What was the overall aim of the Millennium Development Goals?

To reduce the worst forms of global poverty within a fixed period by committing every country to a small number of measurable, time-bound targets. They aimed to tackle poverty as a set of connected deprivations rather than as low income alone, which is why they covered hunger, schooling, gender, child and maternal health, disease and the environment together. They were also intended to make development efforts accountable, by publishing annual progress data against which governments and donors could be judged.

What was the eighth goal about, and why was it included?

It called for a global partnership for development: more and better aid, with a reminder of the long-standing target of 0.7 per cent of national income; debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; a trading system offering better market access for LEDC exports; affordable access to essential medicines; and the spread of new technologies. It was included because the other seven goals were largely unachievable without MEDC action on money, debt and trade, and it was the only goal placing obligations on rich countries. It was also the vaguest goal, with the fewest measurable targets, and progress against it was correspondingly weak.

Why were the goals given numerical targets and a fixed deadline, and what were the drawbacks of doing so?

Numbers and a deadline made progress measurable, forced governments and donors to be specific, focused attention and money on a few priorities, and allowed comparison between countries and over time. The drawbacks were that what is measurable is not always what matters most, so quality of schooling and health care was neglected in favour of countable enrolments and coverage; that targets encouraged reaching the easiest people first, since national averages improve fastest that way; and that a single global target applied to countries starting from very different positions was unfair to those beginning lowest.

CCEA AS-Level Geography 3910

Processes That Shape Fluvial Environments

Topic overview The drainage basin as an open system Storm hydrographs Factors influencing storm hydrographs Annual hydrographs and river regimes River erosion and transportation Deposition and the Hjulstrom curve Erosional and mixed river landforms Depositional river landforms

Human Interaction in Fluvial Environments

Topic overview Why rivers are channelised, and the methods used Environmentally sensitive and sustainable river management The causes of river flooding The effects of flooding on people, property and land

Global Biomes

Topic overview The global distribution of biomes The tundra biome: climate and soils The temperate grassland biome: climate and soils Climate change and tundra ecosystems

Small-Scale Ecosystems

Topic overview Biotic and abiotic components Ecosystems as open systems Trophic structure and ecological pyramids Nutrient cycling and the nutrient cycling model Plant succession and seral stages Climatic climax and plagioclimax vegetation

The Processes That Shape Our Weather and Climate

Topic overview The global energy balance Vertical and horizontal heat transfer in the atmosphere Ocean currents and the transfer of heat Pressure belts, the Coriolis effect and the pressure gradient The tri-cellular model, the global winds, and where it breaks down Jet streams and the upper westerly winds Global patterns of temperature, pressure, wind and precipitation Factors influencing air temperature

Weather in the British Isles

Topic overview How precipitation forms Air masses affecting the British Isles The polar front and the birth of a depression The life cycle of a depression, and its fronts The sequence of weather as a depression passes Anticyclones in summer and winter Isobars, wind, and the front symbols on a synoptic chart Station circles, recognising systems, and satellite images

Global Weather Issues

Topic overview The Pacific in a normal year: the Walker circulation El Niño events and their global consequences La Niña events and their global consequences How tropical cyclones form The structure of a tropical cyclone The impacts of a tropical cyclone on people and property Managing tropical cyclones: prediction, preparation and response

Population Data

Topic overview Census taking, vital registration, and how the data is collected The reliability of the data, and the use made of it

Population Change

Topic overview Fertility and mortality measures, and why crude rates are crude The demographic transition model The epidemiological transition

Population and Resources

Topic overview Overpopulation, underpopulation and optimum population Malthus and Boserup, and how they hold up Fertility policies, and evaluating one

Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe

Topic overview Defining rural and urban settlement The rural-urban continuum Issues affecting the rural-urban fringe Greenfield and brownfield development Suburbanisation Counterurbanisation

Planning in Rural Environments

Topic overview Why the countryside needs planning protection ASSIs and SSSIs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty National parks A national park for Northern Ireland: the case for, the case against, and the verdict

Urban Challenges in MEDC and LEDC Cities

Topic overview Economic and social deprivation in the MEDC inner city Re-urbanisation in the MEDC city Gentrification and its consequences Urban growth and informal settlements in the LEDC city Service provision in the LEDC city Economic activity and the informal economy in the LEDC city

Measuring Development

Topic overview Why 'development' resists definition Two economic measures: GDP and GNI per capita Two social measures: infant mortality and adult literacy Two composite measures: the HDI and the Gender Inequality Index Using the measures together to describe global contrasts

Reducing the Development Gap

Topic overview The Millennium Development Goals: aims and framework Evaluating two Millennium Development Goals The 2030 Agenda and the Global Goals How the Global Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals Globalisation as a route to development in LEDCs Aid and development in LEDCs, and judging development in one

Emerging Markets

Topic overview What an emerging market is BRICS and MINT: what the labels group, and why they are contested Why emerging markets have grown, and one economy studied

Data Collection

Topic overview Collecting primary data in the field Sampling methods: random, systematic, stratified and pragmatic Point, line and quadrat sampling Ordnance Survey maps and map reading Photographs and satellite images as evidence Synoptic charts and remotely sensed data

Data Processing

Topic overview Geographical information systems, and mapping techniques Annotated sketch maps, and the graph types Triangular graphs Mean, median, mode and range Spearman's rank correlation Nearest neighbour analysis Chi-squared (A2 only)Location quotient (A2 only)Developing investigative skills, and the conventions of mapping and graphical work

Fieldwork Skills and Techniques

Topic overview Framing a geographical question and designing the enquiry Fieldwork safety, hazards and contingency planning Choosing and justifying sampling techniques for an investigation Collecting quantitative and qualitative evidence Describing and evaluating data collection methods Presenting evidence in cartographic, diagrammatic and graphical form Choosing and applying statistical techniques Analysing evidence and drawing conclusions Evaluating methods, evidence and the limitations of conclusions

Planning and Recording an Investigation

Topic overview Choosing an issue, hypothesis or question Identifying appropriate sources and methods Describing the study area, stating aims, and recording data

Reducing the Development Gap

6 subtopics
18 things to know
Unit AS 2

What Reducing the Development Gap covers

Reducing the development gap is examined in Unit AS 2, Human Geography. It covers the Millennium Development Goals: aims and framework, evaluating two Millennium Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda and the Global Goals, how the Global Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals, globalisation as a route to development in LEDCs and aid and development in LEDCs, and judging development in one.

