Economic Gap Between The Global North and South

Across the world, there are countries that are more economically developed than others. There are excellent, thriving economies versus troubled, plummeting economies, struggling to upkeep their standards of living. An example of a nation with a thriving economy would be the United States. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the USA’s GDP has drastically increased by 2% within the past quarter. When a nation’s GDP rises, economies get a vital boost and progress. This rise in the GDP demonstrates the value being added to the economy. As a result, the standard of living rises, meaning that citizens' incomes are increasing which allows for more consumer spending on goods and services. An important factor of a booming economy is that there is some mutual balance between unemployment and inflation. Other factors to consider when determining if an economy’s stability or instability are those such as climate change, demographics, the limitations of resources, and more. A country with a lack of resources due to a poorly managed agriculture, pollution, poor quality of life, low GDP, etc., has a deteriorating, failing economy. Naturally, these economic activities depend on geography or location, which is a logical explanation for why the Global North is more economically developed than the Global South. However, it also seems to be that people are also a major factor in why their standards of living and economy are the way they are. Depending on where a person resides, fortunately, or unfortunately determines their economy and standards of living. To analyze the gap between the Global North and South, this essay discusses economic development of North and South countries.

The world is divided into two hemispheres known as the Global North and the Global South. The Global North includes the more economically developed countries, known as the First World countries. The Global South, however, represents the 'economically backward' underdeveloped countries. The Global North consists of regions such as North America, India, Europe, Israel, South Africa, and more. The Global South consists of most of Africa, Mexico, China, India, and other developing, third-world countries. Geography plays a major role as to why the Global North is more developed and successful than the Global South but is not the primary role. During the 1980’s, the Brandt Line, which is an invisible line, was developed. The line was developed as a 'way of showing how the world was geographically split into relatively richer and poorer nations' (Royal). According to Brandt, he found that that the northern countries above the partition line interact successfully with others and had high levels of trade, 'boosting the quality of life for their population' (Tait). However, over time, there have been global shifts that affected these divided regions differently.

Geography determines a country’s socioeconomic status, however, the people of the country can often be the reason their economy is shaped the way it is. According to a case study by Elizabeth Wegman, Rwanda, which is a rural country in Central-East Africa, classifies as a 'low-income economy.” A major portion of Rwanda’s population lives below the poverty line. In Global South countries such as Rwanda, there have been histories of violence and crime by local civilians, shaping their economy for the worse. In the 1990's, Rwanda was associated with a civil war which was between the 'Hutu and Tutsi African ethnic groups,' resulting in genocide (Wegman). This civil war happened as a result of the death of Rwanda's president when his plane was brought down by the Tutsis. The Hutus, known as the people of Rwanda, fought the Tutsis when they found out. The genocide resulted in over 800,000 deaths of innocent people. This genocide negatively impacted Rwanda's economy, which explains their existing poverty.

According to Lopez, approximately one-fourth of Rwanda’s population remains in poverty today due to the result of the Genocide. Poverty was at risk for the Rwandans because the genocide caused destruction of livestock, property, resources (such as livestock), and infrastructure. These kinds of violent conflicts are long-lasting, as they can create long-term damage to a country's economy. Reparation of these conflicts could take several years. Due to this, some Rwandans voluntarily help 'reconstruct the country' by involving themselves 'in activities such as cleaning streets, repairing buildings, offering services to those who do not have access to them'. Even though Rwanda is steadily progressing and recovering, making necessary reparations, Rwanda is still struggling to survive. Although the Rwandans are heavily into agriculture, the overpopulation issue has made fertile lands difficult to come by. This potentially means that there is a food shortage, and workers aren’t producing goods for consumers to buy. Rwanda’s “population growth and density remain high, threatening to strain and potentially harm economic growth” (Rwanda Case Study). If it were not for the Genocide, the rate of Rwanda's poverty level would be decreased by approximately 20 percentage points. Rwanda's GDP would have been much higher than it is today by 30 percentage points.

Rwanda’s history of war and violence also helped shaped Rwanda's government. It took a major war for Rwanda to change its government around. Because Rwanda relies heavily and depends on imports, the Rwandan government faces a significant amount of account deficits. Rwanda's government intends to take measures to improve its business climate. However, the progress towards this economic freedom is hindered by institutional weaknesses. Their own judicial system lacks independence and transparency.

The Global South is not as advanced and developed as the Global North because the Global South does not concentrate as much in urban areas. They rely on a global agriculture economy, meaning that they make their livings off of trading resources such as cash crops, livestock, and food crops. Urban companies are turning to new advanced technologies to produce and develop their own resources and supplies. Urban areas have more minimized economic and social risks linked with farming, such as facing pay demands or better admeasurement of their dividends and profits. The Global South remains today with an increasing rate of people laboring in more rural areas than the Global North. '65% of the Global South are rurally based, compared to less than 27% in the Global North' (Odeh). As Rwanda demonstrates, 58% of the working labor force in the Global South is engaged in agriculture, whilst the Global North is engaged in approximately 50% of agriculture in the labor force (Odeh). The Global South is focused more on agricultural production than the Global North because the Global South people's incomes are drastically lower than the North’s. The Global South has major concerns they focus on regarding food, shelter, and clothing, which is why they are dependent on the Global North.

