With reference to an LEDC, assess the relative importance during the twentieth century of the factors a) limiting development (15 marks) and b) promoting development (10 marks).

There are several criteria used to measure the extent of economic development within a country, ranging from the country’s Gross National or Domestic Product to such things as the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) and the Human Development Index. As suggested by these terms, however, "Development is more than mere economics" (Mark Tully, No Full stops for India) and as a result the relative level of development of a country cannot be measured purely by looking at economic indicators. Indeed, nor can the factors inhibiting or promoting development be considered purely in terms of economics. Bangladesh’s problems with development, for example, cannot solely be put down to economic problems, since the impact of physical variables on the country is huge. Taking this into consideration, the factors inhibiting or promoting development in Bangladesh can be considered under two headings: Physical and Human influences.

Although factors inhibiting development often outweigh those promoting development, it is perhaps more sensible to look at those factors promoting development first. This is particularly important in the case of Bangladesh, one of the world’s Least Economically more developed countries (LDC). It is possible to recognise those factors promoting development amongst those inhibiting development and understand why, with such promotional factors, the country has not passed into the Take Off stage of Rostow’s model of economic growth.

Most of Bangladesh lies within the broad delta and flood plain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and is exceedingly flat and low-lying. Due to the proximity to the rivers and their delta, the soils are very rich, fertile alluvial soils and this combined with the flat, low lying nature of the region contributes to the hypothetically good conditions for development. These fertile soils, which are annually replenished by flooding, encourage intensive agricultural activity based on paddy rice cultivation in the wet conditions. Where soils are fertile, it has been common that there has been greater development in such regions and has also attracted colonial attention and their resulting commercial agriculture. Such fertile and favourable soil is uncharacteristic of the Third World where the predominant soil types are Latosols or grey desert soils. Latosols are intensely leached and as a result have little agricultural potential due to the lack of organic matter, high acidity, poor structure and their inability to retain moisture. The brick like layer or Laterite formed when Latosols are laid bare is difficult for plant roots to penetrate and increases its albedo. Thus, many Latosols are increasingly desertified when cultivated by humans and therefore worsening the problems of development. When desertification occurs its effects are irreversible and the soils are rendered permanently unusable.

In Bangladesh, cropping patterns are diverse and there tends to be a greater dependence on dry season cropping especially of millets, groundnuts and wheat than on the monsoon-season cropping of paddy rice. The extensive flood plain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra provide ideal locations for subsistence farmers during the dry season, and also for the settlement of those people employed in urban areas such as Dhaka and Chandpur. Much of the land on the flood plain is owned by relatively big landowners living on the mainland who use sharecroppers to occupy and cultivate their land. This scheme has its benefits since it encourages the land to be cultivated, which may in time help increase exports, and it also guarantees that at least some of the population is occupied, albeit for relatively few gains.

As a former colony of Britain (when it was part of India), Bangladesh may have been expected to prosper through the introduction of colonial improvements to infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and government. Indeed, public education in Bangladesh follows the same model established by the British prior to 1947. Many schools were added and improved during the 1970’s following the declaration of their independence from Pakistan in 1971. Elementary education is free and therefore it might be expected that the country would develop with some speed considering the potential to increase levels of literacy. Agricultural productivity has been proved to improve by 25% after just 4 years of schooling. Also, with basic education it is possible to bring about lower levels of child malnutrition, smaller family sizes, lower infant mortality rates and lower birth rates - in this respect it would seem that Bangladesh is more than capable of beginning rapid development.

Similarly, the country has maintained a democratic system of government which is often seen as favourable to those countries who ‘go their own way’ after declaring their independence. As a member of the Commonwealth and the UN, it may be expected that the criteria for development through international trade are more than attainable for the country. Despite, this the country has still maintained its LDC status and is one of the 12 major recipients of international aid.

With such factors as good soil fertility, colonial impacts, favourable landscapes, potential mineral resources, good education, and some transnational interest in agriculture, it is plausible to suggest that Bangladesh has been in a good position to develop with some haste. However, these factors are clearly not sufficient to overcome those that inhibit development since the country is still classified as an LEDC.

Bangladesh suffers from annual flooding. While this may mean that soils are annually replenished with fertile alluvial deposits, it also renders the extensive land in the flood plain of the Ganges unusable for over 8 months of the year. The problems of the floods do not only extend to agriculture, but to the provision of housing for the particularly large population. Since much of the land around the Ganges is privately owned, people are forced to live on island chars which are formed by the flooding. Houses are built on platforms and provisions are made to protect the population from the effects of the floods. However, almost 40,000 people were killed in floods between 1962 and 1994 as a direct result of exceptionally high population densities on the flood plains of the major rivers.

Problems within these non-permanent settlements on the flood plains are not only caused by their high population densities but also exacerbated by it. The provision of health care is poor despite the central government operating 1800 hospitals and dispensaries. There are only 2 trained physicians per 12,000 inhabitants and since much of the population live on unobtainable chars, the provision of health care is becoming increasingly difficult, especially as the population continues to grow. Although many Non-Government Organisations and world aid givers are attempting to offer support in this area, the efforts they make are not sufficient to encourage development. Disease spreads quickly during both wet and dry seasons due to unsanitary living conditions and the lack of clean water or food. Medical improvements world-wide have not been mirrored in Bangladesh where economic recession has meant spending on health care has dropped. Aid and international experts serve only to bring health care to a reasonable level and are not able to carry the country towards wholescale development.

