caused by temporal misfortune but by wrong and obsolete methods of utilising of available resources.
5) Also, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) uses the level of human development, including health and education attainments. The Human development index is an indicator that takes into consideration the economic and non-economic factors of human lives. Human development Index is a composite statistics of the life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries. A country with low life expectancy, low literacy rate and low per capita income relative to the developed countries can be said to underdeveloped.
6) The low level of per capita real income of the underdeveloped countries compared with the advanced countries. Per capita real income tells us the inflation adjusted income per person. The problem with this indicator is that it takes only one aspect of underdevelopment into consideration, and that is poverty, while ignoring other aspects like why consumption levels are low. Also, data on per capita national income are often misleading, inaccurate and unreliable especially in the developing countries.
However, despite the problems associated with the data used for per capita income, the method is the most widely used indicator.
SELF-ASSESMET EXERCISE
Identify five measures that one can use to tell whether a country is underdeveloped
3.3 HDI Ranking of Some Countries
There is Poverty everywhere in the world, particularly in South Asia, Africa and Latin America countries, with Africa countries topping the list of the least developed.
Going by the 2013 Human development report, the Human development index ranking in 2012, showed that Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo were least with a per-capita GDP (PPP) of less than 365 dollars.
Burundi, Zimbabwe and Liberia come just before them. The first non-African country to be found among the world’s poorest nations is Afghanistan, with just over a thousand dollars. HDI Ranking, along with values of life expectancy at birth, educational components, income and non-income values are presented in table 2. 1. The non income HDI is calculated to provide an additional means of cross-country comparison achievements in the non income dimensions. Here is an abridged version of the 2012 HDI ranking of countries showing the first five countries and the five least countries in the world.
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Table 2.1: Human Development Index and its Components showing 5top and 5 least Countries in the World
S/
N
HDI Rank
Human Develop ment Index (HDI)
Life expecta ncy at birth
Mean years of school ing
Expec ted years of school ing
Gross Nation al incom e (GNI) per capita
Non-inco me HDI
1
Norway 0.955 81.3 12.6 17.5 48,688 0.97 7 2 Australia 0.938 82.0 12.0 19.6 34,340 0.97
8 3 United
States
0.937 78.7 13.3 16.8 43,480 0.95 8 4
Netherla nds
0.921 80.8 11.6 16.9 37,282 0.94 5 5
Germany
0.920 80.6 12.2 16.4 35,431 0.94 8 18
3
Burkina Faso
0.343 55.9 1.3 6.9 1,202 0.33 2 18
4
Chad 0.340 49.9 1.5 7.4 1,258 0.32 4 18
5 Mozamb
ique
0.327 50.7 1.2 9.2 906
0.32 7 18
6
Congo, Democra tic
Republic
0.304 48.7 3.5 8.5 319 0.40 4
18 6
Niger 0.304 55.1 1.4 4.9 701 0.31
3 Source: Human Development Report (2013).
SELF-ASSESSMET EXERCISE
From the 2012 HDI ranking, list the two richest and the two poorest countries. On your own, find out the HDI rank of your country.
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4.0 CONCLUSION
From our discussion in this unit, we found out that the Less developed countries, can also be referred to as developing or underdeveloped countries. The terms refer to a country or countries that have low living standards and underdeveloped industrial base. Other terms that can be used are backward, poor or third world but it is most often called developing or underdeveloped countries which are less derogatory names.
Underdeveloped countries are countries that are poor, backwards and are in the process of industrialisation and examples are Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and India. Different indicators can be used to tell us how poor or undeveloped a country is, either by looking at the economic or noneconomic aspect of the lives of the people in a country. It is true that poverty can be found in every country of the world, but the intensity and manner in which it presents itself in the less developed countries especially Africa, is alarming.
African countries are the poorest and least developed countries in the world and a clear evidence of this is their low ranking compared to other countries of the world in the Human Development Index (HDI). From the abridged HDI ranking presented in this unit, we discovered that Africa countries occupy the least positions in the ranking which looks at average achievements in three basic dimensions of human development—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit has introduced you to the meaning of the term less developed countries. You were exposed to the various synonyms of the word and you also found out that some words used for it are wrongly used interchangeably. There are different indicators that could give us a picture as to whether a country is developed or developing and these indicators were explained in this unit.
To further understand the topic properly, a table was presented showing top five countries and five least countries of the world using the human capital index as an indicator for the economic and the noneconomic performance of different countries. From the table, we realised that African countries did poorly in the Human development ranking, showing that we are still backwards in relation to the industrialised nations of the world.
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6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Underdeveloped and less-developed can be used interchangeably to describe a country. State whether the statement is true or false and give reason(s) for your answer.
2. Is Nigeria a developed or developing country? List and explain three indicators to buttress your points.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Jhingan, M. L. (2007). The Economics of Development and Planning.
(39th ed.). Delhi: Vrinda Publications(P)Ltd.
Human Development Report (2013). The Rise of the South Human Progress in a Diverse World.
Olajide, O. T. (2004). Theories of Economic Development and Planning.
Lagos: Pumark Nigeria Ltd.
Todaro, M. P. & Smith, S. C. (2011). Economic Development. (11th ed.). England: Pearson Education Ltd.
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UNIT 2 COMMON CHARACTERISTICS AND