WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?
In a world that is very rich, many people are very poor. Development is about reaching these people and helping them improve their lives.
Indeed, development is a complex term that takes in many different ideas. But most simply, development, when we are talking about countries, means reaching an acceptable standard of living for all people. It means that people have the basic things they need to live. It means that all the people have the right to make choices about their lives. It means that they have opportunities to improve their living situations.
Developed countries are not necessarily rich countries, and all rich countries are not necessarily developed. For example, rich countries may not be considered developed if they have a few very rich people and many very poor people, and if many people don't have healthcare and education, clean air and water, roads and electricity.
Development is a cooperative effort of many. The governments of poor countries work to improve their incomes, and, in most cases, to improve the lives of their people. The governments of most rich countries try to help poor countries to do so. Institutions like the World Bank also provide money and projects to improve the lives of poor people. Many other charitable groups around the world work to do the same. And the poor themselves struggle daily to provide for themselves and their families.
These groups and governments established a list of goals that the whole world today is striving to reach-—the Millennium Development Goals.
Development will always be ongoing, even when these basic goals are met. People will always try to improve the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. At the same time, all agree that development efforts should be "sustainable." This means meeting today’s needs without creating problems for future generations.
What is Sustainable Development?
There are many definitions of sustainable development, including this landmark one which first appeared in 1987:
"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." ( from the World Commission on Environment and Development)
But what does this mean? What are the needs of the present? Take a minute and jot down five to ten needs that you have in your own life.
Have you listed any needs that conflict with one another? For example, if you listed clean air to breathe, but also listed a car for transportation, your needs might conflict. Which would you choose, and how would you make your decision? If within ourselves, we have conflicting needs, how much is that multiplied when we look at a whole community, city, country, world? For example, what happens when a company’s need for cheap labor conflicts with workers’ needs for livable wages? Or when individual families’ needs for firewood conflict with the need to prevent erosion and conserve topsoil? Or when one country’s need for electricity results in acid rain that damages another country's lakes and rivers?
How do we decide whose needs are met? Poor or rich people? Citizens or immigrants? People living in cities or in the countryside? People in one country or another?You or your neighbor? The environment or the corporation? This generation or the next generation? When there has to be a trade off, whose needs should go first?
The Long and the Short of It
People concerned about sustainable development suggest that meeting the needs of the future depends on how well we balance social, economic, and environmental objectives--or needs--when making decisions today. Some of these needs are itemized around the puzzle diagram.
What social, economic, or environmental needs would you add to the puzzle?
Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the short term. For example, industrial growth might conflict with preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for sustained industrial growth far into the future.
Studying the puzzle raises a number of difficult questions. For example:
- Can the long term economic objective of sustained agricultural growth be met if the ecological objective of preserving biodiversity is not?
- What happens to the environment in the long term if a large number of people cannot afford to meet their basic household needs today?
- If you did not have access to safe water, and therefore needed wood to boil drinking water so that you and your children would not get sick, would you worry about causing deforestation?
- Or, if you had to drive a long distance to get to work each day, would you be willing to move or get a new job to avoid polluting the air with your car exhaust?
- If we don’t balance our social, economic, and environmental objectives in the short term, how can we expect to sustain our development in the long term?
What sustainable development dilemmas do you and your family face in your everyday lives? Jot note 3-5 ideas.
Ms. Stewart-Mitchell ~ Social Studies Name:
What is Development?
In a world that is very rich, many people are very poor. Development is about reaching these people and helping them improve their lives.
Indeed, development is a complex term that takes in many different ideas. But most simply, development, when we are talking about countries, means reaching an acceptable standard of living for all people. It means that people have the basic things they need to live. It means that all the people have the right to make choices about their lives. It means that they have opportunities to improve their living situations.
Developed countries are not necessarily rich countries, and all rich countries are not necessarily developed. For example, rich countries may not be considered developed if they have a few very rich people and many very poor people, and if many people don't have healthcare and education, clean air and water, roads and electricity.
Development is a cooperative effort of many. The governments of poor countries work to improve their incomes, and, in most cases, to improve the lives of their people. The governments of most rich countries try to help poor countries to do so. Institutions like the World Bank also provide money and projects to improve the lives of poor people. Many other charitable groups around the world work to do the same. And the poor themselves struggle daily to provide for themselves and their families.
These groups and governments established a list of goals that the whole world today is striving to reach-—the Millennium Development Goals.
Development will always be ongoing, even when these basic goals are met. People will always try to improve the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. At the same time, all agree that development efforts should be "sustainable." This means meeting today’s needs without creating problems for future generations.
What is Sustainable Development?
There are many definitions of sustainable development, including this landmark one which first appeared in 1987:
"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." ( from the World Commission on Environment and Development)
But what does this mean? What are the needs of the present? Take a minute and jot down five to ten needs that you have in your own life.
Have you listed any needs that conflict with one another? For example, if you listed clean air to breathe, but also listed a car for transportation, your needs might conflict. Which would you choose, and how would you make your decision? If within ourselves, we have conflicting needs, how much is that multiplied when we look at a whole community, city, country, world? For example, what happens when a company’s need for cheap labor conflicts with workers’ needs for livable wages? Or when individual families’ needs for firewood conflict with the need to prevent erosion and conserve topsoil? Or when one country’s need for electricity results in acid rain that damages another country's lakes and rivers?
How do we decide whose needs are met? Poor or rich people? Citizens or immigrants? People living in cities or in the countryside? People in one country or another?You or your neighbor? The environment or the corporation? This generation or the next generation? When there has to be a trade off, whose needs should go first?
The Long and the Short of It
People concerned about sustainable development suggest that meeting the needs of the future depends on how well we balance social, economic, and environmental objectives--or needs--when making decisions today. Some of these needs are itemized around the puzzle diagram.
What social, economic, or environmental needs would you add to the puzzle?
Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the short term. For example, industrial growth might conflict with preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for sustained industrial growth far into the future.
Studying the puzzle raises a number of difficult questions. For example:
- Can the long term economic objective of sustained agricultural growth be met if the ecological objective of preserving biodiversity is not?
- What happens to the environment in the long term if a large number of people cannot afford to meet their basic household needs today?
- If you did not have access to safe water, and therefore needed wood to boil drinking water so that you and your children would not get sick, would you worry about causing deforestation?
- Or, if you had to drive a long distance to get to work each day, would you be willing to move or get a new job to avoid polluting the air with your car exhaust?
- If we don’t balance our social, economic, and environmental objectives in the short term, how can we expect to sustain our development in the long term?
What sustainable development dilemmas do you and your family face in your everyday lives? Jot note 3-5 ideas.
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
In September 2000, most of the countries of the world agreed to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half by the year 2015. What will it take to accomplish this—and to it make stay?
Reducing poverty means providing the basic things people need to live.
Basic life needs include having enough nutritious food to eat and clean water to drink, having a home to live in, having access to good health services, being able to go to school, being able to find work, etc.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight targets that would help meet these basic needs for most people. Only then will the lives of the very poor be improved in a lasting way. And, development experts believe that if the MDGs are reached, the number of poor people in the world would be cut in half. The MDGs should be achieved by the year 2015.
The Millennium Development Goals were written by the United Nations, governments, international development organizations and other people who are concerned with poverty in the world.
The goals were drafted because these organizations wanted to do two things: First, they wanted to help poor people become self-sufficient and be able to contribute to their society. Second, they wanted to be able to measure how much progress has been made in reducing poverty in the world and in helping poor countries develop.
They considered some of the different problems which make and keep people poor, and came up with the following list of goals:
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Improve maternal health
• Achieve universal primary education
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Reduce child mortality
• Develop a global partnership for development
OTHER SITES TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND:
http://www.unicef.org/mdg/
* This site has visuals/videos and podcasts
to help you understand
CASE STUDY #1
Breaking the silence on gender-based violence in schools
United Nations Girls' Education Initiative special podcast
In the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative and the global conference entitled 'E4 - Engendering Empowerment: Education and Equality' to be held in Dakar, Senegal from 17 to 20 May, UNICEF has been featuring a series on girls’ education and gender equality. The following report is part of that series.
By Pi James
NEW YORK, USA, 17 May 2010 – For millions of children worldwide, physical and emotional abuse and gender-based violence are a harsh daily reality.
AUDIO: CLICK ON THE PODCAST ON THIS SITE: http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index_53661.html
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), UNICEF Radio moderator Amy Costello spoke with Judith Bruce, Senior Associate and Policy Analyst with the Population Council, and Keyti, a Senegalese rap star, about violence against girls and the role of education.
‘Girls don’t feel safe’
According to Ms. Bruce, who works with the Population Council’s Poverty, Gender and Youth programme, violence targeted at girls is prevalent in communities and schools around the world. Among its many repercussions, violence can have a devastating impact on girls’ education.
“Even if [violence] doesn’t happen, the threat of it is what keeps girls from school in the first place,” Ms. Bruce said, adding that the fear of violence limits girls’ participation and frequently undermines their learning. She cited a recent Population Council study based in Zambia, in which two-thirds of girls reported that someone they knew was being abused by a male family member at home, and over a third reported that they knew of girls who had been abused by teachers.
“We have more than 80 per cent of girls saying that they know that girls are forced to do things they don’t want to do for money,” Ms. Bruce said. She noted that the ages of rape victims – at least, in cases of rape that are reported – are getting younger.
“Girls don’t feel safe,” she said. “They don’t feel safe at home, they don’t feel safe on the way to school and they don’t feel safe in school.”
A 15-year-old girl writes answers on the chalkboard in her classroom in Senegal. Girls around the world suffer multiple forms of violence in and out of school settings. © UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1125/Nesbitt
‘Enough is enough’
Keyti, a renowned rap musician and member of AURA – a network of young West African rap stars who have united to promote children's rights – said that growing up in Senegal, he encountered many social differences between girls and boys. However, he said, this is changing “little by little.”
“As a Senegalese boy, I didn’t [have] any obligation to participate in the house chores,” Keyti said, adding that he recalled his sisters and other girls “always cleaning the houses, always making food, always washing the clothes. As a boy, all I had to do was go outside and play football.
“But more and more, I get the feeling that it’s changing in Senegal right now,” he said. “Even the government is helping.”
Keyti argued that people – and communities as a whole – need to break the silence on violence. “Enough is enough,” he said. “If we really want Africa to be developed, we’ve got to take care of our problems … and face things as they are.”
Questions
1. Which Millenium Development Goals are being targeted in this case?
2. Who is being affected by lack of justice in this case?
3. How are boys and girls treated differently in this situation?
4. How have the injustices impacted both boys and girls in this case?
5. Who is helping in this situation?
6. How is having a rap musician working for children important for making a change?
http://www.unicefglobalstudy.blogspot.com/
http://www.unicefglobalstudy.blogspot.com/
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