Education, too, has seen widespread cut backs, although still the major expenditure for the Bangladeshi government out of Education, Health and Defence (which, incidentally has seen increased spending since 1986). However, while the education system is good, nearly one-third of children are not enrolled in schools. It is estimated that poor school attendance accounts for 35% of illiteracy in children aged 15 and older. Poor school attendance will account for some inhibiting of development since children are often used to help on farms where subsistence is often considered more important than education. Similarly, women are not considered equal to men and hence they are often prohibited from attending schools or adult literacy schemes. This prejudice against women may contribute to the inability of the government to bring about changes to family sizes and birth or death rates. Without such improvements, development may be considered unlikely.

While there are many human factors inhibiting development, the structural adjustment policies and aid given by foreign MEDC’s can easily improve such situations. However, many of the physical problems, which inhibit development, are unavoidable and definitely inhibit development. Since it is found in the Tropical Monsoon area, Bangladesh is subjected to devastating cyclones during the monsoon season of which there was 29 between 1964 and 1994. Often accompanied with surging waves, these storms can cause great structural damage and huge loss of life (16,942 average deaths per cyclone from 1964 to 1994). The cyclone of November 1970, one of the worst natural disasters of the twentieth century, resulted in 500,000 deaths and large-scale structural damage in coastal regions. Unfortunately, the regularity at which these natural hazards occur means that it is increasingly difficult of the Bangladeshi government to accommodate for and prevent the impacts of the hazards.

It is not only cyclones that affect the country. Tornadoes frequently devastate northern regions as in May 1996 when 440 people died and 80 villages were destroyed by a tornado in the north and the effects of flooding have already been discussed. It is worth mentioning that there is little that can be done to lessen the impacts of the annual floods on development. Attempts to tame the rivers in the country are costly and only work for a limited time. It is unfeasible to move all of the river dwelling population away from the rivers as this would raise the question of where so settle them and the cost of such and operation is too large. The unpredictable nature of the river floods also means that communications that cross the rivers are impossible. The flooding would quickly destroy railways and roads and the only plausible way of crossing the river is by ferry. This is time consuming and costly and therefore prevents the movement of materials easily across the country and hence exports are less likely. Also with poor communications transnational corporations are unlikely to be willing to process any goods within Bangladesh due to the high transport costs and therefore the raw, unprocessed goods are exported meaning there is little or no profit made my the country itself.

This said, it is worth taking into consideration that Bangladesh has relatively few mineral resources of its own. Natural gas, perhaps the only resource worth mentioning, is found in the Northeast and this does not attract huge international interest since to obtain it is expensive. Of the forested regions, of which few remain due to commercial logging, most of the woodland is used as fuelwood, as much as 90%. That which is left is exported, however, since most of the wood is softwood the demand for it has decreased since demand for hardwood has increased in MEDC's since the 1960's. Deforestation in itself does not actually have too great an impact on inhibiting development, unless looked at as a passive contributor to the floods of the Ganges. Increased population in Nepal and the Himalayan foothills has seen greater deforestation for agriculture and settlement. In the Chittatong Hills in eastern Bangladesh, large-scale deforestation has occurred to house subsistence farmers displaced by hydroelectric and reservoir development and also due to the increasing demands for fuelwood. The deforestation on the hills where the tributaries to the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers form has led to the exacerbation of flooding during monsoon seasons. Higher levels of flooding also mean that aid provision is hampered since the flooding level is often sufficient to leave the Dhaka airport under several feet of water.

Finally, while the fertile alluvial soils deposited by the Ganges every year would appear to be ideal for intensive agriculture, the instability of the Ganges means that any multinational interest is severely put off at the consideration at the costs and losses that are likely should flooding destroy any crops that are grown. Recent political instability is also likely to discourage international investment also. Without these foreign investments and the lack of mineral resources, Bangladesh cannot lift itself out of its debt crisis. It receives the greatest loans from the IMF and World Bank, but since expenditure exceeds income by almost $2billion annually, there is little hope of the country developing with any speed.

In conclusion, the impacts of human and physical factors both promote and inhibit development. For Bangladesh it is clear that it will remain on of the worlds 42 LDC's as a result of devastating natural hazards and poor natural resources. While it seems that many of the factors that promote development could indeed be responsible for initiating rapid growth, these positive factors are not sufficient to overcome the impacts of the factors inhibiting growth. Without further industrialisation, economic or social development it is unlikely that Bangladesh will reach the third stage of Rostow's model of economic growth within this century and may possibly never reach this stage.

It remains important to remember that when taking the development of any LEDC in to consideration, that models of both economic and social development are largely based on what are now MEDC's development during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Rostow's model of economic growth comes under much criticism for it's lack of relevance to most of today's LEDC's. It is argued that most of the LEDC's in the world today will never reach the higher levels of development as suggested by Rostow. Indeed, it is also considered unlikely that any of these countries will ever move out of the second, preconditions for take off, stage. This will come down to several factors. Firstly, there is a huge problem with the influence of MEDC's upon the economies of the LEDC's in the world. Since most of the world's LEDC's rely heavily upon foreign investment, be it in the form of aid or transnational investment