Unequal Access to Resources
&
Sustainable Development
Justice and Fairness?
Global Citizenship
Learning Objectives
After today’s session you should understand that:
1.
Resources are important for survival, development, wellbeing and happiness.
2.
Resources come in many forms (oil; water; food; workers; diamonds; crops; metals;
minerals; energy, i.e. solar, wind, gas, coal).
3.
Impacts of unequal access to resources can include poverty; unequal power; feelings
of injustice; conflict; war; the exploitation of people and even slavery.
4.
Access to resources is linked with power
1.
Economically-developed countries hold power over less economically-developed
countries, especially those that are dependent on cash from the export of agricultural
crops.
2.
Some resources are finite.
What is a Resource?
• When people use something, it becomes a
resource
• When a business/corporation uses something,
it becomes a resource, i.e. Human Resources.
Finite Resources
• Most resources are finite, meaning they will not last
forever.
• However, sustainable resources are those that can be
renewed over and over again, perhaps for millions of years,
i.e. bio-energy, wind energy, solar energy, hydrogen and
water energy (e.g. tidal energy and hydroelectric energy)
are all renewable resources.
• Fossil-fuel resources such as coal, oil shale, crude oil, tar
sands and natural gas are non-renewable resources, and
the burning of these for fuel also emits greenhouse gases.
Development and Resources
• For social, economic and community
development to take place, resources are
needed:
– Human Resources, i.e. workers
– Workers need their own resources such as food, water, shelter,
good health, education and hospitals.
– Natural Resources, i.e. oil, gas, coal, minerals, metals,
wind, water, energy from the sun (solar energy),
forests, etc.
– Wind energy, solar energy and water energy (e.g. tidal and wave
energy) are all examples of sustainable resources, as they won’t
run out for millions of years.
Access to resources is highly unequal
• Worrying statistics on people’s access to resources:
• Video: The Millennium Development Goals for 2015 (3.5 minutes)
• An obvious resource that we can think of is money.
• To access many resources we need money, but the
distribution of money is highly uneven:
– WebLink: People's Income, from $1 a day to over $200 a
day (4 minute activity, see notes below)
Unequal Access to Resources
• In many parts of Africa, people have no access to
decent medical facilities, education, decent
shelter, clean water supplies or sanitation.
• This affects individuals’ and communities’
wellbeing and sometimes even their survival
• Many of these communities and individuals are very
tough, astute, imaginative, unselfish and practical when
using and sharing the few resources they have:
Video: Practical Action in Kibera
Practical Action and Energy Poverty
• Practical Action “Energy for All” Campaign
Unequal access to a scarce resource:
Water
Activity:
(20 minutes)
Please go to:
http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_sprin
g01/focuson/index.html
– Work through the pages of this learning tool
about water and do all the activities. Look at the
different websites that the pages direct you to.
Diamonds:
A resource for our vanity?
Activity:
(25 minutes)
Please go to:
http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_sprin
g06/focuson/index.html
– Work through the pages of this learning tool
about diamonds and do all the activities. Look at
the different websites that the pages direct you
to.
Case Study:
Kenya
Activity:
(25 minutes)
Please go to:
http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_autu
mn05/eyeon/index.html
– Work through the pages of this learning tool
about Kenya and do all the activities. Look at the
different websites that the pages direct you to.
Discussion
(5 minutes)
• How can we make sure that Article 24 of the
1989 UN Convention on the Rights to the
Child is met?
Discuss in groups of 4
then feed back your thoughts to the class
Discussion
(5 minutes)
• Have diamonds been a good thing for the
people of countries where they have been
discovered?
Discuss in groups of 4
then feed back your thoughts to the class
• The Resource Curse – Video: Global Witness Orginisation
(5 minutes)
Discussion
(5 minutes)
• How equal is the access to power and
resources in Kenya?
Discuss in groups
of 4 then feed back your thoughts to the class
Cash Crops
• Commodities (objects that can be bought and sold) – such as
flowers in Kenya, peanuts in the Gambia or cocoa in Ghana – are all
agricultural crops that can be exported for income
– So these are often called cash crops.
• Countries who depend on cash for their crops are often in a weak
position economically.
• Countries that buy these crops might then manufacture them into
expensive goods (peanuts into peanut butter, cocoa into chocolate,
or cotton into designer clothes).
• They may even sell these more valuable goods back to the country
where the original crops were grown.
Summary of today’s learning
1.
Resources are important for survival, development, wellbeing and happiness.
2.
Resources come in many forms (oil; water; food; workers; diamonds; crops;
metals; minerals; energy, i.e. solar, wind, gas, coal).
3.
Impacts of unequal access to resources can include poverty; unequal power;
feelings of injustice; conflict; war; the exploitation of people and even slavery.
4.
Access to resources is linked with power
1.
Economically-developed countries hold power over less economicallydeveloped countries, especially those that are dependent on cash from the
export of agricultural crops.
2.
Some resources are finite.