At the turn of the century, the UN Development Programme identified a series of seven Millennium Development Goals (http://www.undp.org/mdg/). The article linked to below from the Guardian, considers the progress that has been made towards these goals. Urgent progress is required if the goals are to be met by the target date of 2015.
Poverty, hunger and disease: so much done yet so much left to do Guardian (10/12/07)
Questions
| 1. |
What are the seven Millennium Development Goals. |
| 2. |
Discuss the action that is required if the goals are to be met by the target date of 2015. |
| 3. |
Analyse the extent to which an increase in overseas aid will help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. |
The article below from the BBC website looks at the issue of microfinance – the provision of very small loans as a form of development assistance to help people in developing countries to support themselves and develop their businesses.
Small loans to women make big changes BBC News Online (21/8/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Explain what is meant by microfinancing. |
| 2. |
Examine the reasons why microfinancing is considered more effective at promoting economic development (as opposed to economic growth). |
| 3. |
Assess the extent to which microfinancing could help in other developing countries to promote economic development. |
Many new regional trade agreements (RTAs) and bilateral trade agreements have been signed in recent years. In a report – Signing away the future – Oxfam has argued that these trade agreements may often significantly disadvantage the poorer developing countries. The links below give access to the briefing paper and some FAQs about these agreements.
Oxfam slams bilateral trade deals BBC News Online(20/3/07)
The state of world trade – Oxfam Oxfam website
Signing away the future – Oxfam Briefing Paper Oxfam website
Signing away the future – Q&A Oxfam website
Questions
| 1. |
Explain the difference between a regional trade agreement and a bilateral trade agreement. |
| 2. |
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for developing countries of signing (a) bilateral trade agreements and (b) regional trade agreements. |
| 3. |
Choose a specific recent regional trade agreement and assess the impact it has had on the member countries. |
The United Nations has set a target for developed countries to donate 0.7% of their GDP to poor nations. However, the average figure is just 0.33% for the developed world and according to a recent OECD report many nations are set to miss this target if they fail to boost aid spending significantly. Indeed, only a few countries – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – are currently meeting this target.
West set to fail aid targets, OECD says Guardian(22/2/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Explain what is meant by ‘official development assistance’. |
| 2. |
Discuss the likely impact on the developing world of a failure to meet the aid targets set by the United Nations. |
| 3. |
Assess the extent to which developing countries are likely to gain from globalisation. |
In developing countries the growth of urbanisation is causing some worrying social, environmental and health problems. As the introduction to the article below puts it:
“UN figures for urbanisation, published this week in the State of the World 2007 report, show that more than 60 million people – roughly the population of the UK – are added to the planet’s cities and suburbs each year, mostly in low-income urban settlements in developing countries. Unplanned urbanisation is taking a huge toll on human health and the quality of the environment, contributing to social, ecological, and economic instability in many countries.”
Streets ahead Guardian (17/1/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Assess the impact of the growth of urbanisation on the rate of development in developing countries. |
| 2. |
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of growing urbanisation to a developing country. |
| 3. |
Assess the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in helping to minimise the negative consequences of urbanisation. |