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Quality of Life?Living Standards and Human Development
World population: 7+ billion (2011)
Severe poverty: 1.2+ billion
Without food: 850+ million
Illiterate: 850+ million (540+million women)
Facts: World Poverty
Living Standards:
◦Measured in income people earn, health, levels of nutrition, life expectancy, literacy, and the status of women and children.
What are Living Standards?
◦Is a measure of the prosperity and quality of life of a country.
◦Generally speaking the higher a countries’ standard of living, the better off are its people.
Standard of Living
How does one measure the standard of living?
◦To measure the standard of living for countries one must use the UN Human Development Index, a ranking of the standard of living for every country in the world.
Standard of Living + HDI
Quality of life is the degree of well-being an individual or group of people feel about their life.
◦Unlike standard of living, quality of life is not a tangible thing, and so it cannot be measured directly= subjective/individual feeling.
What is Quality of Life?
It consists of two components:
◦Physical The physical aspects includes: health, diet
and protection against pain and disease.
◦Psychological The psychological aspects include: stress,
worry, pleasure, subjective life-satisfactions and objective determinants of quality of life.
What is Quality of Life?
◦ Health
◦ Level of nutrition
◦ Life expectancy
◦ Literacy
◦ Status of women and children
◦ Freedom of expression/Rights
◦ The right to a safe, clean environment
Quality of Life Measures
What are the Major
Determinants of Health?
See Page 360
Every year the United Nations publishes a Human Development Index Report.
What is the Human Development Index Report?
The report contains an index that ranks its member countries according to three measures:
◦Adult Literacy◦Life Expectancy
◦Per capita GDP (Per Person Gross Domestic Product)
What is the Human Development Index Report?
Components of the HDI
HDI MapThis map shows Human Development Index (HDI) for 169 countries in the World. The HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for
countries worldwide.
Where does (did) Canada rank according to the HDR? (Hint: refer to the table on page 341)
◦Today we are ranked 5th in the Human Development Index Report.
Overall, the index indicates living conditions in 85 countries are worse then they were in the 1980’s.
Where is Canada in the Report?
Percentage of a population who read and write to a standard.
Measures level of education.
Literacy higher in developed countries.
What is Literacy?
What is GDP ? = Gross Domestic Product
◦It is the gross national income of a country = the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year.
◦Canada = 2011 = $1.57 Trillion.
How do you Measure a Country’s Wealth?
Per Capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
The total value of all goods and services produced in a country divided by total population you get the average GDP per person/per capita.
◦Canada = $40,457 (2011)
What is Per Capita GDP?
What are the problems with GDP?
Countries with massive wealth for only a few (i.e. Saudi Arabia).
Countries have different costs of living (i.e. per capita income in Canada vs. Cuba).
Some countries don’t measure their goods and services (i.e. poor accounting; corruption, trade, not money used).
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
The United Nations (UN) is:
◦An international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace.
What is the United Nations?
The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations.
Its aim was to stop wars between countries and to provide a platform for dialogue.
What is the United Nations?
The organization has six principal organs/sections:
The General Assembly The Security Council The Economic and Social Council The Secretariat The International Court of Justice The UN Trusteeship Council (which is
currently inactive)
UN – Six Principal Organs
◦Other prominent UN systems agencies include:
The World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Food Programme (WFP)
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
UN – Six Principal Organs
The UN and other organizations have been working to reduce the gap between:
◦ Developed countries
◦ Newly Industrialized countries (NICs)
◦ Developing countries
◦ HIPCs
◦ Infrastructure
What is he UN’s Agenda?
◦Developed countries:
Wealthy nations with a modern/developed infrastructure, have industrialized, are wealthier, have high literacy, smaller population that depend on immigration (i.e. Canada, USA, Britain, France, Germany, Japan).
Which countries are which?
◦Developing countries:
Those nations that have no modern infrastructure or many industries/resources, have not industrialized or are just beginning to industrialize, are relatively poor, have low literacy, and high populations (i.e. Rwanda, Kenya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Poland, Cuba).
Which countries are which?
◦Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs):
Those nations that are building their infrastructure and industry (i.e. South Africa, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Turkey).
Infrastructure - transportation, communication links (phone, Internet, TV), schools, hospitals, sewage + fresh water systems.
What are NICs?
