Disparities and Change
Identify and explain the changing patterns and trends of regional and global disparities of life expectancy, education and income.
Life Expectancy
Life Expectancy is the average age people are expected to live to at birth. The world's current average life expectancy is about 70 years, but there is a huge gap between the highest (Monaco at about 89 years) and the lowest (Angola at about 38 years).
As can be seen from the graph to the right the world's average life expectancy has increased by about 25 years in just over 50 years. The reasons for the increase in life expectancy include:
Despite the impressive rise in the world's life expectancy there are some countries or regions that have only seen very small rises or even falls. Reasons may include:
Education
Education is vital if countries want to reduce disparities, alleviate poverty and see an improvement in the standard of living. Education can be measured in numerous ways including:
Life Expectancy
Life Expectancy is the average age people are expected to live to at birth. The world's current average life expectancy is about 70 years, but there is a huge gap between the highest (Monaco at about 89 years) and the lowest (Angola at about 38 years).
As can be seen from the graph to the right the world's average life expectancy has increased by about 25 years in just over 50 years. The reasons for the increase in life expectancy include:
- Improved diet and increased food production
- Better provision of clean water
- Immunization programs to eliminate diseases like small pox and reduce others like TB
- Better medical care
- Improved post natal care (reduced infant and child mortality)
- Better education about diet, hygiene, etc.
Despite the impressive rise in the world's life expectancy there are some countries or regions that have only seen very small rises or even falls. Reasons may include:
- Prolonged civil war e.g. Sierra Leone
- Disease e.g. HIV in Botswana
- Famine and drought e.g. Ethiopia
Education
Education is vital if countries want to reduce disparities, alleviate poverty and see an improvement in the standard of living. Education can be measured in numerous ways including:
- Adult literacy
- Percentage of university graduates
- Education spending
- Pupil teacher ratios
- Male female education equality
- Years of Schooling
The bar graph to the right does demonstrate that all regions are seeing an increase in the average years of schooling. However, even with the increase many children Middle Eastern and North African countries are only receiving halve as many years of education as the richest countries and children in sub-Saharan countries are only receiving as third many years of education.
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Education is vitally important for many reasons, including:
Income
Having a good income is important because it allows people to get an education for themselves and for their children, maintain a healthy diet and therefore stay fit and pay for a good house and services. In short it allows you to enjoy a positive cycle of wealth (completely opposite to the cycle of poverty in the last section). However, it must be remembered that we can't simply look at people’s income and determine if they are wealthy or not. If we looking at the UK, the highest average income are going to be found in the South-East. However, this is also the area where cost of living is most. Therefore it might be better looking at people's disposable income rather than their gross income.
There is a massive gap between the rich and the poor, with the richest 5th controlling 74.1% of the world's wealth and the bottom 5th controlling only 1.5%. However, even though the world is still very polarised in terms of income, many countries are seeing there national incomes increase and move towards converging with some of the bigger more developed countries. Countries like South Korea and more recently China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia are seeing rapid and prolonged growth in income.
Examine the progress made in meetings the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in poverty reduction, education and health.
Poverty Reduction
Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Indicators
Target 1.A – Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
Target 1.B – Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
Education
Goal 2 - Achieve universal primary education
Indicators
Net enrollment ratio in primary education (UNESCO)
Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 (UNESCO)
Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds (UNESCO)
Successes
Failures
Health
Goal 4 – Reduce Child Mortality Health
Goal 5 – Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Successes
Failures
- If people can read and write they are less likely to be exploited because they know what they are being asked to do and/or what to sign
- They understand the importance of family planning and can reduce fertility rates and birth rates
- They understand the importance of health, diet and medicine. They will know how to prevent diseases e.g. HIV and malaria, how to remain fit and healthy by eating a good diet and how to cure diseases when sick.
- They have a better chance of getting a higher paid job.
- They have a better chance of being independent and not relying on a husband/wife, their family, community or country.
Income
Having a good income is important because it allows people to get an education for themselves and for their children, maintain a healthy diet and therefore stay fit and pay for a good house and services. In short it allows you to enjoy a positive cycle of wealth (completely opposite to the cycle of poverty in the last section). However, it must be remembered that we can't simply look at people’s income and determine if they are wealthy or not. If we looking at the UK, the highest average income are going to be found in the South-East. However, this is also the area where cost of living is most. Therefore it might be better looking at people's disposable income rather than their gross income.
