Role of Governments & International Government Organisations (Edexcel A Level Geography)

• Economic development provides the means (capital and human resources) to drive and sustain social development
• If a country has more income, they can improve the social well-being of its population through investment:
  • In healthcare
    • Improves the population’s health of its population
    • Increases life expectancy
    • Creates a more productive workforce
  • In education
    • Increases literacy rates
    • Empowers women
    • Creates a more skilled workforce
• It is the government that determines how much of a country’s wealth is spent on healthcare and education, so their attitude to improving social progress is crucial
• This ranges from welfare states with high levels of social spending to totalitarian regimes run by elites who spend little on health and education

Government characteristics and attitudes towards economic and social development

• There are many ways to characterise the different government systems.
• The following four government characteristics are based on the Democracy Index

Global Democracy Index (2017)

• Full stable democracy: 
  • Governments are elected
  • Laws to protect human rights
  • A market economy 
  • A welfare state to focus on citizens’ well-being 
  • Higher government spending on 
    •  Education 
    •  Health (free health service)
    •  Welfare 
  • Allows more social development
  • E.g. The UK

• Flawed democracy: 
  • Elections are often rigged
  • Doesn’t fully protect individual rights and freedoms 
  • Economic development and spending on infrastructure for industries is a bigger priority than social development 
  • Citizens might have to pay more for healthcare and welfare
  • E.g. Romania
• Hybrid regime:
  • Adopt some characteristics of democracy but the opposition is very weak and provides little competition to the ruling party
  • Little respect for basic political and civil rights
  • Governments have a range of spending priorities, including people’s education and health 
  • However, due to a lack of funding, these social services might not be effective
  • E.g. Kenya
• Authoritarian government: 
  • Also known as totalitarian government
  • The country is run by the elite
  • Requires the population to be obedient to the state
  • Allocates a smaller budget to education and healthcare
  • Larger budgets awarded to:
    • Defense and security
    • Supporting the economy
    • Controlling the population

• E.g. Russia

Government spending on social development

• International Government Organisations (IGOs) provide another approach to promoting social development
• After the effects of World War II (WWII), IGO’s played an important role in global rebuilding and economic development 
• Some of the major IGOs are:
  • The World Bank
  • The World Trade Organisation (WTO)
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) 
• These IGOs believe that improving economic development enables advancements in social development 
• IGOs promote neo-liberal views of development, including:
  • Free trade
  • Capitalism
  • Privatising state services (e.g. railways) to reduce government spending
  • Deregulation of financial markets to remove barriers to investment
• More recently, IGOs have focused on social development programmes to improve:
  • Environmental quality
  • Health
  • Education
  • Human rights

World Bank

• An international organisation which provides financial and technical advice to developing nations to aid their economic and social development 
• Aims to alleviate poverty by increasing economic growth
• It support projects that developing countries would not be able to finance independently because:
  • The cost is too high, so low-interest loans, grants and/or zero interest credits are issued
  • The project is for social rather than economic purposes, so sufficient funds cannot easily be raised
• More recent projects in developing and emerging countries have included:
  • Promoting health and education
  • Reducing the threat of climate change
• The World Bank is a founding member of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 
  • It invests in early childhood education for all
  • Helps to develop literacy and numeracy
• In 2016, The World Bank launched its Climate Change Action Plan to help developing countries develop renewable energy and achieve food security

World Trade Organisation

• Trade is important to keep the global economy working effectively; any barriers to trade will limit growth
• Currently, 164 countries have signed an agreement to ensure that producers of goods and services, along with exporters and importers, can run their business
• It aims to: 
• Reduce barriers to trade
• Promote free trade between countries 
• Ensure that trading nations keep to the agreed international trade rules 
• Enforce sanctions
• The WTO has been a force for globalisation; however, this has led to environmental degradation, including:
• Rainforest clearance 
• Threats to biodiversity
• Water pollution
• Most WTO trade policies now try to tackle environmental problems by: 
• Restricting the international movement of products or species that are potentially harmful or endangered 
• Challenging trade agreements which may impact on climate change, such as forest clearance

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Along with the World Bank, its purpose was to bring financial stability to the world after WWII 
• Its main aim is to allow currency to be exchanged freely and easily between member countries
• Countries under IMF programs are usually developing, emerging or countries that have faced financial crises e.g. Greece in 2010
• It has been criticised for lending with attached conditions, including:
• How a country runs its economy
• Forced privatisation of State services
• Making payback a priority on the loan
• Putting financial concerns ahead of spending on health and education
• However, since 2000, the IMF has moved its attention to the poverty reduction programme; it allows:
• National governments to develop their own poverty reduction strategies
• Donor countries to choose the nations that show they have good poverty reduction policies and a stable government

The United Nations (UN) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

• Another IGO, the UN, focuses on protecting:
• Human rights
• Peace
• Social development
• The UN attempted to achieve these goals by creating the MDGs
• The MDGs were a set of targets to help developing countries make social progress and fight poverty
• The overall goal was to reduce the development gap between the developed and developing nations
• The Goals ran from 2000 to 2015

The Millenium Development Goals

• The MDGs made considerable progress worldwide for all eight goals
• However, the progress made was uneven across regions and countries
• The MDGs often fell short for the poorest and those disadvantaged because of gender, age, disability or ethnicity
• This was especially true for Sub-Saharan Africa, which struggled to get anywhere near the MDGs targets
• The graph below highlights how progress for Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty is uneven across the different developing regions

Proportion of population living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 and 1990 (%)

• Global poverty (as a share of total population) fell in all regions, except in the Caucasus and Central Asia Region, and Western Asia 
• Most of the progress towards the goal is due to significant reductions in Eastern Asia
• Latin America and the Caribbean have also progressed significantly towards the goal of halving extreme poverty
• Progress in other regions has been less impressive

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• In 2015, seventeen SDGs replaced the MDGs
• These were to be achieved by 2030 as part of a new sustainable development agenda with the aspiration to: 
• End poverty 
• Protect the planet
• Tackle climate change
• Ensure prosperity for all 
• Fight inequality and injustice
• The SDGs aim to build on the successes of the MDGs by going further to end all forms of poverty 
• The Goals call for action from 193 countries across the world, no matter how developed a country is

Sustainable Development Goals for 2030