Environmental, economic,
social and political factors affecting development – global imbalance of
trade between different parts of the world.
Environmental factors affecting development – the impact of natural
hazards.
The physical environment can have a direct impact upon the
development of a place.
The UK benefitted in many ways from its physical or natural
environment for its rise to a global superpower during the Industrial
Revolution.
Its Island natural gave it a coastline to fully exploit for
resources and many potential trade routes.
It had the right mix of natural resources to exploit for many
Industrial processes, including coal, iron Ore and Limestone.
It also had a temperate climate without the extremes of
weather that can damage development.
Many countries are not as fortunate and the following factors
can limit development;
1.
Climate related disease
– many tropical countries unfortunately suffer from diseases that
thrive in hot humid conditions, such as Dengue Fever, Chagas Disease and
Malaria.
People who get these diseases are incapacitated and cannot
work or may even die, limiting development.
2.
A lack of natural resources
– countries with few natural resources start off at a very low economic
base and find it hard to create products that can sell on world markets.
3.
Natural resource curse theory
– this is a theory that states if a country has one very valuable
resource all efforts of the country are put into the exploitation of
that resource.
That limits the POTENTIAL development of other industries and
if the resource is in the hands of a minority unscrupulous ruling elite,
the profits are not shared well amongst people in the country.
4.
Being landlocked with bad neighbours
– although this has a political element to it, countries that have no
access to the sea are at the mercy of their neighbours.
If they are “bad neighbours” who expect huge payments or have
regular conflict, this can severely limit development.
5.
Climatic hazards
such as hurricanes and drought are more likely to strike some
countries than others.
For fragile countries a drought could have a devastating
impact on development. The 2011 to 2012 Horn of Africa famine that
affected Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Somalia had a long term impact.
As well as killing and weakening people from hunger and
thirst, many of these countries had to deal with a refugee crisis,
diverting valuable resources away from other development objectives.
Economic factors affecting development
Unfortunately poverty can lead to poverty.
The diagram shows the poverty trap, which is often thought of
as a cycle.
Low investment in key areas such as infrastructure (roads,
rail, telecommunications etc.), education and healthcare can have dire
consequences for a population.
Populations in countries at low levels of development can
become more vulnerable to ill health (as we have seen with HIV and AIDs
in sub-Saharan Africa) which reduces the productivity of the workforce.
In addition, a lack of education leads to a lower quality
workforce, and poor road networks are not attractive to outside
investors.
Simple things like these can exacerbate (make worse) poverty,
and keep countries mired in a low level of development.
It is very difficult to expand from a very low base, particularly in
today’s very competitive global economy.
In addition, countries at low levels of economic development
are also more likely to be victims of civil wars and their after
effects.
Countries such as the Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo
and Rwanda are good examples of this.
Wars consume vital resources and divert attention away from
the crucial issues for normal people, healthcare, reliable food
supplies, stability, economic well-being and access to clean drinking
water.
The world’s poorest countries have also been at the mercy of a global
trade system designed and controlled by the world’s richest countries.
Several measures put in place by the world’s richest countries
mean that the world’s poorest countries are at a disadvantage;
1.
Import tariffs of goods from poorer countries put the prices of those
goods UP
2.
Subsidies (payments from governments to the producer) of goods produced
in richer countries push the prices of rich world goods cheaper. This
makes it harder for poorer countries to compete.
3.
The world trade system encourages a “race to the bottom”, where buyers
from richer countries go from place to place around the world driving
down prices because supply of goods often outstrips demand.
In addition, the lack of reliable energy supply, political stability,
infrastructure and educated workforce put countries at a disadvantage.
The net result in many poorer countries is that they are
forced to export only lower value raw materials such as agricultural
goods, whilst they buy back more expensive manufactured goods or
services.
Poorer countries do not have the capital to set these types of
industries up.
Social factors
There are many social factors that can affect the level of
development of a place.
Things like lack of drive of social motivation for betterment,
unproductive social functions such as war or having very large family
sizes, negative social cultures such as gambling and drinking, and lack
of skills due to poor training and education are some of these factors.
Education is particularly important, as many countries cannot
afford to send all children to school even at a basic level. UNICEF
claim that in 2006 93 million children of primary school age were not in
school!
Source:
UNICEF.
The exam board expects you to focus on WATER SUPPLY and QUALITY.
Water quality can have a massive impact on people, and this links to
India and its attempts to clean up the River Ganges.
Poor water quality has a direct impact on people’s lives as it
is an essential element for live.
Poor water quality can lead to disease, which weakens people
and therefore has a direct impact on their productivity and hence
economic development.
Diseases related to poor quality water include Bilharzia
(snail fever, where snails transmit flatworms to people causing internal
organ damage), Yellow fever and Malaria (both related to mosquitos which
breed around water) and cholera (extreme diarrhoea).
Water supply is another major issue because in many parts of
the world unreliable water supplies limit agriculture and other
development areas.
If people are searching for and carrying water they cannot
focus their energies on other areas of the economy, limiting development
further. According to
WaterAid;
·
Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe
water and poor sanitation. That's almost 2,000 children a day
·
768 million people in the world don't have access to safe water. This is
roughly one in ten of the world's population
·
2.5 billion people don't have access to adequate sanitation, almost
two-fifths of the world's population.
POLITICAL FACTORS - The impact of unstable governments.
Governments play a lead role in the development process, and many
governments are filled with honest people who do a good job trying to
raise both the standard of living and quality of life of the people who
live there. Unfortunately there are cases of governments that have
corrupt officials who make money and wealth at the expense of the people
that they are supposed to represent. Nigeria has been labeled as one of
the most corrupt countries on Planet Earth by the
BBC.
When politicians are corrupt developments in health, education,
roads, power generation and clean water are less likely.
Companies and other governments are also less likely to invest
in those countries as they are unstable. There is even a corruption
perception index which correlates reasonably well with GNI!
The COMBINATION of environmental, social, economic and political factors
have served to make global inequalities between the top 20% and bottom
20% worse.
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Coolgeography.co.uk by Rob Gamesby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. |