◦HIPCs (Highly (or Heavily) indebted poor countries):
These developing nations owe developed countries money; are in massive debt.
i.e. Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Bolivia.
What are HIPCs?
How can we (the developed world) help
developing nations who are struggling to
survive?
Recent Solutions:
◦Wealthy nations forgive debt load, provide low-interest loans or no interest loans, provide technology, education/knowledge to build infrastructure . . .
How can we help?
But not an easy answer...
◦Corruption in government, political instability (coups/overthrow of government/civil war/constant “elections”).
◦Modernize too quickly (increase in poverty/people pushed out).
◦Rise in oil prices (need oil to run machines to build).
◦Rise in western goods (demand outweighs supply).
How can we help?
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
Air Water Food Shelter Clothing Love Education Medical
WANTS: Everything else
What are the Basic NEEDS of Life?
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
The World Bank (an international lending agency) classifies absolute poverty as:
Absolute poverty: People who receive below one dollar a day.
What is Poverty?
There are 1.5 billion est. people below the poverty line.
Poverty Line: The line that divides the poor and rich in regards to 1) income 2) quality of life.
What is Poverty?
Poverty is:
◦a shortage of common basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life.
Poverty Defined
◦Poverty may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment, which aid in the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.
Poverty Defined
Poverty is measured differently in developed and developing countries.
Poverty is hard to measure – it is difficult to compare living standards.
How do we measure poverty?
Poverty in one country will not equal poverty in another.
◦For example, in Canada people in the population living below the poverty line can still get social benefits from the government not the case in many other countries!
Poverty
The poor in Canada:◦87% have flat screen TVs◦98% have a radio◦52% have a car◦64% have a washing machine◦90% have access to regular medical care
The poor in North or South Sudan?
Poverty?
Accounting systems in the developed world can find out:
◦The level of industrialization (on a national scale)
◦The value of services
◦Exports and imports (global trade)
How do we measure poverty?
Different standards in less-developed countries/developing countries:
◦Trade done locally (vs internationally).
◦Massive gap between the rich and the poor.
How do we measure poverty?
Prior to 1999 Canada set its poverty line based on an income figure ($26,000).
Now it is based on % of income used on the necessities of life to take in to account the difference in the cost of living between regions in the country.
What is the current situation of Poverty in Canada?
Families that spend above 56% of their income on the basic necessities are considered to be impoverished.
1 in 10 Canadians are considered poor. About 9% or 3.2 million Canadians are
living in poverty.
Poverty in Canada
In BC, 20.6% of children live in poverty (2014).
◦That is 169,420 children.
◦BC has the worst child poverty rate in the nation =
(national average 15%).
Child Poverty in BC
Approximately, 1 in 8 children in Canada are living in poverty.
◦Every month, 770,000 people in Canada use food banks & 40% of those relying on food banks are children.
What is the current situation of Child Poverty in Canada?
The poverty rate experienced by first-generation immigrant and refugee children is 33 per cent (2013).
Poverty among visible minorities is at 22 per cent (2013).
What is the current situation of Child Poverty in Canada?
The poverty rate of status First Nations children living on reserves was triple that of non-indigenous children.
What is the current situation of Child Poverty in Canada?
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 62 and 64 per cent of status First Nations children were living below the poverty line (2013), compared with 15 and 16 per cent among non-indigenous children in most of the other provinces.
What is the current situation of Child Poverty in Canada?
Percent of Poverty World Map
What is the Poverty Trap?
The Poverty Trap:
Is a spiraling mechanism which forces people to remain poor.
It is so binding in itself that it doesn't allow the poor people to escape it/makes it very difficult to escape poverty.
The Poverty Trap
Megaprojects:
◦Funded by the UN via the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and national governments.
Borrow money to build megaprojects to pay off debt yet never get out of debt, keep spiralling in debt!
Why is Debt a DevelopingNation’s Poverty Trap?
Example:
Africa’s Debt: $300 Billion (estimate)◦Africa spends about $15 billion a year on
debt repayments but gets only $12.7 billion in aid during the same period = there is always a shortfall; remain in poverty/in debt.
A Developing Nation’s Poverty Trap
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
Women’s Status in the world/developing countries:
◦Male dominated societies (patriarchal societies) = women are seen as less-than, unimportant, expendable.
