The document discusses bridging the development gap between rich and poor countries. It explores the causes of the gap, including unequal distribution of wealth globally and different measures of development. The consequences of the gap include poverty, poor health outcomes, urban slums, and ethnic inequalities. Strategies to bridge the gap involve both top-down approaches like large infrastructure projects led by governments and companies, and bottom-up grassroots projects led by local communities and NGOs. Aid and foreign direct investment are also discussed as ways to fund development.

1. 6GEO3 Unit 3 Contested Planet
Topic 5: Bridging the Development Gap

2. What is this topic about?
• ‘Bridging the Development Gap’ should be seen as complimenting the
‘Superpower Geographies’ topic
• The two topics represent two sides of the same coin – the rich and
developing on one side, the poor and underdeveloped on the other
• The topic explores the causes and consequences of the development
gap
• The last section of this topic focuses on solutions – can the ‘gap’ be
narrowed?

3. CONTENTS
1. The causes of the gap
2. The consequences of the gap
3. Bridging the gap
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4. 1. The causes of the gap
• The development gap relates
to global inequality
• Around 2.8 billion people live
on under $2 per day
(‘moderate poverty’)
• Some 1.1 billion people live
on less than $1.25 per day
(‘extreme poverty’) Since 1980, the percentage of
people living in extreme poverty
• Over time a greater
has fallen from 40% to 20% of
proportion of wealth has world population, but because of
concentrated in the hands of population growth the total
the richest 20% of people, number of people is extreme
poverty is still very high.
compared to the poorest 20%
of people (see graph)

5. Measuring development
• Measuring development levels
is a challenge.
• Traditionally development has
measured using economic data
such as GDP or GNI per capita.
• These measures fail to
recognise:
1. Income distribution
2. The local value of money
3. The non-money economy e.g. This basket of goods costs 112 Indian Rupees in
India, the equivalent of £1.50*. To buy the same
barter and exchange basket of goods in the UK would cost around £6.
• It is also important to recognise The difference in how much goods and services
that development has social really cost, is why PPP (purchasing power
parity) GDP income is used rather than ‘raw’
and quality of life aspects GDP.
• Measures such as life Using raw GDP per capita average income in
India is about $1000, but PPP GDP per capita
expectancy, education level, income is $2800
access to sanitation are
*data for Dec 2009
important

6. • As the development cable model
(right) shows, development is a
multi-faceted process
• At its core is economic
development, but to achieve real
progress social, political,
environmental and personal
development is also needed.
• Recognising the complex nature of
development is why development
is often measured using an index, Physical Quality of Life Index
which combines a range of data (PQLI)
• Indices are considered more Life expectancy + Literacy rate +
accurate than single data points Infant Mortality rate
such as GDP per capita.
The Human Development Index (HDI)
Life expectancy at birth + Literacy rate
+ Enrolment rate + GDP per capita PPP

7. The Millennium Development Goals
• The MDG were adopted by the UN in
the year 2000
• The MDG are a global attempt to
measure, and actively improve,
quality of life for the poorest
people
• There are 8 Goals, with 21 targets
within these. The target date to
achieve the MDG is 2015
• The most famous Goals are
1. Halve the proportion of people living on less
than $1 a day
2. Halve the proportion of people who suffer
from hunger
Explore MDG progress and annual
3. Achieve universal primary education reports at
4. Reduce by two thirds the under 5 mortality http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
rate
• Progress has been patchy, especially
in Africa and South Asia were the
problem tend to be most acute.

