Question on Development Case study of Ghana, Thailand, India and Bangladesh

1. (a)
i. What do you understand by this term ‘income per capita’? [2]
ii. With reference to examples, explain why income per capita should not be the only indicator to measure the development of a country. [4]

(b) The table below shows development issues in Ghana.

Life in Ghana today:

• Politically stable
• Need US$6 Billion to develop infrastructur
• GNI is US$477 per capita
• Highly dependent on aid
• Common for people to love with no electricity that produces hydroelectric power.
• Almost all electricity generated sold to aluminum smelters and process of electricity are high
• Most people work in informal sector and never declare income 70% are farmers but still imports food
• Export cocoa beans to UK
• People commonly go hungry and families rarely eat meat.
• 3 buckets of water per day cost 10-20% of average daily income of 1 person
• One of the best schools in Ghana has fees of US$600/year.
  
  

i. Suggest why Ghana faces difficulty in developing its economy. [6]
ii. Using the problems identified in (i), explain what the Ghanaian government can do to increase the standard of living. [5]

(c) With reference to studies made, evaluate the success of strategies used
by governments in Less Developed Countries to promote national
development in education, health and the economy. [8]


As usual try to attempt the question first before looking at the answer.

1 (a) i. What do you understand by this term ‘income per capita’?

• Average income each worker in a country receives in a year
• Indicator of wealth of people in a country and the standard of living
• Take the total income of a country divide by total population
• Examples of measurements would be gross domestic product per capita or gross national product per capita [2]
  

ii. With reference to examples, explain why income per capita should not be the
only indicator to measure the development of a country.

• Indicates only the average income earned per person, will not know the
  income gap in the country
• Countries like China and India may appear to have lower gdp/capita but
  there are extremely rich pp. (big / wide y distribution)
• Rural poor, urban migrant workers vs. small % of urban rich
• Limited in showing social development / quality of living especially in education and health e.g Middle Eastern countries … rich because of production of oil but education and health
• Infrastructure not comparable to income per capita. e.g Singapore … high income per capita but not considered developed in terms of % of population with tertiary education, lagging behind DCs such as USA and Japan. [4]

(b) Fig. 1 shows development issues in Ghana.
(i) Suggest why Ghana faces difficulty in developing its economy. [6]

• Low income per capita (US$477) = government has little revenue to develop country and need US$6b to develop infrastructure
• Highly dependent on aid = in debt (not all aid are free)
• Poorly developed infrastructure : water supply, education, electricity supply
• Income gap between rich and poor is wide, most are poor farmers
• 70% are farmers but there is insufficient food
• agric products are cash crops, low value.
• Agriculture are exported without processing
• public utilities such as water supply is barely existent… and expensive.Had to buy buckets from water vendors, 20% of income
• there is electricity but not for the population, channeled for mining and smelting.
• Schools are not readily available and accessible except to the very rich … high school fees of US$600 per year.
  If only cut and paste info from the table, max 3m.
  

(ii) Using the problems identified in (i), explain what the Ghanaian
government can do to increase the standard of living. [5]

• Add value to agric products such as cocoa beans like process them into cocoa powder
• Overtime, manufacture chocolate
• Diversify in to food crops that can meet population’s needs, cheaper than importing food.
• Plant GM food / HYVs, fertilizers etc to increase yields especially food crops, sell/export surplus
• Mechanize farming
• All these measures will reduce aid and dependency on imported food and yet earn revenue from export.
• Use political stability to set up tax system to collect more revenue.
• Reduce reliance on foreign aid This source of income can be used to develop infrastructure public utilities, proper public water services and supply, electricity supply and education facilities.
• Add value to al by processing them into steel.
• Create employment for population, higher salary than working as a miner.

(d) With reference to studies made, evaluate the success of strategies used by
governments in Less Developed Countries to promote national development
in education, health and the economy. [8]

L1 0-3
Describe strategies only. Brief statements on success. Country example only.

L2 – 4-6
Must have evaluation of success, specific egs to get highest of L2.
4m Covers 1 in depth
5m Covers 2 in depth
6m Covers 2 in depth, 1 superficially

L3 – 7-8 Covers all 3, clear evaluation and specific egs.

Education
Thailand’s hill tribe community project in 1998
77 established in 1998 under government’s policy to provide, ‘Education for All’
Formal and non-formal education programmes developed to suit needs of communities, eg

i. Academic subjects and life skills taught
ii. Sustainable farming methods taught to local farmers

Result
i. Many are able to obtain employment in cities
ii. Agricultural production increased
iii. General increase in income has helped in improving the standard of living of the people in the country.

Constrains
i. BUT depends on availability of volunteer teachers from more developed region teach in community learning centre.
ii. Communication barriers.. strong culture
iii. Adaptability to changes by the hill tribe. Resistance to formal education,
iv. suspicious of westerners from NGOs.
v. Geographically isolated, poor transport and accessibility.
vi. Difficult for government to reach out to all and attract volunteers
vii. Politically unstable area, Myanmar and Thai border, danger element and instability o livelihood.

Health (water supply and sanitation facilities)
Case of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India

· Parivartan Slum Networking Programme
· Aims to help region develop by improving lives of slum dwellers
· Site and Services Scheme (new housing site).
· Provision of basic infrastructure: water supply and underground sewerage
· Supported by local government, funded by local banks
· Monthly monitoring meetings, future planning sessions
· Training sessions on proper use of facilities
· Benefited 56,000 people in >40 slums/squatters
· Expanded to include 59 more slums
·

Results
o Death rates declined from 6.9 per 1,000 people to 3.7 per 1,000 people
o Fewer people falling ill, Increased standard of living, Helped region to develop.

Problems
o Slum dwellers unwilling to move should they have to shift out to an improved area.
o Could be at the fringe of the city, far away from the workplace, too lowly paid to afford transport despite better water supply and sanitation facilities, jobs in the city centre
o Culture and tradition, generations have been there.
o Economy by creating jobs and financial assistance

Economic Growth
“Linking Arms Against Poverty” OR Grameen Microfinancing in Bangladesh

· Aims to increase employment rate and income of the poor

· Benefit
o Resources provided to informal sector
o Government works with NGOs to assess viability to business ventures before loans are offered.
o Microfinance, or small loans, were given to small businesses
o Ultra-poor given interest free loans
o Programme supported by several other NGOs and private organizations
o Poor given training and advice to run businesses effectively 600,000 agricultural jobs created in rural areas, 3 million businesses assisted,1.7 million provided employment through job placement schemes.

Problems
o Income gap still very wide bet rich and poor.
o Little access to markets to sell their products which are usually handicraft.
o Insufficient volunteers in the microfinance programme to give loans, provide training, reach out to the more enterprising poor especially in isolated areas.