How is Wealth Distributed (Notes)

* test: Monday, May 31
* You are allowed a study sheet of 1 side of loose leaf - created by you!!!!

How is Wealth Distributed in the World?


More than 6.7 billion people live on our planet. As the CIDA Developing World map shows, they live in vastly different conditions. About 1 billion people—nearly one in six—live in extreme poverty, on less than a dollar a day.

While the developing world is not easy to describe, and the problems it presents are not easy to solve, many developing countries have made remarkable progress in the last several decades.

Overall, poverty is decreasing. Today, 82 percent of people in the world can read and write—the highest percentage in history. Between 1960 and 2005, life expectancy in developing countries increased by almost 20 years, from 47 to 65. Some developing countries have built up their economies to the point where they are now major competitors in the international marketplace.

Yet, for other countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, poverty remains a daily threat. On that part of the continent, 33 million children were not enrolled in primary school in 2005.

Around the world, 854 million people still go to bed hungry every night. And each minute, one woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth because she didn't received adequate or prompt care.


What is development?


Development begins with meeting the most basic human needs—food, clean water, good health, and shelter. But it also involves the chance to earn a living in a society where human rights are respected and where women as well as men can participate fully in the life of their communities. Sustainable development requires an infrastructure that provides essential services and underpins economic growth, as well as an economy that encourages innovation and respects the environment.

Canadians believe it is important to help people in need. Today, television and the Internet bring images from developing countries directly into our homes. We can see that our own security, health, environment, and economic well-being are increasingly touched by events rooted in the poverty of developing countries.

In countries affected by conflict, such as Afghanistan, Canadian development experts work side by side with Canadian diplomats and Canadian soldiers to lay a solid foundation for peace and hope.

Canada is part of a new global community working to accomplish what no nation can do alone. In September 2000, at a special United Nations assembly to mark the turn of the century, the world's leaders agreed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015.

With support from the Canadian International Development Agency, thousands of individual Canadians and hundreds of organizations, businesses and institutions are working with partners in developing countries to reduce poverty and meet these goals. Their efforts help create a better world and a better life for us all.

This map is designed to provide a glimpse of some of the challenges in developing countries and the progress made toward achieving five of the MDGs. It uses the United Nations Development Programme's human development index (HDI) to show which countries have achieved high levels of development and which countries are still working toward improving the lives of their people.



What is the HDI?

In 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) created a composite index that measures the quality of life in United Nations member countries. This human development index (HDI) is based on three aspects of human development: longevity (measured by life expectancy at birth), knowledge (measured by a combination of adult literacy and school enrolment), and standard of living (measured by GDP per capita in PPP US$).

Every year, the UNDP produces a new report that ranks member countries according to the HDI, details improvement and decline in various areas, and examines one particular topic in great detail.



Did you know?

 In 2004 an estimated 2.5 billion people were living on less than $2 a day—that's nearly half the people in the developing world. Source: World Bank

 In sub-Saharan Africa, one out of every three people is undernourished, and this number is increasing. Source: FAO

 The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was founded on October 16, 1945 in Quebec City, at a meeting chaired by Lester B. Pearson, who later became Canada’s fourteenth Prime Minister. Each year, since 1981, the FAO has held a World Food Day on October 16 to raise awareness of the need to find a lasting solution to global hunger and malnutrition. The theme for 2008 is world food security and the challenges of climate change. Source: WFD

 Beyond causing tremendous human suffering, hunger and malnutrition kill more than five million children per year, and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and national income. Source: FAO

World Poverty and Hunger game… “Food Force”

Game is created by the United Nations



http://www.food-force.com/

A major crisis has developed in the Indian Ocean, on the island of Sheylan. We’re sending in a new team to step up the World Food Programme’s presence there and help feed millions of hungry people.

A MINITURE EARTH VIDEO SLIDESHOW

VIEW AT http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm