PROBLEMS OF
DEVELOPING NATIONS
MAY 22, 2013
OVERVIEW OF CURRENT PROBLEMS
Most of the poorest people in the world live in
countries that are in the “Global South”: developing
(growing, but below developed standards), lessdeveloped (may or may not be growing and below
developed standards) or underdeveloped
(stagnated and below developed standards)
Developed country:
• High living standards generally distributed
• Highly technical infrastructure
• Complex and productive economy
OVERVIEW
Generally speaking, therefore, poverty is associated with less
complex economies and less technologically advanced
infrastructure.
Reasons:
• War or civil war
• Corruption
• Resource curse (dependence on exporting natural resources,
often a single such resource– copper, oil, agricultural products
which are valuable, but not as valuable as finished products,
and which tend to concentrate wealth in a few hands)
• Isolated situation that makes domestic and international trade
difficult
• Current or legacy of colonial and other exploitative economic
relationships between area and developed countries
OVERVIEW
Nature of poverty:
• About 1 billion people live in “abject poverty”: people
suffering from severe deprivation of basic human necessities,
or “extreme poverty”: living on ore less than about $1.25 (37
NT) per day
• Highest percentage of people living in abject poverty are
located in Africa, though largest absolute number are in South
Asia.
• Average per capita annual income Africa: $2,000 (approx.
60,000 NT
• Average per capita annual income South Asia: $2,700
(approx. 81,000 NT)
• Average per capita annual income Taiwan: $20,000 (approx.
600,000 NT)
• Average per capita annual income US: $42,600 (approx.
1,280,00 NT)
OVERVIEW: GROWTH AND GOALS
UN Millennium Development Goals: cut in half the
proportion of world’s population living in extreme poverty
by half by 2015
• 2007: Global South as a whole, proportion fell from 31%
to 20%, but much of this improvement came from China
(33% to 14%) and South Asia. But Africa stayed about the
same (at 50%)
• This is because China and South Asia experienced higher
levels of growth during that time.
• While in general more people are out of the extreme
poverty category, there is still a large and, in absolute
terms, growing income gap between North and South
(average annual per capita income, South: $5,500;
average annual per capita income, North: $31,000)
POVERTY AND BASIC HUMAN NEEDS
Basic Human Needs:
• Food
• Clean water
• Shelter
• Clothing
• Medical care
• Education (particularly literacy)
Problems: Children in Global South:
1 in 4: malnutrition
1 in 5: no safe drinking water
1 in 7: no access to adequate health care
1 in 3: no access to education
POVERTY AND BASIC HUMAN NEEDS
More general global problems:
1 in 7 people don’t have access to safe drinking water
40% have no access to sanitation
30% of worlds doctors for 75% of world’s population
5% of medical research conducted on problems that
affect less developed areas
Lack of immunization against deadly disease despite
availability of vaccines
General lack of resource expenditures on these problems
despite the fact that most (education, basic
immunization) are very cheap per capita
PROBLEMS OF HUNGER
• In general, 15% of people globally (about 850
million) are undernourished (lack of needed food
that results in a lack of necessary calories)
• The largest absolute number is in South Asia (330
million in total); the highest percentage in terms of
population is in Africa (23%).
• China has done the best in terms of dealing with
malnutrition among children; South Asia lags behind
and no improvement in Africa since 1990.
PROBLEMS OF HUNGER
Reasons:
• Low per capita income
• Movement of people off the land into large cities in search of
employment, meaning they cannot subsist by growing food if
necessary
• Farming on marginal land
• Lack of access to modern methods and technology among
poorer and smaller farmers
• Introduction of commercial farming in colonial and modern times
• Movement away from subsistence crops to commercial crops for the world
market
• Concentration of land in hands of fewer owners, leading to people leaving
the land to go to the cities
• Natural disasters
• Wars and civil wars
• Regional overpopulation
POSITION OF WOMEN
Women also tend to be more vulnerable to problem
of poverty given their generally lower social status,
assignment of gender roles, and role in reproduction.
Also the case that providing women with a chance
to succeed has large effects on problems of poverty
even though much of their labor is not recorded and
used in the calculation of GDP
• Important for lowering birthrates in overpopulated
countries
• Important for providing for the welfare of children
and the elderly
POSITION OF WOMEN
Efforts to reduce poverty by addressing problems
pertaining to women:
• End discrimination in education
• Information regarding health, nutrition and fertility
• Raising status of adult women, entry into full
citizenship
• Provide opportunities, information, financing and
infrastructure (childcare) for women to engage in
formal economic activities.
• Handicraft cooperatives
• Microloans
• Training in business practices
IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
People also attempt to move from less developed to
more developed areas, either voluntarily or due to
circumstances that force them to leave.
Immigrants: people who voluntarily leave their native
country in search of better opportunities, generally
economic.
Refugees are people who have been involuntarily
displaced from their homes by war, discrimination or
natural disasters.
IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
Immigrants may live in poverty because
• they are unable to enter the country in which they
wish to live,
• enter a country illegally and therefore cannot work,
or cannot be paid well for work, or
• enter a country legally, but do not have the
linguistic and other skills, or cultural knowledge, to
do well there
IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
Refugees have problems in large part because they are unable to
enter a country and live a normal life.
• They are often contained in camps form which they are unable
to leave,
• The are often unable to work,
• They often have no status
• They are often sustained by charitable efforts
• They are often subjected to problems that result from
overcrowding, including bad sanitation and infectious diseases
• They often receive at best inferior educational and training
opportunities
• They have no permanent status in any non-native country and
are expected to return to their country of origin even if that is
impossible for several years.
• There are approximately 33 million refugees in the world
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
An associated problem is human trafficking. This is the
practice of conveying people across borders either
involuntarily or through a payment that is usually
discharged through labor.
Involuntary trafficking is associated with the sex trade, with
those trafficked usually kidnapped or tricked into a
compromising situation, then transported to another
country and kept involuntarily in degrading conditions.
Voluntary trafficking involves the use of people smugglers
to get illicit immigrants into a country. However, to pay the
debt owed the trafficker, these people often work as
virtual slaves for months or years and are also subjected to
degrading, impoverished conditions.