PROBLEMS OF THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

Chapter 5

Third World Countries

• The exact origin of the term “Third World Countries” is still unclear.

• However, it is believed that the term was originally coined in times of the Cold War to distinguish those nations that are neither aligned with the West (NATO) nor with the East, the Communist block.

Third World Countries

• Today the term refer to the less developed or developing countries. These are the nations that emerged from their colonial periods – at least politically.

2011 LIST OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

• Afghanistan • India• American Samoa • Argentina • Armenia • Benin• Bhutan • Bolivia • Brazil • Cambodia

• Central African Republic

• Chile • China• Congo, Dem. Rep. • Congo, Rep.• Cuba• Haiti• Indonesia • Iran, Islamic Rep.

• Iraq • Jamaica • Jordan • Kazakhstan • Kenya • Kiribati • Korea, Dem. Rep.• Peru • Philippines

It can be noticed that Third World countries are mostly from Africa, Asia and Latin America

Characteristics of the Third World

Countries

Developing countries have common characteristics. And these are the root cause of their poverty.

Subsistence Agricultural Economy

• The main economy of a less developed country depends on agriculture. Most of its people work in agriculture.

• In most of Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America, a large percentage of people are primarily involved with feeding themselves from their own land and livestock.

 

• However, Third World Countries, are mostly adopting subsistence agricultural economy.

–Subsistence  agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families.

Characteristics of Subsistence Agricultural

Economy

1. Natural calamities can easily shake the stability of such economy.

- drought, flood, typhoon etc.

Natural calamities

2. Prices of demand are subject to the decisions of the industrial countries. –the industrial countries put up

unreasonable trade barriers to the detriment of agricultural products.– “beggar thy neighbor” policies

• Trade barriers are any of a number of government-placed restrictions on trade between nations. The most common sorts of trade barriers are things like subsidies, tariffs, quotas, duties, and embargoes. –Tariffs are a fairly common form of trade

barriers, either (1) a tax on imports or exports(trade tariff) in and out of a country.

• Trade between EU Member States and trade with Norway and Iceland takes place according to the special rules that apply to the internal market of the EU.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture imposes extensive regulatory controls on agricultural markets.

• A Kenyan commentator about regulatory trade barriers:

“why do developed countries impose their environmental ethics on poor countries that are simply trying to pass through a stage they themselves went through?”

“If only people in developed countries… could see… the millions who are poverty stricken, sick, starving

and even dying… they send us aid, but it would be better if they let us trade with them.”

Agricultural Products vs. Industrial Products

3. Low productivity due to improper farming method, insufficient knowledge .

4. Insufficient government funds, facilities and support.

VS.

Low per capita income

Per capita income

• Per capita income is obtained by dividing national income of a country by its population in the year.

Per capita income = national income in a year

population in the year• It is the average income of an average person

in that country.

Per capita income

• World Bank compares the economic condition of the different countries by comparing their real per capita income. This determines which part of the world is rich and which is poor.

• The concept of per capita income is used as an indicator to measure economic development of a country.

Third World Countries in Terms of their Gross National Income (GNI)

Rank                    Country/Region GNI per capita1 Timor-Leste/ South-East Asia *4002 Malawi/ Eastern Africa 5963 Somalia/ Eastern Africa *6004 Congo/ Middle Africa 6755 Tanzania/ Eastern Africa 7206 Yemen/ Middle East 7457 Burundi/ Eastern Africa 7538 Afghanistan/Central Asia *8009 Guinea-Bissau/ Western Africa 85610 Ethiopia/Eastern Africa 85911 Niger/ Western Africa 89612 Liberia/ Western Africa *90013 Sierra Leone/ Western Africa 901

Top 10: First World Countries in terms of their Gross National Income

Rank                    Country/Region GNI per Capita 1 Luxembourg/Western Europe 66 821 2 Norway/Northern Europe 41 941 3 United States/North America 41 557 4 Ireland/Northern Europe 40 003 5 Bermuda (overseas territory of the UK) *36 000 /North America 6 Iceland/Northern Europe 35 686 7 Denmark/Northern Europe 34 718 8 San Marino/Southern Europe *34 600 9 Canada/North America 34 444 10 Switzerland/ Western Europe 33 168

Causes of low per capita income

• Third world Countries have low per capita income – since the national income of a poor country is low and it is overpopulated.

