Jay Sethi
December 14, 2010
Social Studies 10
Zimbabwe’s Country Report
Zimbabwe is a LEDC (less economically developed country) located in
Southern Africa between South Africa and Zambia.
(Zimbabwe, in Africa) http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/zimbabwe.html
On the Geography:
Zimbabwe is landlocked, however within its borders it has one of the greatest
waterfalls in the world; the Victoria Falls. As a result of this country being land
locked, it needs to get into neighboring countries in order to ship product out of the
country. The country does not own any sea ports or sea harbors that could allow
ships to transport goods on the sea. Their only port is called Binga, Cariba, which is a
lake port. This prevents them from exporting large quantity of goods then if they had
many seaports.
Background information:
Zimbabwe is a command economy, where the country’s government is
actively involved in the businesses, media, and the citizens lives, thus these
Zimbabweans are not given a lot of freedom. Zimbabwe was formally annexed by the
United Kingdom. The white minority controlled the country until the guerilla uprising
and the UN sanctions led to the independence of Zimbabwe. After gaining
independence, the country underwent its first elections and Mr. Robert Mugabe was
elected as the nation’s first Prime minister. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1987
and still remains in power. Through his time in office, he has made many poor
choices regarding the economy, which are said to have led to negative impacts on its
citizens. These poor economic policy decisions made by Mugabe is said to be the
primary reason for Zimbabwe’s current state. In 2000, Mugabe enforced a law on
white farmers, where
they were required to
Ethnicity in Population give 50% of their
income to indigenous
Zimbabweans. As a
1% 1% result the population of
white people in
African Zimbabwe decreased
Asian/Mixed greatly. This pie chart
shows the extremely
White small population of
98% white people and
Asians. Majority of the
white population were
owners of flourishing companies, but after the law was enacted and many of them fled
Zimbabwe, the GDP of the country decreased significantly. In 2002 Mugabe rigged
the elections so that he could stay in office. It is evident that the government of
Zimbabwe is corrupt and full of government officials who are working for themselves
rather then working to make the country a better place for its citizens.
Zimbabwe is currently categorized as a LEDC (less economically developed
country), because their economy has not grown, its government is considered to be
poor, and the poor economic situation and low GDP of the country.
Factors making it a LEDC
There are many factors that show Zimbabwe is a LEDC, and could not be
categorized as a developing country, because the country does not show evidence of
development. The first piece of evidence that shows Zimbabwe is a LEDC is its low
literacy rate. The literacy rate is a percentage of people who are 15 and above who are
able to read. Zimbabwe’s literacy rate is 90.7%; compared to other MEDC’s this is a
significantly low literacy rate. The percentages of males that are able to read is 94.2%,
the percentage of males being able to read is significantly higher then the percentage
of females that are able to read. The percentage of females literacy rate is 87.2%. In
MEDC’s the literacy rate is almost always 99.9%, and anything below that is
considered to be unacceptable.
Other factors that show it is a LEDC are Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate, and
its population living below the poverty line. Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is 95%;
this is ranked 202nd worst in the world. The employment rate was previously 80% in
2005, however
currently
Zimbabwe holds
GDP and Growth Rates the greatest
5 unemployment rate
-­‐5.6% 4.8 in the world. This
shows that only 5%
4.6 of the entire
4.4 population is
4.2 GDP per-­‐capita actually involved in
-­‐14.4% -­‐1.3% 4 a job, and
3.8 3.6 2007 2008 2009 employed. This means that in the 11,651,858 people living in Zimbabwe only
582,593 people are actually employed leaving the rest of the population unemployed.
In the graph below a great decrease in GDP is visible from 2007 to 2008. As a result
of the great increase in unemployment rate, it meant that the GDP, which is the
countries income decreased as well. If GDP decreases the GDP- per capita will
decrease which means there is an even lower standard of living. Zimbabwe also has
the greatest national dept compared to the rest of the world. The national dept in
Zimbabwe is 282.6 this was a data from 2009. This graph also shows the GDP growth
rates, and it shows that the GDP and the growth rates are both only decreasing, and
show no sign of a good economy.
As a result of this bad economy the population living below the poverty line is
68%. This means that 68% of the population of Zimbabwe lives below 1 US dollar a
day. However this was a statistic taken in 2004, and there is nothing more recent.
However looking at the other statistics decreasing it is likely that the percentage living
below the poverty line has increased.
There are also great problems regarding AIDS in Zimbabwe. Recent statistics
showed that 15.3% of the population from ages 15~49 are living with AIDS. This is
one of the main causes for Zimbabwe’s low life expectancy rate. As a result of AIDS
the population is thought to have decreased by approximately four million people.