◦No legal rights or viewed as property.
The Vulnerable: Women
◦Get married and have children under 15 (sometimes as young as 9).
◦Gender-based violence/Violence against women and girls.
◦Education seen as “wasted” on girls.
The Vulnerable: Women
Women in developing countries:
◦Often have lower social status.
◦Often seen as property by the laws of the state.
Status of Women in Developing Countries
◦Often have no or little legal rights.
◦Literacy rates are often lower for women than men.
◦Often fewer girls go to school than boys.
Status of Women:Rights
◦Where women do not get a secondary education the average number of children they will have is seven.
◦While those women with a secondary education have on average three children.
Status of Women: Education
◦Often do not have easy access to contraceptives or education about birth control, HIV/AIDS, and/or other sexually transmitted infections/diseases.
Status of Women: Disease
Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their twenties.
If a mother is under 18, her baby’s chance of dying in the first year of life is 60 per cent greater than that of a baby born to a mother older than 19.
The Facts: Women/Girls + Pregnancy
Even if the child survives, he or she is more likely to suffer from low birth weight, malnourishment and late physical and cognitive development.
The Facts: Women/Girls + Pregnancy
United Nations (UN) Charter:
◦ “To achieve international co-operation … in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”
Women’s Rights are Human Rights!
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
◦“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Women’s Rights are Human Rights!
How can the problems that women in
developing countries face be solved?
International monetary aid (with no interest; via NGOs).
Training the people to take charge of their own destiny – jobs, investment, collectives.
How can the problems that women in developing countries face be solved?
Re-socializing the population to emphasize gender-equality, non-violence, and human beings rights
How can the problems that women in developing countries face be solved?
Free Public Elementary and Secondary Education for all regardless of traditions/gender/socio-economic status.
Access to free or low-cost post-secondary education and subsequent jobs opportunities.
How can the problems that women in developing countries face be solved?
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
Children's Status in Developing Countries:
◦Child malnutrition
◦Child labour
◦Tourism sex trade
◦Child soldiers
The Vulnerable: Children
Vulnerable Dependants:
◦Few too many children are uneducated and exploited as labours, even forced into the sex trade.
Children in Developing Countries
Children caught in the Sex trade
U5MR – Under 5 Mortality Rate:
◦Used to measure human development; used by UNICEF.
◦Children who die under 5 years old (causes = poverty: malnutrition, disease, war, labour).
U5MR + Children
In some African countries the mortality rate is 50 times higher than industrialized nations.
◦The majority of deaths are due to malnutrition.
◦Disease, dirty water, lack of hygiene are also important factors.
Malnutrition + Contamination
Over 300,000 children and youth/young adults (under 18) are in armed conflicts, many in Africa:
◦Some societies see 16-17 year olds as adults.
◦In some nations service in the military is not voluntary; it is a tribal tradition.
Child Soldiers
Personal Stories of Child Soldiers:
◦Ishmael Beah – A Long Way Gone
◦Emmanuel Jal – War Child
◦Rebellw/War Witch - film
Child Soldiers
250 million 5-14 year olds are working.
◦Half are in full-time jobs.
◦The problem is the lack of labour laws in many developing countries.
Working Children
◦IQBAL MASIH: Pakistani anti-child laborer campaigner who was assassinated in 1995.
◦FREEDOM HERO: IQBAL MASIH
◦5:29 minutes
◦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0D6K18wq8A
Working Children
◦Craig Kielburger of Free the Children inspired by Iqbal
◦It Takes a Child
◦3:23 minutes (clip from film)
◦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afClM91uQFU
Working Children
Mauritanian girls weave a straw rug.
Columbia boy shifts through trash for items of value to sell.
Children selling handicrafts in Bangkok, Thailand.
Young boys carrying bricks at a construction site to earn a living
in New Delhi, India.
Child Abuse in the Developing World:
◦Prevented from attending school.
◦Are used as child labourers.
◦Are exploited sexually by organized crime.
◦Suffer from poor nutrition and health.
Child Abuse
UN Convention on the Rights of Children:
◦States an ideal situation for children.
◦Difficult to negotiate with countries and fund programs.
◦Disagreement of age of a child between 16-18.
Children’s Rights
According to the UN:
◦Children have a right to a free primary education.
