Intro
With a GDP per capita of $4,100 Paraguay is the second poorest country in all of South America right behind Bolivia. In this paper I will look to explain some of the reasons behind the lack of growth in the Paraguayan economy. I believe that being a landlocked nation without direct access to a major ocean waterway, political instability over the last 110 years, and a large portion of the population that severely lacks proper water and sanitation resources, all combine to play a crucial role in Paraguay’s poor economic development.
The paper will be broken into three sections, with each section exploring each topic with in-depth analysis. I will first look at the issues that Paraguay faces being a landlocked nation. I will focus on the sanctions that can be imposed upon them by outside nations in the form of taxes and limitation of access. I will also inspect the dire need for this unabated access to an open waterway for an agriculture-based economy like Paraguay’s. Next, I will look at the instability that has plagued Paraguay since the beginning of the 20th century. I will focus on the near constant fluctuation between military rulers and the negative effects a lack of stability has on growth and investment. I will also examine the role that corruption plays in breeding instability and its effect on the overall economy. Finally I will look at the effects that a poor water and sanitation systems has on the ability of the poor population to be more productive members of the general work force.
Geographic Restrictions
A landlocked nation is one that does not enjoy direct access to a waterway or open ocean. 48 countries throughout the world are identified as landlocked and their economies are directly affected by not ...
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It describes the life in Paraguay of that time so excellently that it is peculiar that a man so misinformed as Gimlette that writes a book plagued of errors, has called the attention of the “elite press”, North American.
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In recent years, the Gross Domestic Product/capita (PPP) in Paraguay has increased significantly in the last decade, with $6,136/capita around $40.9 billion. Paraguay has been one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America, mostly due to an increase in exports of agricultural produce. According to Banco Central del Paraguay, reported “From 2008 until 2013, Paraguay GDP Growth Rate averaged 1.3 Percent reaching an all tim...
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
After gaining independence, Latin American countries had difficulty in how to govern the newly instated states. In the chaos, people took advantage of this and instated themselves as dictators. They had simply took the position from the Spanish that they tried to vanquish (class notes). The power structure remained and the people who fought for independence were largely ignored and continuously oppressed. These dictatorships had remained in power until very recently. Paraguay was finally freed from the dictatorship in 1989 (Chapter
“Capitalism is a world system. But some of its parts have more than their share of leadership.”(Cardoso xxi). Latin America, like much of the third and second world has received far lesser dividends from the fruits of capitalism. In fact due to its close geographic location to the united states and its strong early history of colonialism Latin America is a shining example of how economic dependency has evolved. From its moment liberation Latin America has been seen as a economic tool by the west, particularly by the USA, and continues to be economically dominated to this day. From the Eve of conquest the region has used its economic power mostly to the benefit of another nation.
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Measures to expand and improve public delivery systems of drinking water, contributing to a reduction in morbidity and mortality associated with enteric diseases, because these diseases are associated directly or indirectly with providing substandard water or poor provision water. Currently, 1,400 million people lack access to safe drinking water and nearly 4,000 billion lack adequate sanitation. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of diseases are transmitted through contaminated water.
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Clean water is needed for good human and animal health, but as DoSomething.org states, over 1 billion people worldwide don’t have a means of getting clean drinking water, an...
The lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities is one of the main factors hindering progress towards the world’s poor meeting their needs. Inadequate sanitation exacerbates malnutrition, poor education and diseases;
Having clean water to drink means that water must have microbial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet WHO guidelines or national standards on drinking water quality. Around 780 million people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water (Millions Lack Safe Water). More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in developing countries. Around the world, diseases in unclean water kill about 1,400 children every day (Clean Drinking Water). There are many organizations that raise money in order to help develop ways or create ways for people to obtain clean drinking water. However, many people are unaware that this is even a problem in other countries because we take clean water for granted.
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
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