AIDS has also caused the infant mortality rate to double since 1990. This is why there
are many children being born each year. There are many babies being born because
with a high mortality rate, it is likely that a few babies are bound to die. As a result
the parents produce as many children as they can so the children will support them
when they age. The AIDS epidemic has caused a great number of orphans in
Zimbabwe. According to the study UNICEF performed 1 in every 4 children in
Zimbabwe are orphaned because of their parents dying of AIDS. This shows that
Zimbabwe has a very poor health care system. As a result of the poor health care
system life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 47.55 or about 48.
There are also other things that cause it to fall in the category of being a
LEDC, for example its factors or production.
Factors of Production
There are four categories under factors of production: human resources,
natural resources, capital resources, and entrepreneurships.
These population graphs show the population of Zimbabwe in 2000, then
again in 2050. In the graph representing the population for 2000, you see a triangle
shape. This triangle shape can be interpreted as a very low old population and a
greater young population. The reason for the large young population is because of the
high infant mortality rate in Zimbabwe due to the poor health care, and the AIDS
epidemic. The infant mortality of Zimbabwe in 2010 was 31 deaths out of a thousand.
This is a great improvement from the previous 67 deaths out of a thousand back in
2004. When examining the graphs for 2000, you can see that the population shrinks
greatly when it reaches about the 40’s and about 80 years of age it is evident that not
many people live to be that old.
The second graph shows a decrease in the number of children being born. If
you look closely at the values the babies being produced is only about 600 thousand
where as it was originally about 0.9 million. The distribution between male and
female are also almost completely equal except for 80 years and above. The numbers
of females seem to be twice the number of males at 80 years or above. The decrease
in population is probably due to the better health care, and there may have been a
decrease in infant mortality as a result parents don't have to produce as many children
because there is a higher possibility that all the offspring will live longer lives.
The labor
distribution in
Labor Distribution in Zimbabwe is mostly
based around
Zimbabwe agriculture. The
percentage of people
working in industries is
smaller compared to all
24% the other forms of
Agriculture labor. This is exactly
Industry 10% how the distribution for
66% Services a LEDC is supposed to
be. Because a LEDC is
less developed compare
to a MEDC, they have a greater labor force working on farmland and agriculture and
less working in Industries. Many of those farmers in Zimbabwe produce just enough
food for their family and if they are lucky they are able to sell the left over in the
market place to make some
profit.
Land Usage The pie chart below
shows that Zimbabwe is not
making good use of their land.
The largest labor force in
0.33% Zimbabwe is Agriculture
8.24% however only about 8.5% of
Arable land their land is actually being
perminant crops used for farming. This means
other that 91.5% is being used for
91.43% the remaining 34% of the work
force. Agriculture only
amounts to 19% of the
countries GDP. We are able to
conclude that each individual
either works in their small farms or works for a large farmer, with many families
helping out. Another reason for its great poverty could be caused by the fact that the
land for labor is not distributed proportionally, to the great number of workers in
agriculture. This problem could possibly be resolved if the government implemented
easier methods for the farmers to use. This helps show that Zimbabwe is a LEDC, due
to its poor distribution of land and great number of people working in agriculture
rather then in industry’s.
The capital resources in Zimbabwe are similar to capital resources in
MEDC’s. Zimbabwe has resources which developing countries would find useful.
The largest capital resource in Zimbabwe is mining. Mining includes coal, gold,
platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, and numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores.
Zimbabwe’s main exports are platinum, cotton, tobacco, gold, and textiles/clothing.
This is a good sign for Zimbabwe because they are being able to export their main
capital goods, to other countries. The exports in Zimbabwe amounted to 1.213 billion
dollars in 2009. This is ranked 143 out of the 224 in the world. This is still
significantly low, the reason to this may be because Zimbabwe is landlocked and as a
result it costs lots of money to ship goods to other countries on boats, due to tariffs
they would have to pay.
The largest natural resource in Zimbabwe is coal. This is a good sign because
many factories are powered by coal, putting Zimbabwe slightly ahead of those other
countries without coal. Other natural resource includes chromium ore, asbestos, gold,
nickel, copper, iron ore, vanadium, lithium, tin, and platinum group metals.
Zimbabwe also has an important percentage of the world’s metallurgical grade
chromite. Zimbabwe produces 5% of the world chromite. At Zimbabwe’s current
state it will be a long time until they can make good use of their own natural and
capital resources. Until Zimbabwe receives foreign investment in order to develop
these mineral deposits it is unlikely they will make their steps towards a MEDC.
