by 5-9 years.

-the older old (80+) are the fastest growing segment of many nations' population. For France and Switzerland, they account for 4% of the total population.

-there are variations within countries: indigenous populations living in rich countries have population pyramid typical of a developing country. (i.e. American Indian, more like Morocco than the USA)

-from 1900 to 1995, females in LEDCs added more than 30 years to their life expectancy.

1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2) Achieve universal primary education.

3) Promote gender equality and empower women. 

4) Reduce child mortality rates

5) Improve maternal health.

6) Combat HIV/ AIDS and malaria. 

7) Ensure environmental sustainability.

The target to achieve these goals were by 2015. 

Progress in poverty reduction:

Overall, poverty has fallen, but progress has been uneven, and most of the goals are off-taret to meet the deadline. This is due to the global economic crisis that slowed the program, along with the downfall of the labour market.

Even though many regions are seeing a fall in absolute poverty , rising food prices mean that people are worse off.

In terms of hunger, there remains a huge imbalance in the distribution of food. In many developed countries people are malnourished because they are overeating/eating unhealthy food, and in developing countries people still remain undernourished (i.e. in Somalia, where human and physical factors damage frood production

Progress in education:

Almost every region has seen an increase in primary enrolment. However, in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, nealry 30% of all children are not educated. Progress slowed since 2004.

While countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have seen great improvements by abolishing school fees and offering free school lunches, the target is unlikely to be met. The drop-out rate is high, and although there has been some investment in teachers and classrooms, it is not enough. Additionally, gender quality decreased. 

Gender gaps in education have narrowed, but remain high at university (tertiary) level in some developing countries because of poverty.

Anomaly: in Swaziland, more girls than boys complete primary education

Progress in health:

All regions of the world have seen a fall in child mortality rate. This has been achieved by: improving immunisation programmes, improving parental education and providing pre/post natal care, more females giving birth in hospitals or with trained medical staff, increase in insect-repellent bed nets.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has stabilised in most regions, but new infections are rising in some areas (Eastern Europe, Central American) and antiretroviral treatment has expanded.  The key to reducing HIV infections is: improve availability of condoms, improve knowledge of how HIV is transmitted, improve testins, reducing transmission between mother and baby

Overall, 26% of countries ahve seen infection rates drop, while 41% have experienced no change

There has been significant success in reducing malarial deaths, due to the increased number of children living under mosquito nets, between 2000 and 2010, 44 out of 90 countries have seen a reduction in malaria cases drop by more than 50%. Global funding has helped control malaria but is still far short of what is needed.

On current trends tuberculosis will have been halted and started to reverse.