The Global North and Global South have international relations. The Global South has an economic dependence on the Global North, meaning that the South is more vulnerable and the North is more powerful and has the strength that the South does not acquire. “... technology, foreign aid, and private capital are transferred to Global South” (Odeh). This transfer is due to the Global South's rise in unemployment and increased income inequality. Strauss and Thomas argue that the cause for such low productivity may be due the pressures of competitive work and lack of advanced technologies. Therefore, low productivity means lower incomes. The Global South is considered non-productive members of society, which is why they are heavily supported by and rely on the Global North. The Global North “accounts for over 90% of all manufacturing industries in the world and controls approximately 80% of the total income earned around” (Ortiz-Ospina, Roser). Most of the countries in the Global North have an abundance of basic needs, such as food and shelter, along with access to their higher education systems. The Global South is known to have a lack of goods and services, such as food, clothing, shelter and more for survival. They have limited resources due to their lack of income and wealth, therefore, they are not able to easily buy consumer goods in comparison to the Global North.

There are challenges faced by the Global South regarding the education systems. The Global North heavily focuses on making sure their students acquire the best education possible. They have their students learn multiple, useful life skills to better prepare them for the outside world. The lower income classes in the Global South are confronted with issues such as getting their students to learn. Students in these countries struggle with learning how to read, write, and learn the numerical system. Approximately '250 million young students' are failing to get a proper education, as well as being able to attend school (Education World). It hasn't been until recently that these some of these countries have been introduced to universal school access.

In 2004, the birth and death rates were drastically different between the Global South and Global North (Odeh). In the Global South, the population grew rapidly due to the increased birth rates, as opposed to the lower birth rates in the Global North. 'For the Global North birth rates are on the order of 15-20 per 1,000 populations where in the Global South the birth rates range from 30-40 per 1,000 populations' (Odeh). The increase of birth rates usually occur because some countries in the Global South cannot afford contraceptives. Along with rapid birth rates in the Global South, the death rate is increasingly higher than in the Global North. Some of the top reasons for these deaths in these less developed countries include HIV/AIDS, malaria, and heart disease. According to the CDC, “approximately 3.3 million (30%) deaths annually were due to heart disease, 2.3 million (21%) to cancer… 9 million (8%) to chronic respiratory diseases, and 0.8 million (7%) to violent causes.”

According to Odeh, children under the age of 15 make up approximately 40% of the total population in the Global South, in contrast to the Global North, whose children under 15 only make up about 20% of the total population. What does this mean for the Global South? Their labor force is most likely supported by young teenagers and are labeled as an 'economic dependence,” meaning that some of the people in these Global South countries sometimes depend on young teenagers for income. Sometimes children in these countries are viewed as a cheap source of labor.

To further explain the Global South’s difficulties and disadvantages in comparison to the Global North, there is a case study called Rainwater and Health in Developing Countries: A Case Study on Uganda, by David Baguma and others. Baguma focuses on the harvesting of rainwater in rural areas, based on a study which was conducted in Uganda (located in east Africa) known as the Ugandan Case. In Uganda, there are complications of attaining water. According to the Prime Minister of Uganda, Amama Mbabazi, the 'lack of access to safe water and sanitation facilities has a detrimental impact on health, productivity, and general socio-economic progress of our people, especially the children' (Baguma). Approximately only one-third of Uganda's rural populations have sufficient sanitation for water meaning that about 60% of Ugandans do not have access to safe water. As a result, the Ugandan government decided to increase their budget allocation from 271 billion to 355 billion shillings to the country's water sector, however, there still remain obstacles. There are quite a few water related diseases in households, which cause economic burdens and morbidity rates to rise. These water related diseases cause about 2 million deaths a year. Usually when there is a water shortage, the people in east africa use 'rain-fed' pots as an alternative source of water, which means they leave their pots outside and wait for the rain to fill the pots. Uganda has a scarce water supply due to climate change and the lack of sanitation stations, which explains how geography or location can affect a country’s economy.

This essay has analyzed the gap in development between the Global North and South. It is quite obvious that the Global North is highly more advanced than the Global South. They can be distinguished as the developed and developing countries, or the “rich” versus the “poor” countries. The Global North has more advanced technologies used for agriculture, which is one of the many reasons why their economies are booming. However, they do have their downsides, depending on how well their GDP and employment rates are doing. The Global North also have great education systems which allows children to thrive and succeed, with higher chances of furthering their education or attaining a job. Opposed to the Global South, whose education systems are more lacking and students are more than likely to drop out of school because they are unable to read or write. Geography seems to play a significant role in why nations’ economies are the way they are. Some countries have to worry about climate changes, droughts, violence, lack of resources, and more.