Economic Development (Research report)

DIVERSE ATRUCRES

AND COMMON MCHARACTERISTISC

OF

DEVELOPING NATIONS

It is hazardous to try to generalize too much about the160 member countries of t5he united nation (U N) that constitute the developing  world. While almost all are poor in money terms, they are diverse in culture, economic conditions, and social and political structure. Thus, for example, low-income countries include India, with about 1 billion people and 26 states, as well as Grenada, with less then 100,000 people  fewer than most cities in the united states . large size entails complex problems of national cohesion and administration while offering the benefits of relatively large markets , a wide range of resources, and the potential for self sufficiency and economic diversity. In contrast, for many small countries the situation is reversed, with problem including limited markets, storages of skills, scarce physical resources , weak bargaining power, and little prospect of significant economic self-reliance, but strong incentives for exports of manufactured goods.

In  this  chapter, we provide an overview of the great diversity of developing countries . despite these variations, however, developing-problems that in fact define their states of underdevelopment . Nigeria provides a good illustration of these common problems, so it our case study at the end of the chapter.

                                       Defining the developing world

The most common way is define the developing world is by per capita income several international agencies including the organization for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations offer classification of countries by their economic status but the best –known system is that of the international Bank Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), more common known as the World Bank. In the World Banks classification system, 208 economies with a population of at least 30,000 are ranked by their levels of gross national income (GNI) per capita. These economies are then classified as low income (KIC), lower-middle income (LMC), upper-middle income (UMC),high-income OECD,ans other high-income countries .

Generally speaking the developing countries are those with low-, Lower –middle, or upper –middle income these counties are grouped by their geographic region in table 2.1 making them easier to identify on the map in figure 2.1 low income countries are defined as having a per capita gross national income (GNI) in 2000 of $755 or less lower middle income countries have income between $756 and income countries have income of $9,266 or more

                             Note however,that a few of the countries grouped as “other high in come

Economies in table2.1 are somatic is classified  by the UN schemes offer a separate category for members of the organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC). However, OPEC include low-income countries such as Nigeria and Indonesia and middle-income countries (Micas)such as Ecuador and Gabon with much more profound development problems, so this category is generally not used in this text. Upper-income economies also include some touricm-dependet islands with lingering development problems. Even a few of the high-income OECD member countries, notably Portugal and Greece, have been viewed as developing countries least until very recently. Nevertheless the characterization of the developing world as sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the middle east, Asia except for Japan Latino America and the Caribbean, and the middle east, Asia except for Japan , Latin America and the Caribbean, and the “transition” countries of east Europe and central Asia including the former soviet Union, remains a useful generalization. In contrast, the developed world constituting the OECD is comprised of the countries of west Europe, North America Japan, Australia, New Zealand.

Sometime a special distinction is made among upper-middle income economies, designating some that have achieved relatively advanced manufacturing sectors as “newly industrializing “countries,” or NICs. yet another way to classify the developing world is through their degree of international indebtedness the world bank classifies country as severely indebted ;moderately indebted and less indebted finally the united nations development program (UNDP)classifies

Table 2.1

Ethiopia                       LIC                  Uganda                                    LIC      Bahamas, The

Gabon                          UMC                Zambia                                    LIC      Barbados

Gambia, The                LIC                  Zimbabwe                    LIC      Bermuda

Ghana                          LIC                  High Income OECD               Bermuda

Guinea                         LIC                  Australia                                  Brunei

Guinea-Bissau             LIC                  Austria                                     Cayman Islands

Kenya                          LIC                  Belgium                                   Channel Island

Lesotho                                    LIC                  Canada                                                Cyprus

Liberia                         LIC                  Denmark                                  Faeroe islands

Madagascar                  LIC                  Finland                                                French Polynesia

Malawi                         LIC                  France                                      Greenland

Mali                             LIC                  Germany                                  Guam

Mauritania                   LIC                  Greece                                     Hong Kong china

Mauritius                     UMC                Iceland                                     Israel

Mayotte                       UMC                Ireland                                     Kuwait

Mozambique                LIC                  Italy                                         Liechtenstein

Namibia                       LMC                Japan                                       Macao, China

Niger                            LIC                  Luxembourg                            Malta

Nigeria                         LIC                  Netherlands                             Monaco

Rwanda                       LIC                  New Zealand                           Netherlands Antilles

Sao Tome and                                      New Zealand                           New Caledonia

Principal                                              Norway                                                Northern Mariana islands

Senegal                                    LIC                  Portugal                                               Qatar

Seychelles                    LIC                  Spain                                       San Marino

Sierra Leone                LIC                  Sweden                                                Singapore

Somalia                        LIC                  Switzerland                              Slovenia

South Africa                UMC                United Kingdom                      Taiwan, China

Sudan                          LIC                  United states                            United Arab Emirates

Swaziland                    LMC                Other high Income                 Virgin Islands (U.S)

Tanzania                      LIC                  Andorra

Togo                            LIC                  Aruba

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

This table classifies all world bank member economies and all other economies with populations of more than 30;000 Economies are divided among income groups according to 2000’GNI per capita calculated using the world bank atlas method the groups are low income  (LIC) .$755 or less lower middle income (LMC)$ ,756,2995upper middle income (UMC)$2.996-9.265 and high income $9,266 or more surce;world bank world development report 2002 (New York oxford university press2002).p.241.reprintedwithpermisson

    Countries according to their level of human development including health and education attainments .because of  its great importance .we consider the UNDP human development index (HDI) in detail later in the chapter; after   providing

Some vital backgrund;

                  The simple division of the world into developed and developing countries is of ten very useful for analytical and policy purposes. However, the wide income range of the latter serves as an early warning for us not to over generalize. Indeed the economic differences between low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and upper-middle income countries in East Asia and Latin America, can be every bit as profound as those between high-income OECD and upper-middle income developing countries.

           Nevertheless;  despite the obvious diversity of these countries’ most developing nations share a set of  common and well –defined goals ‘these include a reduction in poverty’inequality’and unemployment’ the provision  of minimum levels of education ‘health ‘housing ‘and food to every citizen; the broadening of enomic and social opportunities ‘and the forging of a cohesive  nation’ state related to these economic social and political goals are the common problems shared  in varying degrees by most developing countries; widespread and chronic absolute poverty high levels of unemployment and underemployment, wide and growing disparities in the distribution of income low and stagnating levels of agricultures productivity. Sizable and growing imbalances between urban and rural lives of living and economics opportunities, serious and worsening environmental decay, antiquated and inappropriate educational and health system, severe balance of payment and international debt problem and substantial and increasing dependence on foreign technologies, institutions and values systems. It is therefore possible and useful to talk about the similarities of critical development problems and to analyze these problems in broad developing world perspective. This will be our task in parts two in three.

For the present we well attempt to identify some of the most important structural differences among developing countries and then provide relevant data to delineate some of their most common characteristic feature. In spite of above physical, demographic, historic, and structural differences, most developing nations face very similar economic and social dilemmas.