Living Standards in a Changing World

1. Living Standards in a Changing World

2. Human Development Index http://www.chf4youth.ca/disastrix/ • Every year the United Nations ranks UN member countries according to standard of living in the Human Development Index. It includes: life expectancy, literacy rate, and GDP per capita. • Per Capita GDP- gross domestic product is the value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year. Per capita is the amounteachpersonproduces. • The 2009 report showedthat people in 85 countries wereworse off thantheywere in the 1980s. • The wealth of 200 richest people in the world in 2008 wasgreaterthan the combinedincome of approximately 40% of the world’s population. • Despite the efforts of the UN and non-governmentorganizations(NGOs) such as Save the Children and Oxfam, the gap between the rich and poor countries continues to grow.

4. The Divided Planet • Developed countries- mostly the more affluent(wealthy) countries. • Infrastructure-transportation, communication, links, schools, hospitals. • Newly Industrialized countries (NICs)- those building up industries and infrastructure, such as Indonesia and Brazil. • Developing countries-those that do not have a modern infrastructure or many industries. • Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs)

6. Closing the Development Gap • In 2000, a major worldwide initiative was launched to close the gap in living standards between developed and developing countries. • All United Nations member states adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) • By 2015, the world would have less poverty, hunger, and disease, greater survival rates and prospects for mothers and their infants, education for all, equal opportunities for women, an improved physical environment.

8. Measuring Living Standards • Levels of economic development are hard to measure accurately. • Developing economies have many people who make goods at home and trade them in local communities. • The wealth of a country is not shared among the people. For example, in Qatar the 2009 GDP was $121, 400 US because of the income from the sale of oil resources. • Quality of life includes : health, levels of nutrition, life expectancy, literacy rate, and the status of women and children • A person living in poverty in Canada has access to government programs that provide a safety net of services, such as health care and education. In developing countries, a very poor urban family is likely to live in a dwelling made from scrap materials with no electricity, sanitation or safe ware. • Quality of life depends on more than meeting the necessities of life. Many are denied freedom of expression, economic freedom, and the right to safe and clean environment.

9. An Urban World and Globalization • More people live in cities than ever before. Various reasons can push people to leave land and others are attracted to cities for a better life. • The UN-HABITAT State of the World’s Cities 2006-2007 report found that poor people living in urban areas are as badly off than rural populations. They face similar issues in health, education, employment, mortality (death rate per 1000 people), and malnutrition. • Many people in the developed world believe globalization ( spread of ideas, information, and culture around the world) brings free trade, cheaper goods, and access to technology, which in turn contribute to wealth and standard of living. • Many see this as a threat because their job may be sent to a country with cheaper labour or fewer environmental protection policies. • China and India have benefited from globalization and have seen a rise in their standard of living. • Many developing nations are in debt and their industries and natural resources are controlled by multinational corporations (MNCs). Globalization - YouTube

10. Measuring Poverty • Measured differently in developed and developed countries • Poverty line-unable to afford a minimum of food, clothing, shelter, health care and education services • in developing countries, the poverty line is about $1.25 per person per day • The World Bank in 2008 showed 1.4 billion (one in four) people in developing countries were living on less than $1.25 per day • Statistics Canada uses a low income cut-off (LICO) to determine those living in poverty=household that spends 70% of its income on food, clothing, and shelter. • The National Council of Welfare (NCW) differs from Statistics Canada in determining LICOs. The NCW uses after-tax income to measure poverty.

11. The Poverty Trap • About 1 billion people in developing countries go hungry every day. Yet the world produces enough food to feed every single people on Earth. • The problem is that poor people can not afford the food that is available. • The International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (agencies of the United Nations) gave loans and development assistance to help improve standards of living through economic growth. • They encourage developing countries to engage in megaprojects to promote economic growth. • Many of these initiatives caused environmental damage and did not improve the countries’ economies. • In the 1960s, Western banks loaned billions of dollars to newly independent African countries for megaprojects. These nations’ main income came from exporting minerals and agricultural products. A world economic slowdown led to a collapse in prices for these commodities, making it difficult to repay the loans.

12. The Cycle and Burden of Debt • Western banks and their governments encouraged the IMF and the World Bank to lend countries money to pay off their debts. • Today African countries owe $227 billion. • IMF told these countries to also restructure their economies to help repay their debts. IMF encouraged foreign investment, cash crops for export and private companies to run some gov’t services. These measures are called structural adjustment programs (SAPs) • Poor countries are forced to sacrifice spending on health and education to meet the demands of SAPs and repay debts. • Many countries that are in debt have few natural resources or receive low prices for them on the world market. Their resources are under control of foreign multinational corporations. • West Africa produces 70% of the world’s cocoa, but it must sell its crops to four multinational corp. that control the price. Very little of the profit filers back to the farmers. This makes it difficult to pay back their debts.