There is a massive gap between the rich and the poor, with the richest 5th controlling 74.1% of the world's wealth and the bottom 5th controlling only 1.5%. However, even though the world is still very polarised in terms of income, many countries are seeing there national incomes increase and move towards converging with some of the bigger more developed countries. Countries like South Korea and more recently China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia are seeing rapid and prolonged growth in income.
Examine the progress made in meetings the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in poverty reduction, education and health.
Poverty Reduction
Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- About one in five persons in developing regions lives on less than $1.25 per day
- Vulnerable employment accounted for 56% of all employment in developing regions, compared to 10% in developed regions
- About 173 million fewer people worldwide suffered from chronic hunger in 2011-2013 than in 1990-1992
- One in four children under age five in the world has inadequate height for his or her age
- Every day in 2013, 32000 people had to abandon their homes to seek protection due to conflict
Indicators
- Proportion of population below $1 (1993 PPP) per day (World Bank)
- Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty] (World Bank)
- Share of poorest quintile in national consumption (World Bank)
Target 1.A – Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
- The extreme poverty rate has been halved, but major challenges remain
- 1990 - half of the developing population lived in less than $1.25 a day
- 2010 - rate dropped by 22%, putting it 5 years ahead of schedule
- Total number of developing population in poverty 1.9 billion in 1990 to 1.2 billion in 2010
- South East and East Asia has had the most progress
- Sub-Saharan African and South Asia lags behind and will not meet the 2015 target
- Majority living on less than $1.25 are in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
- 1/3 of extreme poor live in India
- China ranks second despite much progress
- Nearly 2/3 of the extreme poor are concentrated in just five countries.
- High poverty rates usually found in small fragile conflict affect countries which lack frequent quality household service hat could capture details on income or consumption thus hampering efforts to design and implement policies.
Target 1.B – Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
- Slow economic growth takes its toll on labor markets
- 2013 economics growth slowed to its slowest rate since 2009 which affected labor markets particularly in the developing world and was reflected in limited progress and reduction of quality plunge
- Vulnerable employment rate account for 56% of all employment in developing regions in 2013 compared to 10% in developed regions.
- Between 2008 to 2013, this rate decreased by 2.8% compared to a decrease of 4% in 2003 to 2008
- Widespread work in the informal sector who lack adequate social protection and suffer low income and terrible orking conditions under which the fundamental rights maybe violated.
- The rate of decline of insecure jobs has slowed, the most in Western Asia where the vulnerable only decreased by 1.2% between 2008 to 2013 compared to 8% between 2003 to 2008
- Vulnerable employment rate increased in Latin America and the Caribbean while Oceania experienced a significantly larger decrease in 2008 to 2013 than in the preceding period.
Education
Goal 2 - Achieve universal primary education
- Half of the 58 million out-of- school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.
- More than one in four children in developing regions entering primary school is likely to drop out.
- 781 million adults and 126 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women.
Indicators
Net enrollment ratio in primary education (UNESCO)
Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 (UNESCO)
Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds (UNESCO)
Successes
- In Caucasus and Central Asia, Eastern Asia and Northern Africa, 9/10 pupils who started primary school completed the last grade
- Bringing these regions closer to achieving universal primary education goal
- Between 2000-2012, adjusted net enrollment rate increased by 7% (from 83% to 90%) in developed regions
- In early 2000s there were 100,000,000 children out of school but only 60,000,000 children in 2007.
- 62 million to 149 million —> Sub Saharan Africa enrollment improvement
- The greatest improvement was in sub-Saharan Africa, where the net enrolment increased by 18%
Failures
- However, only 3/5 pupils in Sub-Saharan Africa and 1/2 pupils in Oceania were able to complete primary school
- Boys were at greater risk than girls of leaving school early —> to work
- 780 million adult and 126 youth worldwide lack literacy skills of 60% are women
- Donor aid to education was see in a rise after 2002, but seems to be declining after 2010. Aid for basic education declined from $6.2 billion in 2010 to $5.8 billion in 2011.
- Aid to low-income countries fell by 9 percent between 2010 to 2011, from 2.1 billion to 1.9 billion. In Sub-Saharan Africa, home to over half of the world's out-of-school population, aid to basic education declined by 7 percent between 2010 and 2011.
