CMH 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Hans Rosling, Human Development Index, Sustainable Development
Module 6 – Development and Health Transition
• Human development is the process of enlarging peoples choices in every aspect of human
life
o Human development is about expanding the richness of human life, not just economy
o Focused on people and their opportunities and choices
• What is Human development?
o Sustainable human development means the creation of the same opportunities for a
life with dignity, for all people and the next generations
o People can develop to their full potential
▪ can have a long and healthy life
▪ have access to quality education
▪ and be productive
▪ participation in economy
o About expanding the choices people have to lead qualitative lives
o Not concentrated on how much money is made, but how much is invested in people
o Inequalities are the barriers for sustainable human development
▪ Source of conflicts that damage a dignified life
o Growth of population is dangerous
▪ Leads to growth of consumption
▪ Leads to growth of waste
o Sustainable development fights that
• Living a long healthy and creative life: being knowledgeable: and having access to resources
are the three foundations for human development
• Human development can be measured through the Human Development Index (HDI)
o Growing acceptancy that monetary measures such as GDP per capita are inadequate
practices of development
o The first human development report introduce the HDI as a crude measure of the
basic dimensions of human development
▪ A simple average of a nation’s life expectancy, education, and income.
▪ The higher the better
• The River of Myths by Hans Rosling
o In the 1960s there was a clear cut difference between developing and developed
countries when it came to child mortality and babies born per woman
o Women chose to have fewer and fewer children
o By 1990 some of the countries called developing had caught up with the developed,
some were in between, and a few remained behind
o Ethiopia had stayed in the same place from 1960 to 1990 but after the 1990s it made
it halfway dropping tremendously
o Its fully possible that by 2030 there will be no countries left in the box we called
developing
▪ To ensure that happens we must measure the progress of countries
• Changes in life conditions and the environment that occur during development cause the
health transition in both developed and developing countries
o A health transition can occur at different times and speeds
▪ Depends on the patterns and rate of social and economic development of the
culture
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Document Summary
Also high death rates due to poor nutrition or high rates of disease: believed that most countries were in stage 1 until 1800s, modeled by high stationary population period, stage 2: developing countries. Birth rates and death rates are low, and balance each other out: population is large, low birth rates are due to improvements in contraception and high percentage of women in the work force. U. s. is in stage 4: modeled by a low stationary pyramid, stage 5: speculation. Some believe the world population will be forced to stabilize: run out of resources and global food shortage. Malthousian theory: population may decrease as it stabilizes and the birth rate will drop below the death rate. Some evidence shows better standard of living with smaller families. Some governments adopt policies that encourage small families: it may begin to grow again.
