48 - Better or Worse?

Economically, throughout the developing world, if what one looks at are the standard indicators that banks and credit rating agencies use, then virtually all developing countries are worse off now than they were in 1985, when I began working for the YMCA.

Indebtedness remains a major impediment to development. As the year 2000 approached, the eight richest nations in the world–the G8–promised to cancel $100 billion of the debt owed by 52 of the world’s poorest countries, but by 2003 in fact only $18 billion had been cancelled and this for just four countries. In 2005, the issue of debt forgiveness was once more placed on the agenda of the G8 meetings held in Gleneagles, Scotland. Even though that meeting was disrupted by the Al-qaeda attack on London, a statement on debt forgiveness was issued; however, it focussed on only 18 of the more than 60 nations which require attention.

Political violence throughout the developing world, if anything, seems to be on the rise. Not just in the Middle East, but also in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. Again, just considering what took place in the year 2002, Hindu fundamentalists in Gujarat province in India killed over 1000 Muslims; Maoist rebels in Nepal slaughtered 129 police officers, soldiers, and civilians; in Nigeria, Moslems angered by the staging of the Miss World pageant went on a rampage which left 250 people dead and thousands homeless; in Africa, as civil war finally came to an end in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it broke out in Côte d’Ivoire; civil and political violence continued in Zimbabwe and broke out in the Central African Republic; Al-qaeda suicide bombings expanded to Tunisia and Kenya; the President of Colombia had to declare a large part of his nation a war zone; and in Peru, Sindero Luminoso, a Maoist terror group which it was thought had been effectively brought under control back in 1992, once more emerged.

All of this would suggest that conditions in developing countries are continuing to deteriorate. And yet the United Nations, International Aid agencies such as CIDA–the Canadian International Development Agency–and some Non-Governmental Organizations point to a wide spectrum of improvements which have taken place in developing countries during this same twenty year period: improvements in food production and nutrition, improvements in efforts to ensure that all children–in particular girls–have access to education. And as girls become better educated, these groups point to a range of positive consequences: The children of a woman who has had as little as four years of education are more than twice as likely to survive infancy as are the children of women who can’t read or write. So as the education of girls improves, there has also been a reduction in infant mortality rates. Many childhood diseases have been controlled. Approximately 80% of the world’s children have been immunised against the six major infectious diseases, and other diseases, like smallpox, have been eliminated. Because more children are surviving infancy and early childhood, globally the birth rate has also begun to come down.

Is this evidence of actual improvements in developing countries or is it just “spin”?