Human & Social Factors Affecting Development

Geography: KS3, topic 4.2.4

Political and Social Causes of Global Inequalities

The following economic and political factors are likely to cause global inequalities:

Poor international relations means that a country may have to pay a higher interest rate on its debt or that it may not be able to borrow at all.
The USA offered lots of countries free money for development under the Marshall Plan after World War 2. However, this was informally tied to being a democratic, capitalist society.
Countries like the Ivory Coast have received debt relief in the last few decades, whereas other countries have growing debts.

Development under authoritarian governments or dictatorships can be good (China since 1980) or bad (Venezuela since 2017 or Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe).
Many Eastern European and Baltic countries had slower economic growth under the communist USSR. While these socialist systems aimed for equality, state control sometimes caused inefficiencies.
Cold War tensions and limited trade with the West also affected their economies.
Corrupt government or institutions can also slow development.

Sometimes, there is a brain drain from developing countries to developed countries. This is when the best-educated people (usually with university degrees) try to live and work in a developed country.

Diseases like cholera and malaria can be more likely to happen in some climates. However, a government or social culture can make their spread more likely (e.g. bad healthcare system).
If people are dying from malaria and cholera, this affects development and could lead to even more brain drain.

Kenya is in East Africa. In 2000, its GNI per capita was $800. In 2019, it was $1,200. Kenya used tourism to help grow it to develop.
Tourism can help a country grow.
Tourism is now 15% of Kenya's exports and has created 1.1 million jobs in Kenya.
Having beaches and wildlife that tourists want to visit can affect development.