Theme 3; Key Idea 4

A the end of the Korean War, South Korea was one of the world's poorest countries. During the 1940s-1970s South Kora accepted foegin aid from the US and Japan, they recieved $60bn from the US in grants and loans. 

The country was under authoritarian rule for 40 years, they were led by Park Chung-hee a military dictator. In te 1960s South Korea launched their first 5 year plan. They focused on building up large economic champions. This laid the foundations for successful South Korean brands in global markets today, e.g. LG or Samsung. 

In 1970 Park Chunge-hee launched the New Community Movement which was aimed at modernising the rural South Korean economy. It sought to rectify the growing inequality between urban and rural areas. It consited of the key principles of dilgence, self-help and cooperation. The focus was on improving basic living conditions, then building infrastructure and increasing community income. It introduced irrigation systems, bridges and roads. The movement was spread into urban areas whre it was successful at reducing poverty. Today it is a national movement for social development, it claims that the cooperation of communities became the driving force behind South Korea's modernisation and economic development. 

ActionAid is a UK based international development organisation who work in 35 countries around the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean. 

They noticed that they could not achieve system changes from development projects alone, they required grassroots organisations and movements to put pressure on the state. The acknowledged that their work at community and national level would be undermined if they didn't also work to change the rules of the WTO and individual governmets. Now they see protecting and fulfilling human rights as the key to eradicating poverty and achieving long-term development. 

For example, in the past a £2000 donation would have been spend building an extra classroom in Tanzania, that would have benefitted about 100 children. However, today the £2000 was spent supporting Tanzanian NGO Maarifa to undertake research about why children were not going to school. It was found that user fees were the problem and a campagin to abolish user fees led to an extra one million children enrolling in schools across Tanzania. 

ActionAid have a political approach, they go to the heart of complex political issues to ensure that development occurs and all people benefit. 

Development requires people to be healthy, educated and have access to food. Malnutrition affects the intellectual capacity, resistance to disease and life expectancy. Without food, people do not have the energy to work and farm and contribute to development. 

At national level, good food security can give governments credibility. Countries that cannot feed themselves risk political instability, which slows development down. Even when countries have developed, if food prises rise households will feel the pressure of high costs. This can affect politics, stability and further development.

The Kalahandi district is home to 1.3 million people, 80% of whom are farmers. However, in Kalahandi it is said that 'agriculture is the gamble of the monsson' because annual rainfall has become very unreliable and drought are frequent. 

Between 1998 and 2003 rice production exceeded the locals needs and contributed to India's national food reserves. However, most farmers in the district do not own their own land, but instead rent it from landlords. These landless farmers cannot afford to buy the rice they had grown back from their landlords, resulting in many farmers going hungry. 

Entitlements are a way of characterising somebodies overall command over things, in other words taking note of all your relevant rights and obligations. 

Basic entitlements could include food, water, shelter, clothing etc. Without your basic entitlements surviving and getting by in life is made much more difficult. Inadequate shelter and water supplies often affect health and slow down development. It also hinders the ability of people to work, farm, learn and contribute to societies. People focus on daily survival rather than using their energies to move forward and improve their communities and own standards of living. 

Entitlement relationships can be either 'trade based' or inhertiance and transfer'. 

India is home to the worlds largest democracy, 4th largest economy in the world, 48 billionaires and have an annual economic growth of  6%. But, one third of the population live on less than $2 a day and each percentage point of economic growth India has had, has led to 10 times the poverty reduction in Brazil than the same growth has achieved in India. 

Since the Green Revolution India has produced enough food to feed itself, but its still home to a quater of the world hungry people. 40% of the population is malnourished and this figure has only decreased by 10% in the past 30 years. 

Whilst average family incomes have increased rapildy since the 1980s, its mostly the educated elite in the service sector who have benefitted. Factories have failed to create enough low-skilled, labour intesive jobs. 

41% of rural households are effectively landless due to the feudal system and 75% of farm owners possess only subsitence plots of less than 1 acre. The traditional social structure in India breeds social exclusion, women often eat last and least and 2/3 of girls are married as teenagers.