◦Children must be protected by the State from economic exploitation and unhealthy conditions.
Children’s Rights
◦Children must be protected by the State from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.
◦Children have a right to the highest attainable standard of health in a State.
◦Children under 15 must not take part in hostilities.
Children’s Rights
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
Why are some countries in debt?
◦After WWII (1945) the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank were set up as part of the United Nations to loan money and help developing countries improve their standards of living by economic growth.
The Burden of Debt
◦Many projects failed and damaged the environment.
◦In the 1960’s, Western Banks (Western Europe, USA, Canada) lent billions to African countries with high interest.
Why in Debt?
◦World economic slow downs hurts countries’ exporting economy.
◦Some have corrupt dictators who steal the money for themselves and their closest political friends or filter it into the military.
Why in Debt?
IMF and World Bank lends more money to pay off debts which have many conditions attached that ended up hurting the countries instead of helping them.
Lending $$$
◦For instance, the IMF wanted the debtor governments to agree to encourage foreign investment, grow cash crops for export, and have some government services run by private companies = all of these requirements took money out of the hands of the state and left them with nothing.
Lending $$$
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs):
◦A program that requires an indebted country to restructure its economy by encouraging foreign investment, increasing exports, and turning government services over to the private sector in return for loans from the World Bank and IMF.
◦Result = Countries can’t pay debts and the interest just keeps on growing (which results in greater debt).
What are SAPs?
Many debtor countries have few natural resources, or receive low prices for them on the world market because there is an oversupply, or their resources are under the control of foreign Multinational Corporations/Companies (MNCs).
What are MNCs?
Multinational Corporations/Companies (MNCs):
◦A corporation/enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country.
◦Can have a powerful influence in local economies, and even the world economy, and play an important role in international relations and globalization.
What are MNCs?
◦For example, Ghana, which produces 70% of the world’s cocoa, must sell the crop to four MNCs who control the price.
◦Very little of the profit filters back to the Ghanaian farmer impossible to earn money to pay off their debts.
◦African countries have also suffered droughts and floods – again indebted.
What are MNCs?
Foreign Aid:
◦In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, or foreign aid) is a voluntary transfer of resources (often money) from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country.
What is Foreign Aid?
1999 HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) Agreement:
◦Cancels 111 billion owned by HIPCs.
◦$243 billion outstanding.
The 1999 HIPC Agreement
Since 2000, Canada has forgiven all overseas development aid debt to 15 HIPCs except Myanmar (formerly Burma) which has a military dictatorship.
More bilateral aid for development (assistance from one government to another) money given as grants now (instead of loans).
Canada & Aid
• 1. debt is a major cause of poverty in some developing countries.
• 2. many debts are old and much interest has been collected.
• 3. poorest people suffer the most.
• 4. rich/poor gap grows with debt.
Reason to Forgive Debts
1. borrowers knew they had to pay when loans were accepted.
2. forgiving too much debt may have a direct effect on the economies of developed countries.
3. debt forgiveness can be tied to conditions.
Reasons to not Forgive Debts
Should aid be given to countries with a
dictatorship?
◦There is no guarantee that aid will reach who need it most.
◦Aid might be used first for the military and to support the dictatorship.
◦The best way to change the practices of dictatorships is to deny them money.
Aid to Dictatorships? Arguments Against Aid
◦Many cultures have values that differ from those of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
◦People should be able to follow their own culture, even if their views conflict with those of Western society.
◦Change can be brought about best through dialogue with dictatorships, not by pressure.
Aid to Dictatorships? In Favour of Giving Aid
Different types of aid to developing countries from Canada:
◦1. Multilateral Aid
◦2. Bilateral Aid ( also called Tied Aid)
◦3. CIDA
◦4. NGOs
Foreign Aid: Canada
1. Multilateral: funded by a number of governments:
◦(+) Canadian aid makes large-scale projects possible
◦(+) CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) distributes aid through UN
Foreign Aid: Canada
1. Multilateral: funded by a number of governments
◦(-) Affects Canada’s Economy
◦(-) What about domestic affairs = what is happening in the country in regards to human rights?
Foreign Aid: Canada
2. Bilateral/Tied Aid:
◦Assistance given by one country to another that requires the receiving country to buy goods and services from donor country.
