Historical Global Development Divisions
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Task 1 - So, how does wealth and development vary across the world?
i. Watch the first video carefully above. Complete the Task 1 quiz sheet above.
ii. In the 1970's and into the 1980's, the world was divided in two. The so called 'Rich North' & The 'Poor South'. This division was created by drawing a line. This was called the 'Brandt Line'.
Any country above this line was developed and 'developed' and anything below was 'less developed' and considered to be poor. Check out the map above right and click here to find out a bit more.
But, how relevant is the Brandt line today?
You should remember your work from G6 about 'The Gap Instinct'. You completed a card sorting exercise and should remember this information. Remember, Hans Rosling says that most people live somewhere in the middle. But of course, there is no middle on a divided world - there is only rich & poor.
Click on the tab below to access a worksheet that contains your task.
Extension Task - Should we ban Billionaires?
Click here to listen to an excellent podcast from the BBC. No need to take notes, just listen!
Introducing the Human Development Index
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FACTFULNESS & THE HDI LEAGUE
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Objective: To find out what HDI means, what it measures and how is it calculated and where most countries are located. Task 1 - The BBC page here will help to answer the questions below. Answer these questions on your worksheet. a. What does HDI stand for? b. Name the four composite indicators that are included in HDI (there are two for education). c. On what scale is the HDI measured? d. Which value is the highest and which value is the lowest? Task 2 - In the space on the worksheet, outline the advantages and disadvantages of the HDI. Task 3 - Click here to be taken to an interactive website of countries linked to their HDI rating. Individually, click on:
Look underneath the graph and record the key data for each country on your worksheet. Using your worksheet, describe the trends shown on the graph that opens up making sure you talk about the value in 1990 and the value today as well as the shape of the line and anything unusual that happens. |
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Pirates & Elves! Top & Nearly Bottom of the HDI
Although not quite the bottom in 2025, Somalia often is in the bottom 3 of the least developed nations on earth. In this piece of work, you will be looking at Somalia and Iceland - two countries at contrasting ends of the world's biggest league - HDI!
But why has Somalia not got any HDI history, and why did it only recently appear in the league?
Somalia was not included in the UN Human Development Index (HDI) before 2023 because the country did not have enough reliable data about people’s health, education, and income. For many years, Somalia faced war, political instability, and natural disasters like droughts and floods, which made it very hard to collect information. There was no strong national government or statistics office to measure these things properly.
Since 2012, Somalia has been rebuilding its government with help from the UN and other international partners. The creation of the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics now allows the country to collect and share data. This progress meant that, for the first time, Somalia could be included in the global HDI ranking in 2023 — a big step forward in showing how the country is developing.
Task 4 - The Presentation Task
Your teacher will give you a partner in the class and you will be told which country you will be researching.
You have two lessons and one homework to put together a short presentation using the template above, as well as creating a narration using the voice recording software on your computer, and Google Slides / PowerPoint.
Step 1 - Know Your Location
Find out where your country is in the world. Which countries are their neighbours, and which continent are you located on? Are you landlocked or coastal?
Step 2 - Create a fact sheet on your allocated country.
Your starting point is to watch one of the two videos below. They are quite long videos and so you should click on the title of the video to watch them through the YouTube site. Once there, click on the 'more' section below the video and expand it out until you see the 'Chapters' menu. Study the chapter titles and choose four chapters to watch based on what you are expected to do below. Make sure you look at the mark scheme below to ensure that all expected tasks have been completed.
You may want to focus on:
- Key issues in the country e.g. life expectancy, birth rates, death rates, literacy rates, disease rates
- GDP per capita and HDI values
- Natural Hazards that both countries face (% change that countries face - link)
- Include maps to show locations within the continent of Africa and Europe.
- Why pirates exist in Somalia or why gender equality is so good in Iceland (although not perfect!)?
- Include a selection of referenced photos to show how life 'looks' in your country.
