Development Indicators – How do they work?
Today’s lesson will consolidate your understanding of development and development indicators. To begin with I am going to show you a download called Dollar Street from Gapminder. Following this, we will play a development game.
Development Game Reflection Questions
- What factors influenced the development of each country?
- Why was it difficult for the country to break the cycle of poverty?
The following clip, taken from Gapminder, will provide an overview and summary of how development in countries changes over time.
200 Years that Changed the World
You can go to the Gapminder website and choose other indicators to compare and present. This site will be very useful when completing the major group task below.
Last lesson, you began looking at social, demographic and economic indicators. In your groups, you need to classify the following types of indicators. Following this, independently find definitions for the following indicators:
- Life Expectancy
- U5MR
- Literacy Rate
- GDP per capita
- GNP per capita
- PPP
- Poverty Incidence
Development indicators can also be classified as either quantitative (based on quantity) or qualitative. The keynote I have put together in class provides an overview of two important qualitative development indicators – the Human Development Index and the Physical Quality of Life Index.
Major Group Task
Each group will be allocated a country from the bottom ten ranked HDI countries. You need to research this country and determine one of the major development issues that has resulted in such a low HDI ranking. You then need to come up with at least one strategy that could improve the HDI ranking of the country. You will need to put your presentation clearly, as you will be pitching your plan to the head of the United Nations. If chosen, your group will receive $100 000 000 to improve the development of your chosen country.
The group that wins the pitch will be chosen according to their ability to put together a clear presentation, the use of statistics and evidence and the ability to think of a strategy that will clearly improve development. You will have 3-5 minutes to present your pitch the the ‘leader’ of the UN. In your pitch, remember to include a map showing location, development statistics and images. You will need to allocate the task of a speaker.
Useful Resources
UNDP Human Development Reports
Human Development Index Trends Map
Globalis – An Interactive World Map
Other Resources
Debunking Myths About the ‘Third World’
Homework
Using the handout provided in class, answer the following questions:
- Which country has the highest prevalence of child malnutrition? What does this rate tell you about development of this country?
- Which country has the lowest prevalence of child malnutrition? What does this tell you about development of this country?
- What is the general trend in the table with female illiteracy rates compared with male illiteracy rates? Can you suggest reasons for this?
- Refer to map 7.12 and describe the spatial distribution in the under-five mortality rate.
- Refer to map 7.12 and 7.13 to answer the following question. What spatial association exists between under-five mortality rate and access to safe water. Write a paragraph using the PQE method to answer this question.