Causes of low per capita income

• The various causes of low per capita income of the LDCs can be categorized in the following groups:

1. National Income side causes - National income is low

2. Population side causes -

Causes of low per capita income

National Income Side Cause:

a. Backwardness of agriculture sectorb. Industrial backwardnessc. Limited savings and investmentd. Unfavorable balance of tradee. Shortage of technical hands

f. Problem of unemploymentg. Low labor efficiencyh. Inadequate transport and communication

facilitiesi. Absence of innovative capabilitiesj. Political instability k. Corrupt bureaucracy

First World Countries vs.

Third World Countries

In First World Countries In Third World Countries

First World Countries vs.

Third World Countries

High Birth Rate

High Birth Rate

• The less developed countries have very high birth rates.

Rank Country (births/1,000 population)

Date of Information

12

Niger Uganda

50.0647.38

2011 est. 2011 est.

3 Mali 45.15 2011 est.

4 Zambia 43.51 2011 est.

5 Burkina Faso 43.20 2011 est.

6 Ethiopia 42.59 2011 est.

7 Somalia 42.12 2011 est.

8 Burundi 40.58 2011 est.

9 Malawi 40.42 2011 est.

10 Congo, Republic of the 40.09 2011 est.

Top 10 Countries with theHighest Birth Rates

Countries with the Low Birth Rates

Country births/1,000 population1 Monaco 6.942 Japan 7.313 Germany 8.304 Singapore 8.505 Korea, South 8.556 Austria 8.677 Czech Republic 8.708 Slovenia 8.859 Bosnia and Herzegovina 8.8910 San Marino 9.02

Reasons for High birth rates

• Many parents will have a lot of children in the expectation that some will die because of the high infant mortality rate

• Large families can help in looking after the farm • The children will be able to look after their

parents if they become old or sick; there may not be a old age pension scheme

• There may be a shortage of family planning facilities and advice

Developed countries have low birth rates because:

• It is expensive to look after large families • More women prefer to concentrate on their

careers • Increasing sexual equality has meant women

have more control over their own fertility • There is a ready availability of contraception

and family planning advice

Implications of High Birth Rate

• High birth rates leads to increase in population especially when birth rate is faster than mortality rate.

• A significant feature of the LDC’s is its young population.

• This means, more dependent and less productive human capital.

High Illiteracy

Literacy

• Literacy helps accelerate economic development. It is easier to impart proper attitudes, values, knowledge and skills to people who are literate. People become more rational and productive when they are trained or educated.

Literacy

• Fajardo defined literacy as the ability to read and write in their own dialects.

• In 1930 the U.S. Bureau of the Census defined illiterate as any person over ten years of age who was unable to read and write in any language.

Illiteracy

• By the next census (1940), however, the concept of “functional” illiteracy was adopted, and any person with less than five years of schooling was considered functionally illiterate, or unable to engage in social activities in which literacy is assumed.

Reasons of High Illiteracy

• Poverty• Inadequate Budget• Lack of schools and

teaching staff• High Fees not Affordable• Religious Matters

• Insufficient Funds • Feudal, Tribal or other

Systems• Political Conflicts or

Hurdles• Agricultural States

In an article written by Madeeha Rashid she mentioned that good education is “A Challenge to Third World” due to these reasons:

Third World Countries  First World Countries

Poor Health

Health, ill-health and poverty

“We are all poor here, because we have no school and no health center. If a woman has a difficult delivery, a traditional cloth is tied between two sticks and we carry her for seven kilometers to the health center. You know how long it takes to walk like that? There is nobody who can help here, that’s why we are all poor here.