20. Debt Relief • The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was launched in 1996 by the International Development Association (IDA) and IMF. The goal was to ensure that poor countries are not crippled by their debts. • The HIPC provides debt relief to poor countries with external debts that severely burden export earnings. • By the end of 2008, the World Bank and IMF had committed more than US$57 billion to help HIPC restructure their debts. • Many governments of developed countries have forgiven the HIPC debt. • Canada has forgiven all overseas development aid debt to HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) except Myanmar (formerly Burma) which has a military dictatorship. • more bilateral aid for development (assistance from one government to another) money given as grants now (instead of loans)

21. The Vulnerable Ones : Women and Children • Male-dominated societies in developing countries • Women and children may have no legal rights • Women may even be killed to satisfy a family’s honour. • May have to eat whatever is left after men have finished their meals= malnutrition • Women may have to work more than 12 hrs each day • They are responsible for more than 2/3 of the food production and are often left to support the family when men migrate in search of work. • Literacy rate is lower among women than men in the developing world. • Only 1/3 of girls in rural India go to school compared to more than half of boys. • Girls are kept at home to look after the younger children and help with chores.

22. Education is the Solution • A decline in the number of children a woman has in her lifetime frees her to improve her lot and that of her children. Studies show that better-educated women tend to marry later and have fewer children. Because they are literate, they have a better understanding of contraception, and may be able to resist family pressures to have more children. • The children of educated women are also more likely to survive because their mothers know the importance of immunization, clean water, and good nutrition.

23. Children in Crisis • Famine, disease, war, and a host of other problems prey on society’s most vulnerable people. • Children in some developing countries have few educational opportunities and are often exploited as child labour. Some are even trapped in the sex trade. • The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published a Progress of Nations Report (PNR) on the welfare of children. It is based on :the mortality rates of children under the age of 5, the percentage of children who are moderately or severely underweight, number of children who do not attend primary school, risks from armed conflict, and risks from HIV/AIDS

24. Working Children • Abandoned children in cities survive by begging, stealing, or selling sex. • Root causes of child labour are poverty and no access to education. • The first two Millennium Development Goals are to aim to wipe out extreme poverty and achieve universal primary education. • Children forced to work in unsafe conditions. • Many children are forced to work as bonded labour to help pay off their families’ debts. • The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates there are 100 million girls working as child labourers. Girls are sometimes pulled out of school to earn money so their brothers can get an education. They have double the burden as they have to work and complete house duties.

25. Boys cleaning new carpets in Fayum, Egypt.     Rural farming boy in Bolivia tends his flock of sheep.

26. Mauritanian girls weave a straw rug. Columbia boy shifts through trash for items of value to sell. Young boys carrying bricks at a construction site to earn a living in New Delhi, India. Children selling handicrafts in Bangkok, Thailand.

27. Clean Water: A Basic Human Need • In 2002, about 1.2 billion people around the world did not have access to clean or enough water. • Climate change, which has contributed to extreme droughts and damaging floods, is adding to the problem. • Open water sources are contaminated. Rivers that supply water are also used for washing and disposing waste. • Irrigation for agriculture takes the largest share of water supplies in the developing world. • The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that improving drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene could prevent about 10% of diseases worldwide. • Cholera and typhoid are among the diseases caused by bacteria that breed in unclean water.

28. The Scourge of Epidemics • Malaria is prevalent in 106 countries, affecting half of the world’s population. More than 240 million cases of malaria were diagnosed in 2008. At least a million of these people will die. Many of them will be under the age of five. • Why is it an epidemic in the developing world? • Help is not available in slums, forest clearing in South America and Asia allows sunlight to warm standing water, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes. • THEY CANNOT AFFORD VACCINES • Way of preventing malaria is to use insecticide-treated bed nets to protect people from being bitten while they sleep. • DDT, a chemical that nearly eradicated malaria in the 1960s is also effective but it was banned because of its over use in agriculture.

29. HIV/ AIDS Pandemic • Treatments are too costly for those who suffer in developing countries. • HIV/AIDs pandemic affects 33 million people worldwide • More than 2 million children under 15 years of age were living with HIV and 430 000 children became newly infected. • Sub-Saharan Africa remains the centre of this epidemic. • Those dying from the pandemic are often productive workers so this will have long-term effects culturally and economically. (Botswana) • There are at least 1 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. • These children may face poverty, homelessness, or loss of education and are often forced to take on the role of parent to younger siblings. • The international community has been slow to react to the seriousness of the problem. • It requires the cooperation of many national and international agencies. • Canada has been one of the leaders in establishing the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). joinred - YouTube

30. Helping to Improve Living Standards • Foreign aid: • Official development assistance (ODA) is delivered by governments. • Non-government organizations (NGOs) give another type of aid. • Multilateral aid is funded by a number of governments, and usually involves large-scale programs like dam building. • Bilateral aid goes directly from one country to another. • Much bilateral aid is tied aid, giving conditions attached. For example, donated money must be spent on goods bought from the donor country.

31. Canada’s Foreign Aid Program • In 1968 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his government created the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to administer Canada’s aid to developing countries. • CIDA’s priorities: basic human needs, women in development, infrastructure services, human rights, democracy, and good government, private sector development, and the environment.

32. World Map: Gapminder • www.gapminder.org