However there are suggestions that there is no need for countries to invest in developed countries as they have large amounts of mineral and natural resource wealth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the area of the world with 30 of the worlds 59 LDC’s in, the UN has said that there is an ‘abundance of natural resources there’. This suggests that there are plenty of resources for the country to use to develop by trading these with other countries. Most specifically China who already buys half of all metal traded out of china. This can be seen as bilateral trade between China and Nigeria was 3 billion USD in 2006, this was a tenfold increase in 8 years which helped Nigeria’s GDP to nearly triple from 1995 to 2014. Nigeria is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world, expected to grow by 7% in 2014. This will help to bring more wealth and riches into the country and help to employ more people. Nigeria also has large numbers of factories being created and is already 3rd for factory output within Africa. Nigeria was able to become a developed country in 2002 because of this trade, most of which became naturally as they got little help from western countries who still isolated them due to the military dictatorships of the 1980’s. Therefore we can suggest that many of the countries that are less developed have lots of natural recourses and can increase their own natural wealth by trading with their natural resources. This suggests that there is no necessary need for developed countries to help rather than to buy their natural resources. This would occur naturally just like with Nigeria has with China. However the problem with this is the risk of overreliance on one country. As china is by far the largest importer in the world, total imports is more than 50% more than the United States which is the second largest importer in the world. Chinas imports make up 13% of the entire worlds imports, therefore if they decided to they could use this to both influence countries politically and economically but also force countries to give them a better deal. Already half of all exports from Africa go to China. Therefore there are already worries that China is using this to gain influence over many African countries, including Nigeria. Therefore although it could be argued that assistance from other countries is not needed it is clear that if so the situation has to be monitored so that there is no risk of over reliance or political influence, something that is hard to police.
However one could argue that if trade is the only way for LDC’s to develop then this won’t help those stuck in the poverty cycle, often due to illnesses rife throughout Africa. Malaria is the main reason for this but also AIDS/HIV as these is all mainly prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. 85% of malaria cases occur in Africa and due to the effects of malaria: muscle pain and diarrhoea, can be particularly damaging for individuals forcing them to take time off work reducing their total income. The latter is also particularly bad as many Africans struggle to have enough clean water to live on and as diarrhoea can make you dehydrated this can mean that many Africans die leaving a family with a lack of income and at risk of becoming ill themselves. This creates what is called the poverty cycle, whereby a person gets ill, so loses money as they cannot work, meaning they can’t send their kid to school andz because of this is disadvantages and cannot find work easily if at all, gets ill and the cycle repeats. This cycle is a difficult one to get out with as often no matter how hard a person may try they are not told how to reduce the spread of illnesses so they may get one so are very likely to lose money because of that. Therefore this suggests that without help the country will remain under developed as many individuals won’t be able to escape poverty themselves and therefore help the country to develop as a whole. Therefore other countries need to help those combat diseases but also importantly provide education about both the disease and for developing essential life skills so that people may get skilled jobs so that they can earn money and even if they get ill will be able to provide for their families with the money they could have saved. Another way this could b done is through the donations of medicine although recently there have been reports of countries giving out-of-date medicines to African countries which could make the situation worse. It’s also important that this medicine gets to where it needs to be, the rural areas are the main areas but also shanty towns where diseases spread rapidly, like Shayelitsha in South Africa where 1.8million people live.
However forms of helping developed countries such as aid have not necessarily been proven to work. There are large problems with donating drugs alone to countries as these cannot always reach the right people without individuals in the countries taking them there and even from that prevention can be as important as curing them. This would require training and long term efforts from large numbers of western developed countries, a hard task to achieve. Huge amounts of aid have been donated; in last 50 years alone over 2 trillion dollars in aids were donated to Africa. There are debates to how much difference this has made to these countries but it is generally accepted that large amounts of the aid has made little or no difference. Although it’s well established that the number of people in extreme poverty, less than $1.25 a day has reduced by 10% the rest of the world have 28% less in the same period. This suggests that as Africa has received a total of more than 42,000 million USD in 2012 alone that this is not affecting the population as much as it should. This is because if this money was divided by the entire population of Africa every single person would receive nearly 40 USD; this would be enough to bring almost every single person out of poverty. Although of course much of this is being spent on education, sanitation and food supplies there is an obvious lack of affect form this aid, with this amount of money it seems unbelievable that there is only 10% reduction in extreme poverty and still large amounts of under development. It’s therefore clear that there is a lack of results from this and it could be argued that with many problems in developed countries, i.e. lack of green energy, this money could be used to help in other ways within developed countries. However this is a weak argument as no rich country faces the same challenges that places like Kenya have where millions of people are starving and dying of lack of malnutrition. Therefore although aid is only having a slow affect with extra emphasis placed on helping development and removing poverty by the UN ,through there millennium development goals, it is still having an effect on Africa and the countries that receive this wealth.
