C/W Qu: How is development measured? 13/6/12 Aim: To understand how development is typically measured/classified and the pros/cons of these Starter: Comment on this image
Did you spot these? Rubbish truck Cars Tarmac roads High levels of waste
Development = The process of social and economic advancement, in terms of the quality of human life Involves changes to the : demographic structure of a country (declining birth rate and increased life expectancy) nature of society e.g. more equal distribution of wealth, education, health care etc political structure (increasing participation/democracy??) culture with more education, greater literacy, equality for women etc
Conventional approaches to Measuring Development Move round the room and do the following to the posters on the wall a.) comment on the usefulness of it as a development indicator b.) comment on the problems of it as a development indicator note: you're not commenting on how useful the style of presenting the data is, but on the development indicator itself
Benefits of this measure? Problems with this measure?
Human Development Index = a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living. It can be used to measure the impact of economic policies on the quality of life of people in a country. 2010 In the Human Development Index, Libya is the only African state that reaches 0.75 points. It's the only green spot on the African continent for 2010:
The Human Development Index (HDI) The first Human Development Report introduced a new way of measuring development by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a composite human development index, the HDI. The breakthrough for the HDI was the creation of a single statistic which was to serve as a frame of reference for both social and economic development. The HDI sets a minimum and a maximum for each dimension, called goalposts, and then shows where each country stands in relation to these goalposts, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. The HDI facilitates instructive comparisons of the experiences within and between different countries.
What does the HDI tell us? The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with such different human development outcomes. For example, the Bahamas and New Zealand have similar levels of income per person, but life expectancy and expected years of schooling differ greatly between the two countries, resulting in New Zealand having a much higher HDI value than the Bahamas. These striking contrasts can directly stimulate debate about government policy priorities. HDI can highlight countries that have a better or worse quality of life than might be expected by their GNP/GDP
In terms of GDP we come 7th!
Highlighting uneven development: comparing relative levels of HDI and per capita income National wealth has the potential to expand people's choices. However, it may not. The manner in which countries spend their wealth, not the wealth itself, is decisive. Moreover, an excessive obsession with the creation of material wealth can obscure the ultimate objective of enriching human lives, distracting from the ultimate goal of enriching people's lives. what great essay material! In many instances, countries with higher average incomes have higher average life expectancies, lower rates of infant and child mortality and higher literacy rates, and consequently a higher human development index (HDI). But these associations are far from perfect. In inter country comparisons, income variations tend to explain not much more than half the variation in life expectancy, or in infant and child mortality. And they explain an even smaller part of the differences in adult literacy rates. Although there is a definite correlation between material wealth and human well being, it breaks down in far too many societies. Many countries have high GNP per capita, but low human development indicators and vice versa. While some countries at similar levels of GNP per capita have vastly different levels of human development. See the State of Human Development in HDR 2006 for a discussion State of Human Development HDR 2006 [557 KB]. Given the imperfect nature of wealth as gauge of human development, the HDI offers a powerful alternative to GNP for measuring the relative socio economic progress at national and sub national levels. Comparing HDI and per capita income ranks of countries, regions or ethnic groups within countries highlights the relationship between their material wealth on the one hand and their human development on the other. A negative gap implies the potential of redirecting resources to Human Development. Is the HDI enough to measure a country's level of development? No. The concept of human development is much broader than can be captured in the HDI, or any other of the composite indices in the Human Development Report (Inequality adjusted HDI, Gender Inequality Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index). The HDI, for example, does not reflect political participation or gender inequalities. The HDI and the other composite indices can only offer a broad proxy on some of the key issues of human development, gender disparity and human poverty. A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the statistical annex of the report (see Readers guide </en/media/hdr_2010_en_readers_reprint.pdf> [86 KB]).