Step 4 - Create a presentation to your partner.
i. Make sure you have a PowerPoint presentation ready that includes the tasks above.
ii. Create a vocal narration for your presentation using the voice recording software on your school laptop computer. To do this, click on the Windows symbol and type in voice. You will see (in French) an app called 'Enregistreur Vocal'.
iii. You will talk through your presentation, making sure you tell the listener which slide you are talking about.
iv. Send you voice file and PowerPoint to your partner to listen to. They will grade your work using the peer mark scheme (orange tab) below. They will then send you their grading sheet by email, filled in.
v. Upload your PowerPoint and the voice recording file to ManageBac, together with the grading sheet that your partner has completed on your work. So, that's three things in total.
Additional research for both Somalia (pirates) and Iceland (best place to be a woman)
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Task 5 - Is there more to life than health, education and wealth?
As you have seen in Task 2, there have been some criticisms of the HDI league. It is now 30 years old and the world is a very different place than it was in 1990.
Scenario
You have the chance to go to the United Nations in Geneva and present a case for including one new indicator into the HDI league. Choose one from the list below and research it carefully and thoroughly using good quality sources.
Produce a 2 minute speech/rant (that you can film and send to me) outlining why you think it is so important in 2024.
1. Gender Equality
2. Happiness
3. Connectivity (mobile phone, WIFI, 5G etc)
4. Environmental Preservation & Quality
5. Peace
6. Democratic Government
7. Responsible Production & Consumption (energy, food & water)
8. Crime Levels
Additional Resource
Snakes & Ladders - HDI - The Impossible Race!
Objective: To find out which factors hinder development and which factors help development and a county's placing in the HDI league.
Task 1 - You are going to be completing your own snakes and ladders board game, like the one in the photo beneath. To do this, you will need the following resources.
Resource 1 - Snakes & Ladders Board
Resource 2 - Snakes & Ladders Scenarios
Resource 3 - Chance Cards
Resource 4 - Snakes & Ladders Feedback Sheet
Landing at the foot of a ladder would indicate something that would boost development (climb upwards) and impact on health, wealth and education:
Landing on a snake head would indicate something that would hinder (slide downwards) development and negatively impact on health, wealth & education:
Try to attribute the current HDI values against places on the board. In 2024, the highest placed HDI country is Switzerland with 0.967 (so square 97 on the board) and the lowest is Somalia with 0.380 (so square 38 on the board). The current HDI league table can be found by clicking here.
You can create up to 5 chance cards to insert anywhere in the game. This can be positive or negative scenarios that could reflect current political events etc.
The Snakes and Ladders rules are here just in case.
Task 1 - You are going to be completing your own snakes and ladders board game, like the one in the photo beneath. To do this, you will need the following resources.
Resource 1 - Snakes & Ladders Board
Resource 2 - Snakes & Ladders Scenarios
Resource 3 - Chance Cards
Resource 4 - Snakes & Ladders Feedback Sheet
Landing at the foot of a ladder would indicate something that would boost development (climb upwards) and impact on health, wealth and education:
- medical breakthrough / vaccination programme
- peace treaty being signed
- new technology
- investment in education & jobs
- trade link up with other countries
- finding new stores of a natural resource (oil, diamonds)
Landing on a snake head would indicate something that would hinder (slide downwards) development and negatively impact on health, wealth & education:
- war
- disease / pandemic
- famine / drought
- dictator / political instability
- natural hazard
- running out of a resource
- climate change
- having trade tariffs imposed on your country
Try to attribute the current HDI values against places on the board. In 2024, the highest placed HDI country is Switzerland with 0.967 (so square 97 on the board) and the lowest is Somalia with 0.380 (so square 38 on the board). The current HDI league table can be found by clicking here.
- Any snakes head or foot of the ladder before square 38 (Somalia) should be a historical event that would have positively or negatively influenced the level of development in a country (see the first three examples in Resource 2 above).
- There should be no country ahead of square 97 and any snakes or ladder should be hypothetical scenarios that could happen to a very wealthy and highly developed country (like Switzerland).
You can create up to 5 chance cards to insert anywhere in the game. This can be positive or negative scenarios that could reflect current political events etc.
The Snakes and Ladders rules are here just in case.