- Process has slowed down during 2000 and 2011 in developed regions, remaining at 73%
- Between 2000 and 2011, progress was observed everywhere except Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia.
- Reasons for leaving school early include long travelling distances ,late entry, opportunity cost of attending, household poverty, combination of work and study.
- In many developing countries, they prevent disabled children going to school or slow their progress.
- Nord Kivu in Congo, which is the most conflict –affected region, there were 1 in 2 children have never been to school in 2010
Health
Goal 4 – Reduce Child Mortality Health
- The child mortality rate has almost halved since 1990; six million fewer children died in 2012 than in 1990.
- During the period from 2005 to 2012, the annual rate of reduction in under-five mortality was more than three times faster than between 1990 and 1995.
- Globally, four out of every five deaths of children under age five continue to occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia
- Immunization against measles helped prevent nearly 14 million deaths between 2000 and 2012.
Goal 5 – Improve Maternal Health
- Almost 300,000 women died globally in 2013 from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
- The proportion of deliveries in developing regions attended by skilled health personnel rose from 56% to 68% between 1990 and 2012.
- In 2012, 40 million births in developing regions were not attended by skilled health personnel, and over 32 million of those births occurred in rural areas.
- 52 per cent of pregnant women had four or more antenatal care visits during pregnancy in 2012, an increase from 37 per cent in 1990.
- There is substantial progress, but the world is still falling short of the maternal mortality ratio target.
- The global rate of maternal mortality ratio has dropped by 45 percent between 1990 and 2013
- An estimated 289,000 women died during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of the pregnancy
- Most maternal deaths are preventable
- More than two thirds of babies in developing regions are delivered by skilled health personnel, but rural areas lag behind
Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- Almost 600 children died every day of AIDS-related causes in 2012.
- Antiretroviral medicines were delivered to 9.5 million people in developing regions in 2012.
- Malaria interventions saved the lives of three million young children between 2000 and 2012.
- Between 1995 and 2012, tuberculosis treatment saved 22 million lives.
Successes
- The global rate of under-five mortality in 2012 was almost half of its 1990 rate, dropping 90 to 48 deaths per thousand live births.
- About 17,000 fewer children died each day in 2012 than in 1990.
- The world is reducing under-five mortality faster than at any other time during the past two decades.
- The world neonatal mortality rate fell by almost one third, from 33 to 21 deaths for every thousand live births.
Failures
- Regions such as Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, Caucasus and Central Asia and Southern Asia still fall short of the 2015 target.
- It will take until 2028 to reach Goal 4 globally at the current rate.
- The world neonatal mortality rate fell by almost one third, from 33 to 21 deaths for every thousand live births.
- However, the pace of decline has fallen behind that of post-neonatal mortality. As a result, the proportion of deaths occurring in the first 28 days of life has increased, from 37 per cent in 1990 to 44 per cent in 2012.
- Sub-Saharan Africa – not only does this region have the highest mortality rate in the world for children under age five, more than 16 times the average for developed regions, but it is also the only region where both the number of live births and the under-five population are expected to rise substantially over the next two decades.
- Nevertheless, the region has made remarkable progress since 1990, reducing child mortality rates by 45%. However, its process continues to lag behind that of every other region except Oceania. Nearly half of global under-five deaths in 2012 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Southern Asia has more than halved its under-five mortality rate.
- India has the highest number of under-five deaths in the world in 2012.
- High income countries had the lowest rates of under-five mortality on average in 2012.
- Upper-middle-income countries were the most successful in reducing under-five mortality in 2012.
- Countries at all income levels have been getting steadily better at saving children’s lives.
- There have been notable reductions in the under-five mortality rate since 1990 and particularly since 2000 in some low-income countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia.
- Measles deaths have declined by more than three quarters in the past twelve years.
- Measles deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for 89% of the estimated total global measles deaths during 2012.
- 13.8 million deaths were averted by measles vaccination between 2000 and 2012.
- Substantial process in most regions particularly Oceania which decreased measles deaths by an estimated 89% between 2000 and 2012.
- Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia continue to have measles outbreaks due to weak routine immunization systems and delayed implementation of accelerated disease control.