Assessing development in Uganda
Background
It is really important to remember that economic growth is not the same thing as
economic development. We can certainly argue that economic growth is necessary
for economic development, but that it is not sufficient.
Economic growth is simply an increase in real GDP in an economy.
Economic development, on the other hand, refers to an increase in living standards
in an economy.
Warm-up starter
Each student should be given 20 small post-it notes.
1. Use 5 post-it notes: on each post-it note, students should write down one
reason why economic growth can result in economic development
2. Use 5 post-it notes: on each post-it note, students should write down one
reason why economic growth may hinder economic development
3. Use 10 post-it notes: on each post-it note, students should write down one
factor that affects their own living standards
4. Allocate one area in your classroom to be the location for posting up the postits for question 1, another area for question 2, and finally another area for
question 3 (post-it notes should stick easily onto desks or whiteboards), and
get students to stick up their notes in the appropriate locations
5. Put students into 3 groups – 1 for each location – ask them to group the ideas
into common themes or categories
6. Ask a spokesperson for each group to relay the key information from their set
of post-its to the rest of the class
Development Indicators - HDI
The Human Development Index (HDI)
This is the standard measure of development used by the UN. It effectively takes an
average of 3 indicators, these being life expectancy at birth, average number of years
of schooling, and GNP per capita. An HDI value of 0 indicates no development, and
an HDI value of 1 indicates very high development.
This chart from the United Nations shows how Uganda’s HDI has changed over time
– Uganda is currently ranked 164th in the world:
Task One
1. Visit the UN’s website for HDI and development data
(http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries). Using the information on the website,
find out:
a. The names and HDI values for two African countries with a lower HDI
than Uganda
b. The names and HDI values for two African countries with a higher HDI
than Uganda
2. What factors might lead to a country such as Uganda having a low HDI value?
3. Explain and evaluate two possible policies that the government of a country
such as Uganda could use to help it to increase the HDI value.
Other development indicators
Development is much broader than merely GNP per capita, life expectancy and
number of years at school – and small things can make a big difference to living
standards in poor countries.
Task Two
Take a look at the Uganda-specific UN development indicators on this webpage:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/UGA. Choose 15 indicators that you think
are important, and note their titles down in the left hand column in the table below,
and their values in the second column. Then find out the values for the same
indicators for both China (http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/CHN) and the
UK (http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/GBR) noting them down in the 3rd and
4th columns.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Indicator
Uganda
China
UK