Measuring Development (DP IB Geography) : Revision Note

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Development is the process of growth, or changing from one condition to another (hopefully for the better)

• Human development is multi-faceted and made of many interconnected strands

• Since the 1980s, countries across the world made progress in health, family size and life expectancy

• However, there remained inequality between countries and

• With the advent of the 21st century, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed on by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000

• In 2015, they reached their expiration date, and the UN created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to focus their attention for the next 15 years

• Sustainable development is regarded as meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations

• Sustainable development is divided into three categories

  • Economic sustainability

  • Environmental sustainability

  • Social sustainability

• The SDGs challenge world leaders to continue combating poverty, reducing inequality and tackling environmental degradation, including climate change

• The goals are not legally binding but governments are expected to develop systems to achieve the 17 goals and 169 targets

• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provides support to governments to integrate the SDGs into their national development plans and policies

• Whilst the SDGs are a global strategy, their application exists at a regional and local level to be effective

• However, the UN noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had wiped out four years of progress towards meeting the goals and the world would meet just 12% of the SDG targets, placing the “Leave no one behind” principle at significant risk

Criticisms of SDGs

• The positives of the SDGs are that they forge development priorities and indicators across all regions, nations and localities, not just those labelled as developing

• An agreement was reached over all 17 goals but there are disputes over the meanings of the goals, over who should benefit and who is responsible for achieving them

• Some countries, including Japan and the UK, believe that there should be fewer goals, allowing policymakers to focus on health, education, food and energy security and reducing poverty

• There is no accountability mechanism in place to hold individual countries responsible for failure to integrate goals in their policies

• The goals are underfunded, placing pressure on developing countries to find extra funds to meet the demands or prioritise one goal over another, thereby inadvertently increasing inequality

• The lack of progress makes it difficult to sustain public and government interests and countries are failing in their commitments

Human Development Index (HDI)

• The Human Development Index (HDI) was developed by the UN in 1990 and is a measure of the disparities between countries

• The index takes into account four indicators of development:

  • Life expectancy at birth

  • Mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years

  • Expected years of schooling for children at school entering the age

  • Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (PPP $) 

• Each indicator is given equal weighting in the index

• The index ranks countries on a score between 0 & 1

  • The closer to 1, the higher the level of economic development & the better the standard of living

• Countries can be divided into four groups using HDI

  • Very High Human Development (VHHD) 

  • High Human Development (HHD)

  • Medium Human Development (MHD)

  • Low Human Development (LHD)

• HDI is scored from 0 to 1 

• The higher the HDI, the higher the level of development and quality of life

• Norway has the highest HDI at 0.957 

• Niger has the lowest HDI at 0.394

Gender Inequality Index

• The Gender Inequality Index (GII) measures gender inequality using three dimensions:

  • Reproductive health: maternal mortality ratio and adolescent fertility rates reflect healthcare infrastructure, education and societal norms relating to women's health

  • Empowerment is measured by looking at the share of parliamentary seats held by men and women and the ratio of women and men aged 25 and over who have achieved a secondary or higher education

  • The labour market is measured by women's participation in the workforce

• The GII varies between 0 (when women and men are equal) and 1 (when men and women are unequal)