Focus of Development & Human Rights (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Development Aid

• Development aid can take numerous forms, such as:

  • Smaller charitable gifts from (Non-governmental organisations) NGOs to help install a village well 

  • An International Governmental Organisation (IGO) offering loans to reduce the impact of a hazard

  • Short-term emergency aid (food, clean water, shelter, medical equipment)

  • Long-term aid to develop a disease eradication programme

• Development aid can be provided for:

  • Specific projects, such as rebuilding schools and medical facilities after an earthquake

  • Broader development aims which focus on safeguarding human rights and improving human welfare

Development aid

• Charitable gifts:

  • Funded by donations from the public to NGOs (e.g. Oxfam and Christian Aid) and national governments

  • 72% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) is in the form of bilateral aid

    • Bilateral aid is when governments give directly to projects in developing and emerging countries

  • Governments prefer bi-lateral aid as they can control its spending and which countries receive it

  • The rest of the aid is multilateral, where governments give their money to organisations, such as NGOs

  • Multi-lateral aid is fairer as NGOs do no have political self-interest

• Loans:

• Provided by IGOs, such as the World Bank

• In 2022, the World Bank loaned $37.7 billion to poorer countries 

• The loans helped poorer countries address urgent priorities (e.g. economic development, food security, gender inequality)

• Concerns over loans include:

  • The economic influence the World Bank has over the recipient countries due to the conditions stated in the loans

  • The prioritising of economic development over environmental protection e.g. deforestation

  • Human rights abuses, such as the displacement of indigenous people

Development Aid in Haiti

• Background to Haiti: 

  • Haiti in the Caribbean is one of the poorest countries in the world

  • Its HDI ranking is 163 out of 191

  • Haiti experiences a wide range of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes

  • It is known as ‘the republic of NGOs’ as it can have up to 10,000 NGOs working there at any one time

• The need for development aid:

  • In 2010, an earthquake hit Haiti leading to over 220,000 deaths

  • 1.5 million people became homeless, having to live in emergency camps (tent cities)

  • People in these tent cities suffered an outbreak of cholera, killing more than 9,000 people

• The aid:

  • Within months, over £12 billion of aid was pledged by governments, members of the public, IGOs (the UN) and NGOs (the Red Cross and Oxfam)

  • The money raised was used in a number of ways e.g. to provide emergency shelters and restore access to clean water

• Concerns over what happened to the aid received:

  • Two years after the earthquake, 500,000 people were still living in temporary shelters without electricity, plumbing or sewerage

  • Half of the money pledged should have been spent within 18 months (a condition), but only 40% of this had been spent

  • The government and NGOs were unable to co-ordinate and use the money effectively

Impact of Development Aid

• Development aid can have both positive (dealing with life threatening conditions e.g. malaria) and negative impacts (dependency, corruption)

• The negative impacts of aid can undermine human rights and economic development, which puts minority groups at greater risk as there are less services e.g. health, education and justice

The fight against disease - Malaria

• Development aid targeted at healthcare, especially vaccination programmes, has almost eradicated some diseases e.g. polio

• The improved diagnosis and treatment of other life-threatening diseases, like malaria, has also saved lives

• Malaria is widespread and part of the natural environment in many tropical regions, which also happen to be some of the poorest countries

• It is a major threat to children and pregnant women

(The number of deaths from malaria per 100,000 people)

• Despite being a major global killer, malaria is preventable:

  • Providing free mosquito nets

  • Taking anti-malarial drugs

  • Improved diagnosis

• Due to international aid programmes (e.g. Nets for Life), the global death rate from malaria fell by 25% between 2000 and 2020, preventing 6.2 million deaths

Achieving gender equality

• Around the world, women generally have fewer rights than men

• In many developing countries, women and girls are often more affected by poverty and human rights abuses

• The UN has championed the gender equality issue for nearly 50 years, resulting in 45% of bilateral aid specifically funding programmes targeted at gender equality

• Notable successes include:

  • Maternal mortality rates have fallen

  • More girls in education

  • More women elected to parliament in many countries

Concerns over development aid

• Despite evidence of successful aid programmes, development aid can have unintended negative consequences:

  • Aid in the form of loans is now not recommended because:

    • Of the increasing size of debts

    • Technical assistance and skills training are more preferable

  • Developing countries can become aid dependent and rely on the aid money to perform many of the basic functions of government

    • This could leave the receiving country at risk if the aid suddenly stops

    • Donor countries often say how and where the aid money should be used

    • It can become easier for governments to rely on aid money, rather than helping local industries and systems to develop

  • Aid is sometimes used by the political elite to ensure they remain in power and repress citizens (building a powerful army, buying votes)

  • Aid can be lost to corruption - many of the countries receiving aid have more authoritarian regimes, where corruption is more prominent

    • Minority groups, such as the poor and women, pay the price for this misuse of aid, with increasing cost and reduced access to services

    • There are fewer opportunities for them and reduced access to jobs, funding and equality

    • Human rights are undermined as corrupt officials, to avoid exposure, start to remove fundamental rights e.g. freedom of speech 

Economic Development & Impact on the Environment

• Some economic developments have serious environmental impacts (water pollution, loss of farmland), causing degradation to areas inhabited by minority groups

• Big development projects run by transnational corporations (TNCs) can put traditional cultures and livelihoods at risk

• There is little regard for the local’s human rights to their land and culture, for instance: 

  • After the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta

  • Land grabbing in East Africa
    

Oil in the Niger Delta

• The Niger Delta consists of a diverse ecosystems, including mangrove forests, freshwater swamps and tropical rainforest

• It is home to more than 31 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, such as the Ogoni people, who believe the land and rivers are sacred

• It also has a vast supply of oil

• The production of oil is having a devastating effect on Nigeria’s largest wetland region, its wildlife and its inhabitants

The impacts of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta

Land grabbing in Kenya

• Land grabbing in Kenya became popular in the 1980s amongst its political elite, to use as a resource for bribes

• Important government officials still continue this practice of land grabbing

• The land is used for cash crops for export, biofuel crops and the production of renewable energy 

• 85% of Kenya’s population relies on agriculture for its livelihood, so land grabbing puts huge pressure on the land and creates tensions between different ethnic groups

• Land grabs increase the chance of food insecurity and puts Kenya’s population at risk