An important reason many countries need help is the lack of stable and fair government. Many countries are ruled by a dictator who has the power of the army to stop uprising and even the countries with democracies still face huge corruption. This is one of the reasons that aid is less effective, and if the corruption can be removed then this will have more of an effect. This could be done by putting pressure on countries to remove the corruption, although a slow process with help from the UN and other agencies this should be possible within the next few years and decades. Therefore form this they can begin o create stable governments with sound and successful governments. Too much is written about needing democracies which is not necessarily the answers, man countries have had huge growth and development without having democratic government, Taiwan and china being the main example, Taiwan having a strong dictatorship while China followed the communist ideas set out by Chairman Mao. These both proved that although democracies a strong government that has firm control but does not abuse human rights (or this will discourage TNC’s from investing within the country) can develop. It will also give people confidence as many don’t set up businesses as they know governments will take their produce from them. There are also uprisings and wars within many of the countries so without the removal of this any factories or businesses are at risk, a good example is Somalia where extremists and pirates mean that development is practically non-existent. It is very hard to remove the corruption within a country but this is arguably the most important part of allowing a country to development as without this there are limitations to everything from trade to aid help as well as where the government spend money, e.g. on healthcare rather than arms. Therefore an imperative future aim for the UN should be help countries create stable governments as this will help them achieve their millennium goals as well as help the countries of LDCs develop.
However if we do get involved there are numerous ramifications that must be carefully considered. One such is the over-reliance on aid for a country to grow. If the country became reliant on the aid money it was being given then this would not represent stable development as if this aid money dries up then there could be a collapse of that country, sending it to the times before tit became developed therefore requiring the process of development to be repeated again. This would therefore represent a waste of money and time therefore it would be better to allow countries to try and develop on their own and many believe like Adam Smith that over time capitalism will just happen and therefore there is little need to do anything. This must be carefully examined however as Adam Smith lived in Ireland a relatively wealthy country and did not fully witness the problems and climate of many of the countries in Africa. This is another reason assisting LDC’s may not work, that there geography and climate. Many of the countries are land locked making it harder and more expensive to trade with large amounts of the world as well as meaning imports of capital and other goods take longer and more money to get to that country. As most LDCs are between the tropics this means their climate is very harsh often meaning its difficult for development to take place as any development risks damage from famine or drought that can kill large numbers of skilled workers or at least risk the population. It also makes it difficult to continue growing food for the country so means imports, which are more expensive, have to be done and if a country is also land locked this becomes hugely expensive.
Overall therefore it can be concluded that a combination of factors mean that countries are in a low levels of development and that many of these are changeable if help from the developed world is forth coming. These include the lack of capital and money to build up businesses, much of which could come from aid and donations from other governments. There is also the problem of lack of strong, focussed governments in many LDC’s which requires pressure and nurturing from the UN and other organisation to help remove corruption and help set up reliable, strong-willed governments. In my opinion this is the main reason for lack of development as it can be seen as the main or at least a major factor in almost all the reasons that countries still haven’t developed, including lack of healthcare and sanitation, inability to administrate the use of natural resources and minimal trade. It’s also important to know that because of the climate and geography of the area it is difficult for the countries to have a green revolution which has been the beginning of every other countries development as well as the ones who have got themselves out of poverty. Therefore overall I agree largely with the statement that developed nations need to help LDC’s to get out of poverty and in my opinion the most effective way for this to occur would be through the pressure of the UN to create strong governments in each country as well as help to give the countries a chance to develop and administrate the removal and sale of their natural resource wealth.
by
charliegoaliehotmailcouk (student)
