assignment 1

The Development Gap and ways of closing it ?

Development:

Development is a “process of social change or a change to class and state projects to transform national economies". This definition entails an understanding of economic development which is imperative when trying to understand the north-south divide.

Economic Development is a measure of progress in a specific economy. It refers to advancements in technology, a transition from an economy based largely on agriculture to one based on industry and an improvement in living standards.

Other factors that are included in the conceptualization of what a developed country is include life expectancy and the levels of education, poverty and employment in that country.

Development Gap:

The development gap is the divide between rich and poor, or ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. This exists at several levels. The ‘haves’, at a global scale represent the richest 20 per cent of people, who consume around 80 per cent of all resources. The global ‘have nots’ are the poorest 20 per cent of people who earn only 1.3 per cent of global income. Wealthy countries do not wholly consist of ‘haves’ , and even the poorest countries have their fair share of wealthy people.

In many countries the development gap is an urban –v- rural gap. This is especially true in LEDCs where urban areas tend to have better services and more opportunities.

Is there a development gap ?

· Almost half the world (>3 billion) live on <$2.50 a day.

· The GDP of 41 “heavily indebted poor countries” (567 million people) is less than world’s 7 richest people combined.

· Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

· Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

· 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 in the world).

· 640 million people live without adequate shelter.

· 400 million have no access to safe water.

· 270 million have no access to health services.

· 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

Theories of Development Gap

North – South divide

The North-South Divide is a socio economic and political division that exists between the wealthy developed countries , known collectively as "the North", and the poorer developing countries (least developed countries) , or "the South." The North is home to four of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and all members of the G8. "The North" mostly covers the West and the First World, with much of the Second World. The expression "North-South divide" is still in common use, but the terms "North" and "South" are already somewhat outdated. As nations become economically developed, they may become part of the "North", regardless of geographical location, while any other nations which do not qualify for "developed" status are in effect deemed to be part of the "South."

History

The idea of categorizing countries by their economic and developmental status began during the Cold War with the classifications of East and West. The Soviet Union and China represented the developing East, and the United States and their allies represented the more developed West. Out of this paradigm of development surged the division of the First World [the west] and the Second World [the east] with the even less developed countries constituting the Third World. As some Second World countries joined the First World, and others joined the Third World, a new and simpler classification was needed. The First World became the “North” and the Third World became the “South”.

Problems defining North–South divide

Following the fall of the Soviet Bloc, which was commonly referred to as the Second World, many of its constituent countries were reclassified as developing, despite being geographically northern. At the same time, geographically southern nations previously considered "developing," such as the East Asian Tigers or Turkey, have joined the modern First World, but are classified inconsistently in maps showing the North-South divide. Similarly, dependencies of developed nations are also classified as Southern, although they are part of the developed world.

The Brandt Line

The Brandt Line is a visual depiction of the North-South divide, proposed by German Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1980s. It approximately encircles the world at a latitude of 30° N, passing between North and Central America, north of Africa and the Middle East, climbing north over China, Mongolia and Korea, but dipping south so as to include Australia and New Zealand in the "Rich North".

Digital divide

The global digital divide is often characterized as corresponding to the North-South divide; however, Internet use, and especially broadband access, is now soaring in Asia compared with other continents. This phenomenon is partially explained by the ability of many countries in Asia to bypass older Internet technology and infrastructure, coupled with booming economies which allow vastly more people to get online.

Some other theories explaining divide

Capitalism

Capitalism leads to inequality: the capitalist ideology relies on the constant motivation to produce capital accumulation. The nature of capitalism leads those countries with a comparative advantage to accumulate capital through dispossession or in other words to take capital from those less This accumulation by dispossession leads to the unequal development that feeds the North-South divide.

Globalisation

Globalization is the leading cause for global inequality. Globalization enhances social and economic gaps between countries, since it requires economies and societies to adapt in a very rapid manner, and because this almost never happens in an equal fashion, some nations grow faster than others. Rich countries exploit poorer countries to a point where developing countries become dependent on developed countries for survival. The very structure and process of globalization perpetuates and reproduces unequal relationships and opportunities between the North and the South.