Where it is assessed

Unit AS 2

Human Geography, written examination, 16% of A level.

Check the CCEA specification ↗

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page. CCEA AS Geography students sit this topic in the first year.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Numbers

What were the Millennium Development Goals and where did they come from?

Key term

Name the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Key term

Who were the Millennium Development Goals mainly aimed at?

Numbers

How much progress was made on extreme income poverty by 2015?

Numbers

Why is it difficult to credit the Millennium Development Goals with the fall in extreme poverty?

Key term

Which region missed the poverty target, and why?

Key term

Name the seventeen Global Goals.

Key term

Which three dimensions of sustainable development does the Agenda try to balance, and why does that balance cause difficulty?

Key term

How are the Global Goals financed and enforced?

Key term

Why was a successor framework needed in 2015?

Key term

How do the two frameworks differ in scale and coverage?

Key term

Explain the most important structural change between the two frameworks: universality.

Process

Through what mechanisms can globalisation raise development in an LEDC?

Key term

What is the multiplier effect in the context of foreign investment in an LEDC?

Evaluation

What are the main criticisms of globalisation as a route to development?

Key term

What is aid, and what counts as official development assistance?

Evaluation

What is bilateral aid, and what are its strengths and weaknesses?

Evaluation

What is multilateral aid, and what are its strengths and weaknesses?

Take Reducing the Development Gap further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

Millennium Development Goals vs Global Goals
Millennium Development Goals: eight targets set for 2000 to 2015 and aimed at the poorest countries. Global Goals: seventeen targets set for 2015 to 2030 and applying to every country.
Bilateral aid vs Multilateral aid
Bilateral aid: aid given directly from one government to another. Multilateral aid: aid given through an international organisation that pools contributions.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What were the Millennium Development Goals and where did they come from?
Model answer
They were a set of eight global development targets agreed by the United Nations. World leaders from 189 member states met at the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000 and signed the Millennium Declaration, a statement of shared values and commitments; the eight goals, with 21 measurable targets and a set of statistical indicators, were drawn up from it. Progress was measured against a baseline of 1990 and the deadline for achievement was the end of 2015.
2
Name the eight Millennium Development Goals.
Model answer
One, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Two, achieve universal primary education. Three, promote gender equality and empower women. Four, reduce child mortality. Five, improve maternal health. Six, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Seven, ensure environmental sustainability. Eight, develop a global partnership for development.
3
What was the overall aim of the Millennium Development Goals?
Model answer
To reduce the worst forms of global poverty within a fixed period by committing every country to a small number of measurable, time-bound targets. They aimed to tackle poverty as a set of connected deprivations rather than as low income alone, which is why they covered hunger, schooling, gender, child and maternal health, disease and the environment together. They were also intended to make development efforts accountable, by publishing annual progress data against which governments and donors could be judged.
4
Who were the Millennium Development Goals mainly aimed at?
Model answer
The first seven goals set targets that were essentially to be met in LEDCs, since that is where extreme poverty, low enrolment and high child mortality were concentrated. MEDCs had no domestic targets of their own; their obligations were confined largely to the eighth goal, which asked them to provide aid, debt relief, fairer trade access and technology. This made the framework a set of commitments about poor countries rather than a shared agenda for all countries, and that became one of the main criticisms of it.
5
What was the eighth goal about, and why was it included?
Model answer
It called for a global partnership for development: more and better aid, with a reminder of the long-standing target of 0.7 per cent of national income; debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; a trading system offering better market access for LEDC exports; affordable access to essential medicines; and the spread of new technologies. It was included because the other seven goals were largely unachievable without MEDC action on money, debt and trade, and it was the only goal placing obligations on rich countries. It was also the vaguest goal, with the fewest measurable targets, and progress against it was correspondingly weak.
6
Why were the goals given numerical targets and a fixed deadline, and what were the drawbacks of doing so?
Model answer
Numbers and a deadline made progress measurable, forced governments and donors to be specific, focused attention and money on a few priorities, and allowed comparison between countries and over time. The drawbacks were that what is measurable is not always what matters most, so quality of schooling and health care was neglected in favour of countable enrolments and coverage; that targets encouraged reaching the easiest people first, since national averages improve fastest that way; and that a single global target applied to countries starting from very different positions was unfair to those beginning lowest.

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Processes That Shape Fluvial Environments

Human Interaction in Fluvial Environments

Global Biomes

Small-Scale Ecosystems

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Reducing the Development Gap revision questions

Is Reducing the Development Gap examined at AS in CCEA Geography?: Yes. It sits in Unit AS 2, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
What does Reducing the Development Gap cover in CCEA AS-Level Geography?: 6 subtopics: the millennium development goals: aims and framework, evaluating two millennium development goals, the 2030 agenda and the global goals, how the global goals build on the millennium development goals, globalisation as a route to development in ledcs and aid and development in ledcs, and judging development in one. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Reducing the Development Gap organised?: By the CCEA 3910 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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