My Future
WORLD DEVELOPMENT
by St. Leonards School (14)

Write a Story, report or poem about life in the future Did you know that: 75% of the world s population lives in the third world. 97% of all infant deaths (under 1 year) are in the third world. 2 billion people exist on less than $500 per year. 120 million children have no schooling. 200 million children are stunted because of hunger. 2 billion people do not have safe water. 250 million people live in urban slums or shanty towns. How is this going to change in the next millenium? We spoke to an academic authority on development, who said the gap between rich and poor was actually getting larger. This is not the case in all countries. To stop this gap increasing we as a country have to do something to help. Some of the things we can do include donating to various charities. Claire Short, the Minister of Overseas Development for the Labour Party, has tried to introduce a debt relief program which will hopefully help out those less developed countries which are not able to repay the debt that they owe to the more developed ones. This is similar to what President Clinton has recently announced, but because the small print has not been seen yet it is not clear what his motives are. The questions asked about abolishing world debt were: Who will pay the debt? Under what conditions will the debt be alleviated? There are certain methods to measure the development of a country. The person we spoke to believes that infant mortality is one of the most significant . This is the number of deaths of babies under 1 year per 1000 people. This indicator shows how advanced the healthcare and living standards of a country are. Another indicator of development which is often misinterpreted is GNP (gross national product). This is the total income of a country per year. This is not always an accurate measure of income distribution because, for example, in Brazil the income is very high but the standard of living is not. We now believe that the best indicator is HDI (human development index). This is a composite of many factors which could portray development, for example, life expectancy, literacy rates and income. We learnt a lot through our interview and we are now much more aware of the problems throughout the world. The future will see many changes - good and bad - for the developing world. We will wait to see the extent to which initiatives such as President Clinton s to reduce third world debt will improve the standard of living in less developed countries. For these to work governments will have to make looking after the poor a priority. Maiana and Amanda