- Togo, 1996

High death ratesCountry deaths per 1,000 pop

ulation1 Angola 23.402 Afghanistan 17.393 South Africa 17.094 Nigeria 16.065 Russia 16.046 Ukraine 15.747 Chad 15.478 Guinea-Bissau 15.279 Lesotho 15.1910 Central African Republic 15.01

Poor Health• Many people on the less developed countries

are afflicted with poor health.

• In developing countries, millions of people suffer from avoidable health problems—such as infectious diseases, malnutrition, and complications of childbirth—simply because they are poor (April 2004, Population Reference Bureau).

• Many people in the less developed countries are either malnourished or undernourished. That make them susceptible to diseases.–Malnourished, not fed up with healthy food–Undernourished, not fed up with enough

food

The Undernourished Map

Reasons for Poor Health

• Hunger - hunger and malnutrition are seen as underlying causes of many

diseases.“They [the children] sometimes get sick for no

reason. Sometimes it is because of lack of food. We are poor. We have no money to buy or to feed ourselves…”

-A woman, Voluntad de Dios, Ecuador

• lack of safe water• Sanitation problems – In Bangladesh, for

example, poor people point out the scarcity of latrines, and say that long queues often form outside toilets.

• poor housing or shelters, and often in dangerous or unstable areas.

• Poor hospital facilities especially    in far-flung places• No access to support, information   and services.

“Everything is contaminated, land, water, plants, and people.”

- Community member, Ecuador

It’s draughty, humid, leaking. Just try live here in winter. Our children have fallen ill. And the adults too. There are bugs, cockroaches, what have you. It’s cold.

- Roma men and women, Bulgaria

“Just look how the kids are playing in the street with so much dirt. The water in the streets brings infections, and it is because of a lack of a sewage system…

- A woman, Barrio las Pascuas, Bolivia

Negative Attitudes, Values and Institutions

• Some pervasive attitudes, values and institutions in the less developed countries are not favorable to economic development.

• As mentioned by Fajardo, the greatest obstacle to development is MAN HIMSELF. 

• The development of people is the only real and enduring kind of development.

Negative Attitudes and Values and Institutions

• In an article written by *James Shikwati, Why America Will Always Be Richer Than Other Nations, he enumerated the negative attitudes of people from the Third World Countries that contribute to their poverty as compared to developed countries like America and several countries in Europe.

• Tardiness• Laziness• Resistance to change• Lack of self-reliance• Colonial mentality• Fatalism• Nepotism• Extravagance – lavish and unnecessary expenditures• Poor systems

Inefficient Public Administration

Inefficient Public Administration

• Public administration has been generally inefficient in many developing countries.– high degree of nepotism and personal

connections– Government corruption– the lack of effective supervision

5 most corrupt countries 

1. Somalia 2. North Korea3. Myanmar4. Afghanistan5. Uzbekistan, Sudan,

Turkmenistan (tied)

High Rate of Unemployment

Unemployment

• The labor force is extremely underutilized in the less developed countries.–Unemployment refers to a situation

where people who are willing and able to work cannot find a job

–Underemployment means people are working on part-time basis; . It may also include those who work on full-time but their productivity is extremely low

–disguised unemployment which pertains to people who are actually working but they have no real economic contributions to production

Reasons for High rate of unemployment

• High population• Poor education• Agriculture and a changing

environment• Few job opportunities

Unemployment Rates of some countries

Country (%)  Date of InformationZimbabwe                         95.00 2009 est. Nauru                                90.00 2004 est. Namibia                            51.20 2008 est. Haiti                                  40.60 2010 est.Afghanistan                     35.00 2008 est. Spain                                 21.70 2011 est. Nigeria                              21.00 2011 est. Philippines                          7.00 2011 est.

 

THE PROBLEMS OF

LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Problems of the third world country