Globalization - Helping African LEDCs remove its LEDC status?

Inequality in the Global Village

Globalization - the process of interaction

Today, after more than a century of electric
technology, we have extended our central
nervous system itself in a global embrace,
abolishing both space and time as far as our
planet is concerned
- Marshall McLuhan on Globalization,
Understanding Media, 1964. [2]
and integration among companies, people
and governments, driven by international
trade and investment.
Globalization can possess effects that can
impact on the environment, culture, politics,
and economic development of different
nations[1].
To me, this word symbolizes Potential. I
believe it has the potential to solve this
problem --- The large amount of African
Less Economically Developed Countries
(LEDCs).

I believe that Globalization can rid the LEDC status from African LEDCs, when I say removing
the LEDC status, I didnt just mean the superficial label, but to rid it of the defining criterions.
LEDCs describes the world's poorest countries with following a few criterions, the most
important being the 2 below[10]:

1) Low-income criterion
This criterion is based on a 3 year average estimate of the gross national income (GNI) per
capita (under $750)

2) Human resource weakness criterion

involving a composite Human Assets Index based on the factors of:
- Health
- Adult Literacy
- Education
- Nutrition

This has been a problem for ages, as an example, LEDCs in Africa has fallen behind, due to
their inability to act in an organized manner regarding their abilities in science[3]. Why is this a
problem for us though? People in LEDCs suffer from lack of medical knowledge and education,
this has allowed issues such as diseases to spread quickly throughout them, for example the
Ebola pandemic that happened twice in Africa, it was spreader hastily due to their lack of
hygiene, the 2014 event alone took more than 10000 lives[4], therefore the conversion of
LEDCs out of that status is important, what I mean, is to aid them in their economical
development, so that people can get proper education so that similar issues can be controlled.
The Impact of Globalization

So, what role can globalization play in this problem? As

defined, globalization can have effects relating to economic
development, if African LEDCs were to have a steady
economical growth in the future, they will be able to invent and
innovate.

In the past, LEDCs were not able to participate in the world

economy due to trade barriers, they were unable to share the
same economic growth that MEDCs had. However, in recent
years, globalization went underway, which led to the
establishment of organizations such as the World Bank, they
encourage LEDCs to go through market reforms and radical
charges through loans of large sums. This encouraged
MEDCs taking baby steps regarding on opening their markets
by removing tariffs and hence enabling Free Trade. The
developed countries were able to invest in the LEDCs,
creating job opportunities for the poor[5].

Anthony Thirlwall, a professor of Applied Economics in the

University of Kent, once said in his book "Developing
countries depend on developed countries for resource flows
and technology, but developed countries depend heavily on Evidence on the effectiveness of
developing countries for raw materials, food and oil, and as Globalization in terms of economical
markets for industrial goods[6]. This is another reason for the development
cooperation of MEDCs.

Rapid growth in India and China has evidently caused world poverty to decrease, and from the
perspectives mentioned, It is clear to see that globalization has made the relationships between
MEDCs and LEDCs much stronger[7]. African LEDCs that are still poor or struggling, through
the method of globalization, can achieve an economical growth, and with that growth the
government can then approve and distribute more resources on technological and science
development, which can give them a chance on leaving the title of LEDC

ICT
There is still one problem, however, this process takes time, is there a way where LEDCs can
achieve this conversion in a faster speed? I believe there is.

Information and Communication Technology, is a tool of globalization. The term ICT itself
denotes computing and telecommunication technologies that provide means of handling
information with the object of improving government's or any other organization's methods of
operation[8]. The role of ICT in LEDCs, is to foster development.

In a public online Q&A session with World Bank economist, Christine Qiang, she discusses on
the importance of ICT for development of LEDCs,

She states that According to our (World Bank) recent cross-country study (covering 120
developing and developed countries over the period of 1980 to 2006), the growth benefit that
telecommunications provides for developing
countries was of higher magnitude than that for
developed economies for every
telecommunications service (See right). This is
probably because telecommunications services
help improve the functioning of the markets, reduce
transaction costs and increase productivity through
better management in both the public and private
sectors. These issues were more acute in
developing economies than in developed ones.
Therefore, developing countries gain more by
resolving some of them through better access to
telecommunications[9]

It is evident that ICT indeed plays an important role

in globalization, in terms of aiding the speed of
development. The most important applications of
ICT in LEDCs include[8]:

Providing decision support to administration for improved planning, implementation

and monitoring of development programmes

Improving citizen-administration interface and public service delivery

Empowering citizens to access information and knowledge

Enhancing the accountability of governance mechanisms

Sustaining the development of human resources towards the use of ICT

With the combination of ICT and Free trade in globalization, I believe it can make a significant
change in the economical situation within LEDCs.
Are there better ways?

In my opinion, Globalization is the best way on achieving our goal: To rid the LEDC status from
African LEDCs, but every that has support, will have opposition. Globalization is not perfect, it
has costs in return for its benefits.

It is not a guaranteed success, it really depends on the government of the LEDC. Corruption is a
very significant political problem, and it exists all around the world. Sudan, an African LEDC that
is deemed one of the most corrupt countries in African is one of the examples[11], the corruption
of high ranking government officials has already affected their economic growth negatively[12].
therefore aiding through globalization is not even applicable in certain situations. Another
argument on its flaws, is that globalization does not fully benefit everyone in the aided LEDC,
some people argue that the economic growth globalization brings benefits the rich much more
than the poor working class, as free trade would make the owners and managers more rich but
not those who work under them, therefore it still doesnt help the ones struggling in poverty.

I disagree with the opposition, because I believe that the advantages globalization has
outweighs its disadvantages. Mentioned before, globalization can benefit both the LEDCs and
the MEDCs, MEDCs need raw materials to construct products, and African LEDCs have an
abundance of raw materials, this allows the African LEDCs to gain income whilst satisfying the
needs of the MEDCs, moreover, free trade removes the tariffs and taxes, making the trading
between LEDCs and MEDCs even more so convenient

Some might even suggest to use another method instead: Direct Foreign Aid, supporters of this
method has argued that this can build up better relationships between those aiding and aided,
and is also much more effective than free trade, because free trade relies on the raw materials
the LEDC has, if it doesnt have a particular raw material, then there wont be any trading at all.
I disagree as well. In my opinion, Direct Foreign Aid has even more flaws, such flaws include to
same disadvantages globalization possess: corruption preventing the nation to grow
economically, and that only the rich will get richer in some occasions, I believe that Direct
Foreign Aid can also bring negative effects such as diplomacy problems when favoring some
LEDCs over others, and that the LEDC might become overly dependent on the aid[12], which
doesnt happen in globalization, as the free trade it provides still needs the nation to produce on
its own.

End of the Line

As a conclusion, I believe that the LEDC status in African LEDCs are removable, through the aid
of Globalization and ICT, to remove the status, the country has to be ridded of the factors which
define the LEDC, including the lacking of income, health, nutrition, education and literacy of the
people, in which I strongly believe only Globalization can rid the lacking factors, although it is
not perfect and cant be done everywhere, I think we should still give it a chance and do as
much as we can regarding on LEDCs, because it literally, saves lives.
Word count: 1469

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[13]https://futureofworking.com/9-huge-globalization-pros-and-cons/