The distribution of wealth is unequal if we look at our world we can see the major difference, some people would say the two extremes, we have countries like Luxembourg which is the richest country in the world according to its gross national product the average person in Luxembourg earns $40,000 per year and in comparison to countries like Sudan where the average person earns about $63 we can see the vast difference between the two. If we look at a map we can see there is a north south divide or the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index Line’ between the wealthy countries and poor countries in America it has the largest number of billionaires in the world (145). This is an extremely large amount of money in one area if we take bill gates for example if we disseminated his wealth there would be enough there to completely eradicate world poverty. So why are countries poor? There are 5 major factors (there are many others contributions) which contribute to explaining why a country is poor and these are:WarsMany LEDC’s have been affected and this normally leaves the country in a very bad state in Africa many civil wars have been caused by Europeans who change countries whenever they want very selfishly not thinking about the people of the country itself and what harm this may do to them countries like Ethiopia and Somalia were “chopped and changed” by Europeans without giving any thought to ethnic links language or even traditional grazing rights so when the countries became independent the different ethnic groups fought for control this left them in a worse state than they were in the first place because wars often destroy crops, homes, schools, hospitals causing even more poverty this also make people seek refuge in other countries neighbouring countries may have been developing but a sudden increase n refugees can bring the country back to poverty againNatural disasterMany LEDC’s are situated in areas in the world where natural disasters are very common an earthquake tsunami or a flood can destroy many thousands of homes and villages and the farmland on which the people depend on if there is a drought crops will not grow unless people have the money to build wells which is very rareDebtMost LEDC’s have to borrow money from the world bank or other major banks situated in MEDC’s to survive or develop however these banks charge colossal amounts of interest so a LEDC can find itself paying more in interest than the country borrowed in the first place in the early seventies for example Chile borrowed 3.9 billion dollars by 1982 the country had paid 12.8 billion dollars in interest alone this extra interest could have been used to speed up Chile’s development instead it went to a country that already had enough money because unpaid interest adds to the original debt the amount of interest poor countries have to pay to rich countries has vastly increasedUnfair TradeMost of the worlds trade Is done by MEDC’s they often determine the prices of the products which is often produced in LEDC’s most people in poor countries work in agriculture and a way for them to increase their wealth would be for them to grow extra crops and export their extra to earn money from MEDC’s they often give them very low prices for their products this means poor countries are being kept poor by the trade policies of rich countries.AIDS/HIVThis disease is wiping out the LEDC’s the methods of safe sex and contraception and the drugs to control the disease used in the MEDC’s are beyond the price range of any LEDC it is estimated that if AIDS is not controlled by 2010 one quarter of all the children in south Africa will have lost their parents to aids so there will be more kids than adults and the children will not be able to have a education this will only cause the country to become poorer there only hope is us in the rich countriesI think there is an urgent need for world development because the longer it is not dealt with the worse it gets there is a decline there is a need for world development because we are all dependant on each other. If we want a raw material for example cotton from Sudan then we need to make sure that the people producing this raw product have enough to eat around 1.

2 billion people in the world live on less than 50pence a day, 115 million children have no access to education and millions suffer from malnutrition whilst the UK and the USA have obesity problems this is a major difference between the two countries and the LEDC’s that have hardly any food this seems to me like injustice there are 4 main reasons for the worlds authorities to need to work for world developmentThe united nations made a universal declaration of human rights in 1948 all countries that are part of the UNArticle 1 states: “all human beings are born and equal in dignity and rights they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards on another in a spirit of brotherhoodArticle 25 states: “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social servicesArticle 26 states: “everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary educations shall be compulsory”The world is now a “global village” this means that not only aeroplanes make it easier to access other parts of the world but the things like internet e- mail and telecommunication these things have made the world a much smaller place and people in different parts of the world rely on each other we are inter-reliant the MEDC’s rely on the LEDC’s for essentials such as copper, uranium, tea, coffee and cotton mostly raw materials that often involve hard labour and hard work they are often paid very little for these products that is why organisations such as fair trade have started up fair trade aims to give farmers and people in LEDC’s who produce products to give them a little more money if the poor nations are not rewarded satisfactorily for this then they may not produce them later onThe world works on an economic system known as capitalism. This system means that people are free to set up companies and businesses and sell products that they think people will want to buy this system has led to most of the worlds technological advances owners try to sell things that will make him as much money as possible the system also raises the standard of living for the employees of the company however the system need people to have money to buy their products in the first place do it is in the interest of the major companies in the MEDC’s to promote world developmentIf poor countries feel alienated from the rich countries then they may turn to violence and terrorism perpetrated by groups fighting against the government of their own country or other countries to try and feel a sense of equality or to get recognized