WHAT IS HUMAN WELLBEING?

Human wellbeing is the recognition that everyone around the world, regardless of geography, age, culture, religion or political environment, aspires to live well. Wellbeing is not necessarily bound by income, rather, it is an individual’s thoughts and feelings about how well they are doing in life, contentment with material possessions and having relationships that enable them to achieve their goals. Many factors impact upon an individuals’ ability to live well including war, conflict, social fragmentation, inequality, poverty, malnourishment as well as access to resources.

HOW CAN HUMAN WELLBEING BE MEASURED?Human wellbeing is measured by combining facts and figures with indicators that have a bearing on people’s lives. Such as; Gross Domestic Product (GDP), wealth, occupation and housing in combination with quality of life indicators such as health status, employment rate, work/life balance, education, social connections, personal security and environment quality will give a broader picture of an individual’s wellbeing.

USING STATISTICS TO MEASURE GLOBAL WELLBEINGDue to the unequal global distribution of human wellbeing, statistics are one way of measuring the differences. It is also an important way that government and non-government organisations (NGOs) determine action. Possible categories:

Social Health Economic Environmental Political Technological

*Student Activity: research the following words and find the definitions in context with Geography. Write your definitions in the booklet for future reference.*Indicator:

GDP:

Developing country:

Fertility rate:

Middle class:

Economic growth:

Life expectancy:

Child labour:

Sanitation:

Slum:

Capitalism:

NGOs:

Socio-economic status:

The happiest place on earth According to the Earth’s Institute’s World Happiness report and the Gallup

World Poll the country with the highest average life happiness was DENMARK, followed by FINLAND, NORWAY and the NETHERLANDS

*Student Activity:

Go to the website ‘www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org’ Using the drop down headings country or topic to explore the differences around the world. Answer the following questions.*Who has the highest rank for the following topics?

a) Work-life balance

b) Income

c) Safety

d) Health

Record the countries with the lowest rank for the followinga) Housing

b) Life satisfaction

c) Education

Go to the responses drop down; using your mouse move over the country you are looking for. It will come up with the highest ranked topic for that country. Fill in what the highest ranked topic is for the following countries:

a) Australia

b) United states

c) Mexico

d) Canada

e) Russia

f) Brazil

From your research on better life index, who in your opinion has better human wellbeing and why?

Why do you think there are differences between gender results? (Think about lifestyle, jobs etc)

Issues in human wellbeingLow income per capita:

In general developing countries tend to have low levels of income per capita compared to wealthier countries. Per capita in other words is the income per person, it is calculated by adding the total income and dividing it by population total. What might be some impacts of low levels of income for individuals? And for society?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lack of adequate shelter:

Approximately 33% of the urban population in the developing world lived in slums in 2012. A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing.What are some other characteristics of slums? Name three locations of slums.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lack of clean water and sanitation:

789 million people are relying on water from unsafe sources. Globally each year roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Melbourne is wiped out by disease linked to lack of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. How does water become unsafe? Three reasons. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Low life expectancy:

Diseases originating from contaminated water supplies, inadequate sanitation, and poor nutrition, inadequate level of health care and poor hygiene affect those living in developing countries. Many diseases deepen poverty and make living conditions worse. The average life expectancy in the least developed countries in 2012 was only 59 years old compared to 78 in developed countries. Does low life expectancy mean there are no old people? Explain. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Dietary deficiencies:

Dietary deficiencies result from inadequate food intake. The food may not be readily available or be of bad quality. In 2014, 25% of the world’s population was considered undernourished. What is the most commonly consumed food globally? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Low access to health services:

The availability of health services is generally low in developing countries. In some countries of Africa, the ratio of physician to patient was 2:100 000. What are some impacts of low availability of health services?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________High rates of population growth:

In developed counties population growth is 1.5%, in developing countries it is 2.6% and further again the least developed countries have a population growth of 4.4%. This population growth adds strain to limited resources.

Why do the people who can least afford it have more children that those in developed countries?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Child exploitation:

Hundreds of millions of children are exploited and much of this occurs in developing countries. The most notable types of exploitation is child labour, trafficking, child marriage and sexual exploitation. How do you help support child exploitation? (Where do you buy your clothes from?)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Student Activity: From the list of issues in human wellbeing, you will form groups of 2-3 people. You are teaching the class about this issue. What to consider:

What is the issue? Who is it effecting the most? Where in the world is your issue most common? What is being done to fix this issue?

You will present to the class for 5 minutes telling your peers about your chosen issue. Your group may choose to make a PowerPoint, or find useful video clips to show, or you may decide to stand and teach lecture style. This task is informal however this information and knowledge gained will assist in the completion of an assessment task.