8. The development gap
• The geography of the development gap is more complex than a simple ‘North-South
divide’
• Latin America has HDI levels similar to eastern Europe; China’s HDI and some
others in SE Asia are relatively high
• South Asia has a concentration of levels below 0.6
• Level in the Middle East are relatively high, although not in Yemen, Syria and Iraq
• The picture for Africa is very complex, with the extreme north and south having
decent HDI levels, but some regions with shockingly low numbers

9. Core and Periphery
• Some countries remain
largely unconnected to
the modern globalised
world.
• This is especially true in
Sub-Saharan Africa , which
remains very much part of
the global periphery (see
map)
• Other peripheral regions
include north South Asia,
the Andean region, parts
of East and Central Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa has a range of factors which make
development very challenging; these include debt
• Growth areas (upward levels, landlocked states, conflict, corruption, Aids/
transition) are much HIV, malaria, lack of infrastructure and
better connected to the communications, low education levels, drought and
global core areas. many others

10. Global Players
• There are a range of players involved in the development process:
Player Role
World Bank / These two IGOs lend money to the developing world – essentially funding
IMF development, and as part of this process guide economic policy (the IMF). Much
of the developing world’s debt is owed to the IMF and WB.
TNCs Invest in the developing world e.g. building factories; Foreign Direct
Investment tends to flow to low cost locations, but where people are educated
and skilled; Africa’s share of FDI is therefore small.
United Nations Monitors the MDG, but has many component organisation which focus on
development (UNDP), health (WHO), food and farming (FAO) and
environmental issues (UNEP); often involved in disaster relief as well as longer
term aid.
Governments Developed world governments provide funding for the UN, IMF and WB. They
also provide bi-lateral aid the developing world in the form of Official
Development Assistance (ODA). Developing World governments manage their
countries path to development.
NGOs Charities and not-for-profit organisations provide aid to the developing world,
often in a smaller, more localised way compared to Governments and IGOs.
Some NGOs receive government funding
Individuals As consumers and voters, individuals can alter government policy both in the
developed and developing world; community led development in becoming
more common; developed world consumers may support fair trade.

11. Trade and development
• Trade is important to
development, because it
generates income.
• Least developed countries play a
limited role in trade:
• LDCs tend not to be part of trade
blocs, so their exports are subject
to tariffs
• LDCs often export commodities,
the price of which fluctuates
wildly (see graph)
• Cheap commodity export earn The 49 least
developed
few Dollars, but Dollars have to countries
be used to import manufactured account for
only 0.9% of
good – this creates poor terms of world trade,
trade (see picture) but have over
700 million
• Much of the value of the products people
we buy is added outside the
country which supplied the raw
materials

12. 2. The consequences of the gap
• The development gap means The African countries shown all
that poverty is common in have infant mortality rates of
over 80/1000 live births, and
least developed countries, under 5 mortality of over
especially in Sub-Saharan 100/1000; Sierra Leone’s 2008
Africa rates were 160 and 278
• In many countries males still
have more access to
education than females, and
this has an impact on
opportunities later in life
(see diagram for Pakistan)
• In some situations, such as
the Indian Caste system (still
prevalent in rural India – see
pyramid), society has built
inequality into the social
system

13. Megacities
• Poverty and lack of
opportunity is often most A UN-Habitat report in 2006 stated there was
acute in rural areas* “concrete evidence that there are two cities within
one city – one part of the urban population that has
• However, developing world all the benefits of urban living, and the other part,
megacities contain growing the slums and squatter settlements, where the poor
often live under worse conditions than their rural
concentrations of urban
relatives.”
poverty
• Some 1 billion people live in
urban slums, likely to grow to
2 billion by 2030
• Slums often have:
Poorly built, shack housing
Limited and expensive water supply
Limited sanitation
Informal, unreliable employment
Lack of rubbish collection
Social problems such as disease, crime
Few services such as education and
health
*see the rural urban data for Pakistan
and Guatemala on previous and next slides

14. Ethnic and religious dimensions
• Ethnic and religious minorities
often suffer worse poverty than
the wider population
• The data for Guatemala show a
large different between poverty
rates for Native Indians and the
White Hispanic population
• Such differences can result from
subtle prejudice, and direct
discrimination and persecution
• In South Africa, the long history of 2001 Census Black South White South
apartheid has left a legacy of stark Africans Africans
differences between black and Under 15 yrs old 34% 19%
white populations No education 22% 1%
• Often different ethnic groups live Households with a 31% 95%
telephone
in different geographical areas
Adult mean income $1600 $8800
e.g. white gated communities
versus black townships in South
Africa