GDP HDI Low/Low High/High Low/High
Activities 1. Read the definition of GDP on pg 170 AQA A2 textbook. Define it. Why is it important the figure takes in to account purchasing power? 2. Describe the distribution of global wealth using Figure 5.2, pg 171 [4] Remember to refer to figures, country/continent names and compass points overall trend, anomolies You will mark each others answers to this 3. Define HDI (pg 171). Social, cultural and welfare criteria for development 4. Explain how HDI works as a development indicator 5. What does a score of over 0.9 equate to? And below 0.25? 6. Give one major criticism of HDI as a measure of development 7. What is the main advantage of HDI? Waugh pg 570 2nd Ed Extension Use the handout on the next slide to add more depth here to: a.) advantages of HDI over GDP b.) problems with HDI 9. Compare Fig 5.2 showing GDP and Fig 5.1 showing Global HDI. Is there a relationship between the two? If so what? Are there any anomalies e.g. countries with low GDP but relatively high HDI? High/High, Low/low, Low/High 10. Look at table 5.1 and 5.2 on pg 172. Where are all the bottom 10 countries in terms of HDI located? Where are all the bottom 10 countries in terms of GDP located? What does this suggest? 11. Iceland is top of the HDI list, Australia is number 3 and Canada is number 4. What position are they in the GDP rankings? What problem does this difference highlight when using GDP as a measure of development? 12. Activity 1 pg 172 AQA A2
Pros of HDI: Highlighting uneven development: comparing relative levels of HDI and per capita income National wealth has the potential to expand people's choices. However, it may not. The manner in which countries spend their wealth, not the wealth itself, is decisive. Moreover, an excessive obsession with the creation of material wealth can obscure the ultimate objective of enriching human lives, distracting from the ultimate goal of enriching people's lives. HDI allows anomalies to be spotted easier by highlighting countries that may have better or worse values compared with the GDP values, e.g. Canada, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.. In many instances, countries with higher average incomes have higher average life expectancies, lower rates of infant and child mortality and higher literacy rates, and consequently a higher human development index (HDI). But these associations are far from perfect. In inter country comparisons, income variations tend to explain not much more than half the variation in life expectancy, or in infant and child mortality. And they explain an even smaller part of the differences in adult literacy rates. Although there is a definite correlation between material wealth and human well being, it breaks down in far too many societies. Many countries have high GNP per capita, but low human development indicators and vice versa. While some countries at similar levels of GNP per capita have vastly different levels of human development. See the State of Human Development in HDR 2006 for a discussion State of Human Development HDR 2006 [557 KB]. Given the imperfect nature of wealth as gauge of human development, the HDI offers a powerful alternative to GNP for measuring the relative socio economic progress at national and sub national levels. Comparing HDI and per capita income ranks of countries, regions or ethnic groups within countries highlights the relationship between their material wealth on the one hand and their human development on the other. A negative gap implies the potential of redirecting resources to Human Development. Is the HDI enough to measure a country's level of development? No. The concept of human development is much broader than can be captured in the HDI, or any other of the composite indices in the Human Development Report (Inequality adjusted HDI, Gender Inequality Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index). The HDI, for example, does not reflect political participation or gender inequalities. The HDI and the other composite indices can only offer a broad proxy on some of the key issues of human development, gender disparity and human poverty, human rights or freedom and that the main factors used to calculate HDI rely heavily on strong GDP to provide support for education and healthcare. A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the statistical annex of the report (see Readers guide </en/media/hdr_2010 _EN_Readers_reprint.pdf> [86 KB]).
Plenary How do you go about closing the gap between rich (highly develped countries) and poor countries (those with a low level of development)?
GDP PPP means that the varying cost of living is taken into account. This is important because prices can vary from year to year with exchange rates which can alter the GDP rating significantly, but with little effect on the people. E.g. if the Pound:Euro value goes down it doesn't directly effect us until we go on holiday and need to exchange money. HDI gives a score from 0 1 based on a study of the GDP PPP, life expectancy at birth and the education (calculated by the total average number of years of schooling and the adult literacy rate. The big issue is that it contains no measure of human rights or freedom and that the main factors used to calculate HDI rely heavily on strong GDP to provide support for education and healthcare. HDI allows anomalies to be spotted easier by highlighting countries that may have better or worse values compared with the GDP values, e.g. Canada, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
GDP Usefulness Problems
Birth Rate Usefulness Problems
Infant Mortality Usefulness Problems
Life Expectancy Usefulness Problems
Death Rate Usefulness Problems
Population Per Doctor Usefulness Problems
World Happiness Usefulness Problems
HDI Usefulness Problems