Pre-assignment data collection:www.gapminder.org/world Follow the steps:

1. Get onto gap minder website – this will be the home page

2. Start by changing the x axis to ‘population total’ to do this you click on the arrow pointing down, it will list the indicator option. Go to ‘population’ then another list will appear. Click on the indictor which says ‘population, total’. This will then stay the same throughout the data collection process.

3. You can now complete the first table looking for the Human Development Index, to do this you are changing the Y axis to HDI. By clicking on the arrow on the y axis you will find a list of indicators again. Click ‘society’ then ‘HDI’

You should then get a graph that looks like this

You now want to select the countries relevant to your collection by ticking the boxes found on the right side of your screen.

This will then highlight the measurement that needs to be recorded into a table.

Australia’s HDI v Population Total = 0.929

This same process needs to happen for the other four indicators as well. It is important to take screen shorts of each graph as you go to have evidence for your report.

How to find indicators:Sanitation: infrastructure -> sanitation -> improved sanitation overall Employment rate 15 years +: work -> employment rate -> aged 15+ employment rate Nutrition: health -> nutrition-> food supply Extreme poverty: economy -> poverty & inequality -> extreme poverty

Each of the graphs produced from the data can be used in the report.

Your task:You will be analysing the effectiveness of the Human Development Index as an indicator of Human Wellbeing, and discussing other indicators which would also be effective. From this research you will then evaluate from highest to lowest the ranking of the below countries in terms of overall human wellbeing.

Human Development Index: Is a merged statistic of life expectancy, education and income per capita (average income earned per person)

In class we will collect the data to fill in the table. From the statistics on your table you will determine which country has the higher level of wellbeing according to the HDI.

You will then discuss why other indicators are effective in measuring human wellbeing (Sanitation, employment rate, nutrition, extreme poverty) and rank from highest to lowest the relevant countries in a measure of overall human wellbeing.

Rubric aligned to relevant Achievement Standards

A B C D E

Data collection Collected relevant geographical data and information to a high standard

Collected relevant geographical data and information to a good standard

Collected some relevant geographical data and information

Attempted to collect data and information

Failure to collect any data or information

Evaluation Displayed an advanced ability to evaluate data and make generalisations

Displayed an ability to evaluate data and make generalisations

Were able to evaluate data and make generalisations

Attempted to evaluate data and make generalisations

Failed to evaluate data

Synthesis of data

Demonstrated high level of synthesis of information with reasoned conclusions

Demonstrated synthesis of information with reasoned conclusions

Showed ability to synthesise information

Attempted to draw conclusions

Failure to draw conclusions

Presentation Report follows template with clearly labelled graphs and images; including subheadings and bibliography

Report follows template with graphs and images; including subheadings and bibliography

Report follows template but no labelled graphs or images; including some subheadings and attempted bibliography

Report follows template with subheadings and attempted bibliography

Report does not follow given template

How to present your report:

Introductiono What is human well-being?

Paragraph #1o What is the HDI and is it an accurate measure of human wellbeing? o According to the HDI which country had the highest level of wellbeing?

Using the website below you will go through and complete the table below in class as a group.

https://www.gapminder.org/world

*Helpful hint: take screenshots of your graphs to use as evidence later on*

Countries Human development Index (HDI)

AustraliaChinaIndia

United statesBangladesh

VietnamUganda

Paragraph #2o List the four other measures of human wellbeing o Include graphs from gap minder and/or tables of statistics o Analyse why each indicator is an effective measure of human wellbeing

Countries HDI Sanitation (%) Employment rate 15+ (%)

Nutrition (kilocalories/person &day)

Extreme poverty (% people below $1.25 per day)

Australia China India United States Bangladesh Vietnam Uganda

Paragraph #3o From your research evaluate what indicators are important in the measure of human wellbeing and

rank the countries from highest to lowest in regards to overall human wellbeing. o Explain your reasoning for each.

Bibliography

What is being done to fix the issues in human wellbeing?NGOs: Non-government organisations are a non-profit, voluntary group organised on a local, national or international scale.

These groups are task oriented and consist of people with common interests. NGOs perform a variety of services including bringing citizen’s concerns to governments, advocating and monitoring policies and encouraging political participation.

Some NGOs are targeting specific issues while others promote a range of causes.

NGOs are active in addressing a range of challenges facing developing countries, such as:

Water and sanitation Health care Worker exploitation Wellbeing of children Human rights Development

Over the last 20-30 years there has been a growing awareness that the challenges facing developing countries require more than government interventions. NGOs now play an important role in improving people’s human wellbeing by engaging with communities.

*Student Activity:

Briefly summarise what the following NGOs are doing to help human wellbeing.

Amnesty International:

Safe Water Network:

Red Cross:

Global Exchange:

Oxfam:

World Vision:

Smith Family:

What are you doing to help human wellbeing across the world?