Foreign Aid: Canada
Bilateral/Tied Aid:
◦Ex. Philippines get help from USA, in return they need to buy US goods and services.
◦(+) grants (not loans to developing countries)
Foreign Aid: Canada
Bilateral/Tied Aid:
◦(-) donor country gets more benefits than receiving country
◦(-) conditions/rules (limitations) applied with this type of aid
Foreign Aid: Canada
Foreign Aid: Canada
3. CIDA: Canadian International Development Agency = work with people in developing countries to develop the tools for them to meet their own needs.
◦(+) supports projects in 100 of the world’s poorest countries
◦(-) less than 20 % of Canada’s aid is for BASIC health needs
Foreign Aid: Canada
4. NGOs: Non-Governmental Organizations; grassroots level (from the people not the government or corporations)
◦(+) direct assistance to communities
◦(-) no aid from government (or very little) rely on donations and volunteers
NGO = Non-Governmental Organization:
◦Is any local, national or international citizens’ group (i.e. not a part of government) which does not work for profit (a non-profit/not for profit organization).
What are NGOs?
◦NGOs work in diverse fields such as law, refugee work, human rights, and disarmament.
◦Their work can range from influencing policy or organizing communities around special issues to providing technical or medical assistance to conducting research.
NGOs
◦Many are associated with the UN.
◦Some prominent NGOs include: Oxfam, We the Peoples, Earth Charter, Doctors Without Borders, Canadian Red Cross, Free the Children, the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace.
NGOs
Should Canada increase the amount of aid it
presently gives?
Reasons in Favour:
◦Aid projects have a positive effect on improving people’s lives: health, nutrition, and education.
Should Canada increase the amount of aid it presently gives?
◦We live in a Global Village.
◦We are wealthy, so Canada should share.
◦To close the gap between rich and poor.
Should Canada increase the amount of aid it presently gives?
Reasons Against:
◦Aid does not concentrate/focus on basic human needs.
Should Canada increase the amount of aid it presently gives?
◦Should look at problems within Canada before other countries.
◦Should deal with out own national debt.
◦Foreign aid not working; poverty persists.
Should Canada Increase the amount of aid it presently gives?
Is the World’s Poverty Inevitable?
Net wealth of 10 richest billionaires:◦$133+ billion! more than 1.5x the total
national income of the Least Developed Countries.
Cost of debt relief to the 20 poorest countries:◦$ 5.5+ billion! equivalent to the cost of
building Euro Disney.
Is the World’s Poverty Inevitable?
$ spent on dog and cat food for six countries in 9 days:◦$700 million.
$ spent today in world:◦$92 billion on junk food.◦$66 billion on cosmetics.◦$900 billion on military defence.
Is the World’s Poverty Inevitable?
Amount of money needed each year (in addition to current expenditures) to provide reproductive health care for all women in developing countries:
$12 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money spent annually (yearly) on perfumes in Europe and the United States:
$12 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money needed each year (in addition to current expenditures) to provide water and sanitation for all people in developing nations:
$9 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money spent annually on cosmetics in the United States:
$8 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money needed each year (in addition to current expenditures) to provide basic health an nutrition needs universally in the developing world:
$13 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money spent each year on pet food in Europe and the United States:
$17 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money needed each year (in addition to current expenditures) to provide basic education for all people in developing nations:
$6 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Amount of money spent each year on militaries worldwide:
$780 billion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Combined wealth of the world's richest 225 people:
$1+ trillion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Combined annual income of the world's poorest 2.5 billion people:
$1+ trillion
Matters of Scale: Spending Priorities
Video: The Global Food Waste Scandal
14:15 minutes
http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal.html
Note down two thing that you found important and/or interesting.
Is the World’s Poverty Inevitable?
It appears to be an issue of priorities not an issue
of money or is it something else?
The proportion of human kind living in poverty has fallen faster in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years.
Have Things Improved?
Since 1960 child death rates in developing countries have more than halved, malnutrition rates have declined by almost a third, the proportion of children out of primary school has fallen from more than half to less than a quarter.
Have Things Improved?
1. Do developed nations have an obligation or duty to help? Why or why not? Explain.
2. Are there added benefits to helping developing nations? Why or why not? Explain.
Obligations?Questions to Consider
Any Questions or Comments
so Far?
Comic Section
