Least Developed Countries

Recent (2011) data from World Bank reveal that among 6.7 billion people living in the world, 5.5 billion (82%) live in developing countries. It means that only about 20% of the people live in developed countries. Another figure shows that about 80% of the world resources are held by developed countries. Comparing the use of resources and the number of people, the result is surprising. 80% resources for 20% people and 20% resources for 80% people.

Those living in developing countries (the 20%) are not homogeneous economically. Actually the gap between  rich and poor is significantly higher than we normally assume. For example, Indian billionaires hold 31% of the national GDP and there are 50-70 billionaires in India. It means that the largest democracy (India) in the world has such scary figure where about 31% of national resources are held by only 53 richest people (June 2012). In other poor economies too the gap between poor people and rich people is increasing. The economy is a significant determiner of ones health, education, and social capital. The figures show that now the problem is not only gap between developed and developing countries but also between rich and poor people. Perhaps, the number of poor people in rich countries is decreasing, we can not be sure that similar changes happening in poor countries. Actually, the so called economic boom in newly developed countries such as India and China doesn't necessarily prove that the condition of its people has improved. A country can become rich leaving millions of people in poverty. Even though this is a very crucial issue, I am not going to discuss further in this posting. The purpose of this post is to highlight some of the facts on the Least Developed Countries.

Looking through the lens of development economics, we can find three types of countries in the world today. They are developed countries, developing countries and the least developed countries or LDCs. Obviously first category is clear as it holds the advanced industrial nations. Normally they are the members of G8 (that includes France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Russia) or the member of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD (that includes 34 developed countries of the world). The list of the second types of countries is not so clear. They are also called the countries in economic transition or transition countries. Mostly they are represented by Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, including some oil producing countries. The first four accelerating economies are also called BRIC taking the initials of these four countries.

The third category, which is also my focus here is the Least Developed Countries. They are also called the third world countries but the terms is not used these days because of its derogatory sense and the term "third world" doesn't have exact connotation with the discussion I am going to do here. In 1971 United Nations made a decision to categorise the poorest countries of the world in the category of Leas Developed Countries. Since then LDC has been a popular acronym among development activists and donor agencies. These are the countries categorised in terms of Human Development Index. They are the countries with lowest level of national literacy, fragile and poor economy, poor health facility and basically the number of people living in extreme poverty that is living in 1.25 dollar a day.

There are 48 LDCs in the world today. The majority of LDCs are in Africa. The Least Developed Countries Report 2011 shows that there are 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia and 1 in South America. These 48 countries are:
         

Afghanistan	Madagascar
Angola	Malawi
Bangladesh	Mali
Benin	Mauritania
Bhutan	Mozambique
Burkina Faso	Myanmar
Burundi	Nepal
Cambodia	Niger
Central African Republic	Rwanda
Chad	Samoa
Comoros	Sao Tome and Principe
Congo	Senegal
Djibouti	Sierra Leone
Equatorial Guinea	Solomon Islands
Eritrea	Somalia
Ethiopia	Sudan
Gambia	Timor-Leste
Guinea	Togo
Guinea-Bissau	Tuvalu
Haiti	Uganda
Kiribati	Tanzania
Lao	Vanuatu
Lesotho	Yemen
Liberia	Zambia

Poverty is the major problem in all these countries. Now 36% of the people living in extreme poverty that is less that 1.25 dollar per day (and 78% living in 2 dollar per day) live in the LDCs. The LDCs share 12% of the world population but their contribution to the global Gross Domestic Product remains below 0.9% which is considerably lower than what it was in 1970s. Something to notice here today is that United States alone contribute about 22% of world GDP. Let's analyse the figure once again, 22% by one country and 1% by 48 countries. And this figure is not going to alter. The United Nations for Population Fund predicts that by 2050 the world population will reach 9 billion and 1.67 billion (about 18%) people will be living in LDCs. 

In terms of literacy, the adult literacy of LDCs is only 59.6%. It means that about 60 people in every 100 people can read and write. Because of global movement such as Education for All, Millennium Development Goals and Universal Primary Education the enrolment rate at primary level has reached about 85%, however the enrolment rate of secondary is only 32 percent. It shows that out of 100 only 85 go to primary school and only 32 secondary school age children reach to the secondary level. Looking at the rate of participation at tertiary level, we can claim that there is no progress at all. Only 5.6% people enrol in higher education. There is no data how many of them graduate and how many of them get job after their graduation.


Looking at the trend of Nepal, we can say that now the problem has been shifted to educated unemployed rather than uneducated unemployed. Even those 5.6%, probably the exceptional and brilliant people are not employed, then how can we imagine a better society? Same is the condition for all 48 Least Developed Countries of the World. On top of all problems there is also a burgeoning problem of brain drain. These are the reason why the number of LDCs is increasing and poverty is accelerating in the world. 

Problems are many and questions are even more. What are the solution to all those problems? Can education and qualifications solve these problems? Is investment in education justifiable in those countries? Does human capital formation help to alleviate the extreme poverty those countries enduring since past? How to reduce inequality? Are we educating the citizens of those countries in the right way? What has education done since past about 100 years? Was there not a right type of education or was education inadequate? These are the questions that need to be addressed. This is the time to work together for finding the solution of the problems these countries facing. People may think that the developed and developing countries could provide a panacea as they have been doing as donor agencies. The history of international development assistance shows that no country can achieve sustainable development from donations of rich countries and even from the assistance of World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The individual LDCs should unite and explore the solutions of their common problems.