Immigration

Uneven immigration patterns lead to inequality. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries immigration was very common into areas previously less populated (North America, Australia, New Zealand) from already technologically advanced areas (United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal). This facilitated an uneven diffusion of technological practices since only areas with high immigration levels benefited. Immigration patterns in the twenty-first century continue to feed this uneven distribution of technological innovation. People are eager to leave countries in the South in attempts to better their life standards and get their share in the prosperity of the North.

Causes of Development Gap

Three reasons that made development gap grow are: Historical reason, Environmental reason and Socio economic reason.

Historical reasons are when your country was colonized by the other in the past.

Environmental reasons are when your country is all desert which doesn’t allow you to grow any crops and you would have to grow your crops that would cost you much more than growing in your country.

Socio economic is when your country uses so much money on stuff you don’t really need.

Measuring the gap

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Mean value of goods and services produced in a country over an year. Divided by population to give a per capita value which is converted to us$ to enable comparisons. It is the indicator of a country’s standard of living.

Gross National Income (GNI): Like GDP but also includes income from overseas investment – As such it is a better measure than GDP . The GNI consists of the personal consumption expenditures, the gross private investment, the government consumption expenditures, the net income from assets abroad (net income receipts), and the gross exports of goods and services, after deducting two components: the gross imports of goods and services, and the indirect business taxes.

Multi Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI): MPI is a new measure introduced in the HDR, 2010 designed to capture different deprivations being faced by people at the same time . Thus, MPI identifies multiple deprivations at the household level in health , education and standards of living .

The Human Development Index (HDI): HDI is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.

The Gini Coefficient: The Gini Coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrodo Gini .The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income or wealth.

The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI : PQLI is an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country. The value is the average of three statistics: basic literacy rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy at age one, all equally weighted on a 0 to 100 scale. PQLI might be regarded as an improvement but shares the general problems of measuring quality of life in a quantitative way.

Measures to abridge the gap

Some would argue that free international trade and unhindered capital flows across countries will lead to a contraction in the North-South divide. In this case more equal trade and flow of capital would allow the possibility for developing countries to further develop economically. As some countries in the South experience rapid development, there is some evidence that those states are developing high levels of South-South aid Brazil, in particular, has been noted for its high levels of aid ($1 billion annually - ahead of many traditional donors) and the ability to use it own experiences to provide high levels of expertise and knowledge transfer.

The United Nations has also established its role in diminishing the divide between North and South through its Millennium Development Goals. These goals seek to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development all by the year 2015. Some of the examples are given below .

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Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The MDG’S were developed out of the eight chapters of the united Nations, signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets, a series of measurable indicators for each target.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

· Target a: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day.

· Target b: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People.

· Target c: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

· Target a : By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling girls and boys by enrollment in primary education, literacy of 15-24 year olds, female and male, completion of primary education, reducing the drop out rate.

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

· Target a: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 byratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education, share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector, proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates

· Target a: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

· Target a: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.

· Target b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

· Target a: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

· Target b: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.

· Target c: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

· Target a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources.

· Target b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss.

· Target c: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply).

· Target d: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

· Target a: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.

· Target b: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC).

· Target c: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

· Target d: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.

· Target e: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

· Target f: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

Conclusion

Reducing the developmental gap has been a topic of debate for very long. Many researches have been done and have been supported by theories like north south divide, Brundt line , Rostow theory on developmental gap. A lot has been done to abridge this gap still the gap exists. The fault lies not with implementation but with the plans and policies. Majority of the programmers implemented on UDC has been advocated by west which are not suitable to the environment of the UDCS. The best way to tackle the issue of development gap is to develop our own indigenous policies which favor our own environment and are particular country specific. Aping the west and policies will not solve the gap as they are not suitable for our personnel setting. For better results one will have to go deeper in analyzing the problems and will have to find .three reasons that that made the development gap grow is are Historical reasons, En

Sources

www.google.com

www.wikipedia.org

Submitted to

Mr. Gurdeepak Singh

Submitted to

Gaganpreet Bual