1. Standards of Living Social Studies 11 – Geography
Prince of Wales Secondary – Ms. Underwood

2. What is life like in other countries??
PLOs:
Compare Canada’s Standard of Living with those of developing countries, with reference to poverty and key indicators of human development
Specifically, what indicators are used by the UN to measure Living Standards
Also, what can be done to improve standards (life expectancy, etc.)

3. Let’s Get Started On a piece of paper, jot down the following:
TOP 5 Countries you would like to live in.
BOTTOM 5 Countries that you would not like to live in.
Next step, answer the following on the same sheet of paper:
For what reasons did you select your top 5??
What is it about these countries that you like??
For what reasons did you select your bottom 5??
Why is there no way you would want to live in those countries?
Compare your list to the person beside you. Do you have any of the same countries? Do you have any of the same reasons to move or not move to the location?
Discuss, your results as a class.

4. What do you think this map shows us?
What observations can you make about the distribution of countries?
The distribution of countries by their UN HDI ranking

5. The Human Development Index
Take a look at the 2016 HDI report (posted on the Weebly).
Where are your top 5 countries ranked? Bottom 5?
Where is Canada ranked?
What other countries do you find interesting?
Why is there incomplete or no data in North Korea? Monaco?

6. Least Developed Country
The very poorest nations which in no sense can be seen as developing.
They are generally poor, highly underdeveloped nations.
Widespread conflict and political instability.
Usually run by incompetent and brutal dictatorships.
Very little democracy or freedom.
Ethnic clashes are usually a result of a lasting legacy of colonialism or Communist rule.
Countries include, but not limited to: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, Chad, Laos, Lesotho, Mali, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.

7. Dadaab, Kenya
What can you speculate about what is happening in this picture?
Is there anything that captures your attention?
What sort of climate do you think exists?
What is life like for the people in the picture? How do we know?
Family is looking for firewood. Necessary for survival… preparation of food.
In the foreground there is a dead carcass of a cow… lack of nutrients? Water?
Large family, 5 children?

8. Developing Country A developing country is an undeveloped country.
These countries have not experienced high levels of industrialization compared to their large populations.
They have low standards of living:
Few goods and services available
Poor health care
Low life expectancy
Low personal income
Usually have a high birth rate.
Favellas, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

9. Examples of Developing Countries
Most countries in Africa
Most countries in Asia (not Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, or Singapore.
Most countries of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Compare this image to our downtown. What are the similarities or differences?
Lagos, Nigeria

10. Developed Country Singapore The most wealthy countries.
Have achieved a high level of industrialization.
Enjoy a high standard of living made possible by wealth and technology.
Often developed countries are democracies.
Developed countries include:
Canada
Australia
United States
Western Europe
Japan
Singapore

11. The UN Human Development Report
An index that ranks countries on three measures: adult literacy, life expectancy and per capita GDP
GDP is total value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year
Divide that number by a country’s population and you have per capita GDP
This report is a crude indicator of levels of economic and social development – countries that rank high are developed and affluent (low rank equals poor development and growth)

12. Comparing Living Standards
Difficult to do sometimes
Non-monetary transactions are difficult to trace – this makes measuring economic output in developing countries difficult
Wealth can be unevenly distributed – ie. Saudi Arabia with mega-rich and extreme poor – skews statistics

13. Indicators of Quality of Life
Health Indicators
Life expectancy
Under 5 mortality rate (number of children U5 that die per thousand live births)
Fertility rate (births per woman)
People not expected to live to age 60.
Availability of Essential Services
Adult literacy rate
Students in secondary education
Doctors (per 1000 people)
Availability of Essential Goods
Daily caloric intake (app in high income countries; 2100 in low income countries)
Per capita energy consumption
Access to clean water
Televisions (per 100 people)

14. Human Development Index

15. Poverty
Estimates are controversial, but some measures suggest that ~1.3 billion people live below the poverty line (in the Developing World that equates to earning less than $1 per day)
The poverty line is different in Canada, due to greater cost of living – here we measure by people having to spend more than 56% of their income on life’s necessities
It is estimated that 5.1 million Canadians are in this category

16. Poverty in Canada
About nine per cent of Canadians live in poverty, although the percentage is generally higher among certain groups such as single mothers and Aboriginal people. Low-income Canadians include the "working poor" — those with jobs — and the "welfare poor" — those relying mainly on government assistance.
–The Canadian Encyclopedia

17. Developing World Poverty
Greatly related to inability to purchase food
Also, debt is a major problem
The debts of these nations are linked to loans that were granted – western nations wanted to help these countries develop their infrastructure – dams, highways, etc.
However, many developing countries have been unable to repay these debts, and now payments on these debts take up huge amounts of budgets – money that can’t be spent on education, health, development programs, etc

18. Poverty Cycle
On a basic level, poor healthcare and nutrition leads to developmental difficulties, which causes problems in literacy and academic progress
This leads to reduced ability to be successful in the workplace, leading to poor wages, poor diet and health, young marriage often occurs as well, with poor job prospects
Families are forced into debt and poverty, leading to malnourished babies, completing the cycle
The key to breaking this cycle is improved education and nutrition/healthcare

19. Poverty Cycle

20. Solutions
Since WWII, the developed world has been providing aid (money, etc) to the developing world
Aid is dwarfed by military expenditures however
Comes in a variety of forms
Multilateral Aid: funded by a number of gov’ts, usually for large scale projects
Tied Aid: conditions are attached, like purchasing goods from certain companies, etc
Aid is received from many sources: UN, CIDA and NGO’s like Oxfam and Rotary

21. Components of the HDI Activity
Use the following link to complete Student Activity Sheet #1 and #2: