Caribbean Studies

1. Brandt Line (North- south divide) Caribbean Studies Concept of Development

2. Objectives • To describe the concept of sustainable development and economic development. • To identify the indicators of development. • To explain how various indicators of development are measured. • To assess development in the Caribbean

3. Defining development • Economic Development: the ability of a country to advance economically from a simple low income economy to a modern high income economy • Development is referred to as the sustained level of economic and social well being in a country.

4. Growth Vs Development • Economic growth is not growth that equals development. • Growth occurs whenever statistics show economic increase. • Development occurs only when, along with economic growth, there is evidence of increased human well being and environmental preservation

5. Sustainable Development

7. Defining Sustainable Development • Development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs .( Brundtland :1992) • It contains within it two concepts: • The concepts of ‘needs’ in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor • The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs

8. Development indicators • Definition: • Usually a numerical measure of quality of life in a country. • Indicators are used to illustrate progress of a country in meeting a range of economic, social, and environmental goals. • Since indicators represent data that have been collected by a variety of agencies using different collection methods, there may be inconsistencies among them.

9. Economic (Measures) Indices of Development • Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product • Industrialization • Purchasing Power Parity • Employment Level • Level of local and Foreign Debt

10. Example: GNP/GDP • GDP – Gross Domestic Product • The value of output produced within a country during a time period • GNP – Gross National Product • The value of output produced within a country plus net property income from abroad • GDP/GNP per head/per capita • Takes account of the size of the population • Real GDP/GNP • Accounts for differences in price levels in different countries

11. Non Economic indices(measures) of Development • Human Development Index • Gender development Index • Life Expectancy • Levels of education • Ratio of doctors to population • Urbanisation

12. Example : Human Development Index • HDI – A socio-economic measure • Focus on three dimensions of human welfare: • Longevity – Life expectancy • Knowledge – Access to education, literacy rates • Standard of living – GDP per capita: Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)

13. Indicators of development • 1. Levels of income • 2. Productivity • 3. Social and Economic Equalisation • 4. Modern Knowledge • 5. Improved Institutions and attitudes • 6. Environmental Factors • Increased freedom

14. productivity • The amount of output per unit of input. • It relates to efficiency and cost effectiveness in the production of goods and services • A ratio to measure how well an organisation or industry or country converts input resources into goods and services

15. Modern Knowledge • It refers to the influence of modernizing institutions such as schools and factories which are thought to promote urban , industrialized societies. • Such knowledge emphasizes • Efficiency • Cost effectiveness • Rationality • Logic • Planning and organizational skills

16. Social and Economic Equalization • This refers to the difference between social classes in terms of income earned and the quality of life experienced. • Equality is difficult to achieve in the region because of historical circumstances and political realities • Inequality is maintained as historically poor people were able to access social mobility and move towards wealth redistribution through education.

17. Increased freedom • Increasing peoples freedom by enlarging the range of their choice variables by increasing varieties of consumer goods and services. • It also includes • Political freedom • Rule of law • Freedom of expression • equality of opportunity

18. Environmental sustainability Index • The data sets cover a diverse range of variables such as • ambient pollution • emissions of pollutants • impacts on human health and • being a signatory to international agreements

19. Pros and cons of Indicators of development • The advantages of development indicators and indices rest in the reason why they are created in the first place – to simplify complexity. • any indicator/index is only as good as the data upon which it is built. Data sets can be poor quality as well as good quality and there may well be gaps. • There is also the hiding of intra-country variation to consider. These may be consideration between urban and rural populations, for example, or between different regions. Some variables may also change dramatically during the year – air pollution for example.

20. Pros and cons of Indicators of development • An indicator/index is a product of the person(s) who created it. This is obvious when stated but the ramification is that there is potential for human bias.