It is difficult for Zimbabweans and other citizens in most African countries to
become entrepreneurs as a result of the authorities in power oppressing these citizens
with policies that satisfy these political rulers and do not benefit the citizens. New
forms of entrepreneurships will not make Zimbabwe an industrialized country,
because of all the other problems this country faces. Evidence of entrepreneurship is
hard to find in an economy where 95% of the people are unemployed and over 60%
live below the poverty line. A possible form of entrepreneurships could be millions of
US dollar invested in education infrastructure to offer business administration
training. Other forms of entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe include the import of clothes
and cars from Dubai to Harare for consumers. Wikipedia says the definition of “an
entrepreneur is a widely regarded as an integral player in business culture of
American life, and particularly as an engine for job creation and economic growth.”
This definition means when a country grows many new job opportunities open up for
individuals in the country. The definition states it has to create job opportunities for
people, Robert Mugabe supplied the country with computers, and new technology
however without understanding how to use it, it is of no use to the citizens. Zimbabwe
is unable to produce even the most basic of needs such as soap and shoes. This will
cause people to question whether the country is providing its people with necessities.
Conclusion
All these poor factors of production, GDP, national dept, population growth
rate help prove that Zimbabwe is not a developing country and is currently just a
LEDC. Zimbabwe is not the only African country suffering from a dictatorship; there
are many countries in Africa similar to Zimbabwe. These countries will not be fixed
until a stable government is put into place. Zimbabwe is currently considered to be
one of the worst countries in the world, because its national dept is the greatest in the
world, with more then 60% of the population living below the poverty line. It is
evident that there is no evidence off sustainable development in Zimbabwe’s
entrepreneurships. A country cannot become a MEDC with out sustainable
development. However as the country slowly develops and its health care system
progresses, the AIDS epidemic will slowly by resolved, and it is likely that Zimbabwe
can rise up from being a LEDC, and begin developing to become a MEDC sometime
in the near future.
Reference:
Background Note: Zimbabwe. (2010, January). U.S. Department of State. Retrieved
December 11, 2010, from http://www.state.gov/‌r/‌pa/‌ei/‌bgn/‌5479.htm
Human Development Reports [Fact Sheet]. (2009). Retrieved December 12, 2010,
from http://hdr.undp.org/‌en/‌media/‌HDR_2009_EN_Indicators.pdf
Statistics of the Human Development Report. (2009). Human Development Reports.
Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://hdr.undp.org/‌en/‌statistics/
Zimbabwe. (2009). go2africa. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from: http://www.
go2africa.com/‌zimbabwe/‌african-safari-guide/‌language 12.
Zimbabwe. (2010, March 2). UNICEF. Retrieved December 9, 2010, from http://
www.unicef.org/‌infobycountry/‌zimbabwe_statistics.html
Zimbabwe. (2010, April 8). CIA-World Fact Book. Retrieved December 13, 2010,
from https://www.cia.gov/‌library/‌publications/‌the-world-factbook/‌geos/‌zi.html
zimbabwean agricultural stats. (2010). nationmaster. Retrieved December 11, 2010,
from http://www.nationmaster.com/‌country/‌zi-zimbabwe/‌agr-agriculture
Zimbabwean People Stats. (2010). NationMaster. Retrieved December 10, 2010, from
http://www.nationmaster.com/‌country/‌zi-zimbabwe/‌peo-people
Zimbabwe Country Overview. (2008). nationsencyclopedia. Retrieved December 13, 2010,
from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/‌economies/‌Africa/‌Zimbabwe.html
Strategies of Development and Transformation [Zimbabwe Country Report]. (2009).
Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://www.bertelsmann-transformationindex. de/77.0.html?L=1
Zimbabwe - History & Background, Constitutional & Legal Foundations, Educational
System—overview, Preprimary & Primary Education, Secondary Education. (2010).
education.stateuniversity. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://education.
stateuniversity.com/‌pages/‌1717/‌Zimbabwe.html
Zimbabwe Daily News [The Folly of African Entrepreneurship]. (2010, June 28).
Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://www.zimbabwesituation.org
/?p=15167
Zimbabwe Latitude and Longitude. (2009). mapsofworld. Retrieved December 10, 2010,
from http://www.mapsofworld.com/‌lat_long/‌zimbabwe-lat-long.html
Zimbabwe’s Struggle for Liberation. (2009). English. Retrieved December 8, 2010,
from http://www.english.emory.edu/‌Bahri/‌Zimb.html