15. East Timor
• East Timor (Timor-Leste) was a
Portuguese colony which gained
independence in 1975, and was
invaded by Indonesia in the same
year.
• Indonesia occupied East Timor
until 1999; East Timor regained its
independence in 2002. East Timor Indonesia
• The Indonesian campaign against East Colony of Portugal Holland
Timorese resistance fighters involved
forced resettlement of 1000s of people Religion Catholic Muslim
into camps Ave Income $2300 $4000
• The death toll from fighting was high HDI 0.49 0.73
• Portuguese was banned
• Around 150,000 Indonesians were Indonesia’s occupation created a
settled on East Timor as part of the dual population of poor Timorese
Transmigration Programme and better off Indonesian migrants,
• Most businesses were taken over by reflected in the post-independence
Indonesians differences in HDI and income

16. Poverty reduction at a price?
• The pressing need to reduce
Social and Environmental Issues
poverty has led some
countries to ‘go for growth’ •Increased rural –v- urban inequality
• Both China and India (and the •Mass rural-urban migration and rise
in urban slums
‘Asian Tigers’ before them) •Increased air and water pollution
have opened their economies from industry
to world trade and •Stress on forests and water supply
investment as resource demands rise
•Possibility of rising debt; financial
• This has created crises
employment, raised incomes •Social problems – urban crime and
and reduced poverty disease
•Worker exploitation and human
(estimates of rights abuses
extreme poverty) 1980 2005
•Breakdown of traditional family
India 45% 25% structures and community support
China 60%+ 10%

17. 3. Bridging the gap
• How should the development gap be bridged?
• This question is important because there are a number of
different approaches that might be taken
• The choice of approach is influenced by political viewpoint
Neo-liberal / Marxist/ Socialist Populist Grassroots
Capitalist
China, Asian Tigers Cuba, Kerala (India) Venezuela / Latin Community based
America
•Market led •Breaking free of •Charismatic ‘man of •Small-scale,
development, capitalism and profit. the people’ leaders community focussed
following the •State ownership and create a ‘them and us’ development often
‘Modernisation Theory’ planning so that profits discourse promising aiming to meet basic
of WW Rostow from industry and uses social equality and needs rather than
•Stressing industry and for health and using policies that hugely improve
infrastructure, free education; usually appeal to the pockets incomes
trade and attracting involves wholesale of ordinary people •Often involves local or
foreign direct land reform . •Critics state populism international NGOs
investment to create •State control and is directionless and who provide some
jobs and raise limited involvement in leads to poor economic funding and other
incomes. world trade and TNCs decision-making support.

18. Strategies
• Development projects are often characterised as either
‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’: (see the next slide for examples)
Bottom up Top Down
Scale Small; based on one community or Large; often part of national planning
area e.g. a valley aims
Leadership Community and NGOs; partnership Government and government agencies;
arrangements construction and engineering TNCs
Funding Local people and NGOs; donations or Government, via multilateral aid (WB /
source earned income recycled into the IMF) or bilateral aid; private
community investment
Aims Meeting basic needs of food, health, Meeting national needs in terms of
education and water; small energy or water supply, or transport;
improvements in income profit
Technology Intermediate / appropriate Hi-Tech
Types of Food production, water supply, Electricity, transport, industry and
project small scale renewable energy infrastructure
Winners Local people; the environment Industry, urban dwellers, TNCs
Losers Usually are none Environment, rural people

19. • These three projects
show contrasting
strategies.
• ‘A’ is a small-scale,
bottom-up intermediate
technology project
• ‘C’ is a classic ‘top-
down’ ‘big project’ with
clear winners and losers
• ‘B’ is less easy to
pigeon-hole as it is a
national scheme, hi-
tech, but aimed at the
poorest and led by an
NGO with a private
partner

20. Aid
• Aid means assistance given to
the developing world
• Aid can be in the form of
money, food, goods, advice and
technical assistance
• Aid comes from a variety of
sources (see diagram).
• Development Aid given by OECD
countries is termed Official
Development Assistance (ODA)
• An UN target of OECD countries
giving 0.7% of their GDP as ODA
has existed for 40 years, but few
countries actually give this
amount (2006 data):
OECD average = 0.45%
USA = 0.17%
UK = 0.52%
Sweden = 1.02%

21. Investment
• Flows of money to the developing Governments use Export Processing Zones
world may be in the form of aid, but (EPZs)and Free Trade Zones (FTZs) to help
attract FDI. China has over 50 of these. In
investment is important these zones foreign investors receive
• When companies and TNCs invest in special tax breaks, rents are low and unions
the developing world this flow is are often banned.
called Foreign Direct Investment The top 10 developing world locations for FDI in
(FDI) 2007 (in $ millions).
• FDI is motivated by profit Notice the lack of least developed countries in the
list
• FDI is used to set up factories fund China & Hong Kong 1,511,000
construction in the developing world Brazil 328,000
• Most FDI flows towards NICs and RICs Mexico 266,000
because they have a skilled Turkey 146,000
Chile 106,000
workforce, and large markets
South Africa 93,000
• There are question marks over the Thailand 86,000
environmental and social value of Malaysia 77,000
FDI is relation to pollution and India 76,000
worker rights Saudi Arabia 76,0000

22. • Some of the least developed
countries face stark development
choices The Washington Consensus
This is a set of economic reforms which the
• In order to qualify for debt relief WB and IMF advise developing nations to
under the HIPC scheme they must undertake as part of a SAP to qualify for
undertake ‘structural adjustment debt relief, and to help development. The
policies’ (SAPs) reforms include:
• Critics argue that World Bank and •Cutting public spending
IMF sponsored SAPs and HIPC are •Currency devaluation in some cases
•Removal of import / export barriers
simply another way of OECD •Opening up to FDI
countries controlling the least •Removing subsidies
developed world •Privatisation and deregulation
• Others say Washington Consensus The aim of these policies is to help a
reforms open countries and workers country enter the global economy and
up to exploitation by TNCs benefit trade.
• The counter argument is “Look at
China”

23. Fair trade
• There are alternatives to FDI and Free
Trade
• ‘Fair-trade’ is perhaps the most well
known
• Fair-trade coffee, cocoa, cotton and
tea farmers receive a ‘fair price’ for
their produce, above market prices.
• The extra money improves income and
some moneys is invested in community
health and education projects
• Fair trade has grown and spread, but
how much difference does it actually
make? In 2008 fair-trade coffee
sales were $1.75 bil of
•Fair Trade coffee price = $1.55 per lb,10% above market price. the global $70 bil
• Growers get 50¢ per lb. after Fair Trade cooperative fees, taxes
market; only $5 bil of
and farm expenses.
•Most farmers earn $1,000 ($2.75 per day). that $70 bil went to the
• According to Fair Trade researchers at the University of California, developing world
the price needed for farmers to rise above subsistence level is more
than $2 / lb.

24. Development futures
• Bridging the development Gap is a story of both good and bad
news:
Good news Bad news 
o In some countries, such as India and o In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa
China, the gap has narrowed little progress has been made and the gap
o Debts have been reduced fro some HIPC has widened
countries, possibly giving them a chance o Many African nations will fail to achieve
of a new start their MDG targets
o Aid in 2008 was at record levels and o The 2008-09 recession may have tipped
many OECD countries seem serious about up to 200 million people back into poverty
the MDG and hunger, reversing progress
o Some initiatives such as Fair Trade have o Aid may be less of a priority in the next
helped, and NGOs often make a difference decade as OECD countries struggle with
with bottom-up community led projects, their own financial problems
but these need to be spread much more o Corruption, conflict and bad governance
widely still bedevil may LDCs
o Progress has been made with some o Neo-colonial relationships persist
diseases such as Aids and Malaria