VCAA Health and Human Development Global health and human development

Human development refers to creating an environment where people can develop to their full potential and lead productive creative lives in accordance to their needs and interests. It is about enhancing people's choices and extending their capabilities, having access to knowledge, health and a decent standard of living and being able to actively participate in the community and decisions affecting their lives.

Dimension 1 – Knowledge – when conflict is occurring, schools may have been destroyed in the conflict, or are no longer safe to attend due to the threat of violence. This results in children staying home or dropping out of school, thus negatively impacting the expansion of their knowledge as well as mean years of schooling (an indicator used to assess knowledge in a population). Thus, conflict could negatively impact the dimension of knowledge.

Dimension 2 – Long and healthy life – when conflict is occurring there is often a loss of life within the population due to violence, and additionally, living conditions often worsen thus increasing the spread of disease. Therefore, conflict negatively influences an individual's ability to live a long and healthy life due to violence that is likely present which leads to many premature deaths. This would be demonstrated in a decreased life expectancy at birth (the indicator used to calculate this dimension).

Accept either "social" or "social sustainability".

An example of social sustainability is gender equality. For example, if more women are given the same opportunities as men in current and future generations, this will mean more women now and in the future will be able to get a job and earn an income to access resources required for a decent standard of living such as nutritious food, promoting human development.

Another example of social sustainability is providing access to safe and decent working conditions – Ensuring safe and decent working conditions now and into the future. This would mean fewer children were employed as part of child labour and are instead able to attend school, now and in future generations, to learn literacy and numeracy skills, increasing access to knowledge and promoting human development.

Accepted answers include (for example): "conflict", "war", etc.

See marking notes for more accepted answers.

Mass migration generally involves many people moving together from one place to another, this could lead to the increased prevalence of infectious diseases, such as influenza, due to close proximity between large groups of people, therefore increasing the spread of pathogens and bacteria. This could lead to increased morbidity due to infectious diseases for those migrating negatively impacting health outcomes.

Mass migration could lead to people leaving their homes and countries, which can reduce their sense of belonging, as they are not familiar with new areas, they may also feel a reduced sense of hope for a positive future if they are forcefully removed from their countries and displaced, reducing levels of spiritual health and wellbeing.

Mass migration could lead to people leaving their employment or losing their jobs. This may mean that they would not be able to obtain an income and increase their stress and anxiety regarding affording daily necessities such as nutritious food and shelter. Therefore, negatively impacting their mental health and wellbeing.

Economic sustainability relates to ensuring that average incomes in all countries are adequate to sustain a decent standard of living and to continue to rise in line with inflation and living costs into the future. An example is ensuring now and in the future, there is job creation so people can gain meaningful employment and earn an income to be able to afford essential resources like clothing and food, helping reduce levels of stress and anxiety for people since they can afford essentials, promoting mental health and wellbeing.

Individuals can donate to non-government organisations (NGOs), such as World Vision, to assist them in continuing their work in low-income countries. This may assist funding World Vison projects that centre around education programs for women and girls in small, rural and conflict affected communities where women often have limited access or denied access to education. Thus, this may mean that more women and girls have adequate literacy and numeracy skills and have increased opportunities for employment later in life, helping to reduce inequality and discrimination based on sex in low-income countries.

Sexual orientation – Through reducing levels of discrimination based on sexual orientation, less gay and lesbian individuals will face derogatory comments from others or violent abuse, assisting in increasing their sense of belonging (spiritual) in the community as they will feel more accepted.

Gender identity – Through reducing discrimination based on gender identity, fewer transgender people will be denied access to employment, assisting them in being able to earn an income. They can use this income to afford nutritious foods, such as vegetables, helping to reduce levels of malnutrition and assisting them in being free from illness/disease (physical).

For example: It relates to the disposal of human waste (see marking criteria for more accepted answers).

If children cannot adequately wash their hands after going to the toilet, they may ingest faecal matter when eating, which can lead to diseases such as diarrheal disease. Therefore a lack of access to basic handwashing facilities may lead to children experiencing increased YLD associated with diarrheal disease.

Lobby the government by designing and sending letters to your Member of Parliament about providing more support to countries that have poor hand washing facilities. This is using your voice to make a difference by encouraging governments to acknowledge the issue and take action. This may contribute to more funding for aid programs which can assist implementing programs to provide greater access to facilities in schools for handwashing in low-income countries.

Dimension 1: Environmental sustainability can mean that the effects of climate change are mitigated through a reduction in greenhouse gases. This can result in a decrease in temperatures and subsequent bushfires, resulting in a reduction in injury due to bushfires, promoting physical health and wellbeing, globally.

Dimension 2: Environmental sustainability can mean the food sources in the environment are used in a way that can be maintained into the future. Therefore, people around the world are less likely to worry about whether the planet will run out of food, decreasing stress and anxiety levels and promoting mental health and wellbeing globally.

WHO Objective: Rapidly detect and sustain an effective response to all health emergencies. This is reflected in the source above as the outbreak of cholera, would be considered a health emergency, as it’s reported in all of the countries provinces and there are more than ‘27055 suspected cholera cases’ therefore it’s impacting a large amount of people and a health emergency. The provision of vaccines for the disease could be considered as an effective response to the disease outbreak, as more than 2.1 million Zimbabweans received vaccines, thus it was effective response in tackling the health emergency.

Through vaccinating 2.1 million people in Zimbabwe, this has reduced the transmission of cholera by increasing resistance to the disease and promoting immune system response to fight the disease. This will therefore reduce deaths from cholera, which will then increase the HDI indicator ‘life expectancy at birth’, contributing to an increase in HDI in Zimbabwe.

Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns due to increased carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change can increase extreme weather events, such as floods, which submerged a third of Pakistan in 2022. Floods can contaminate water sources with bacteria and viruses, which if consumed can increase the risk of cholera therefore the body and its systems are not functioning adequately, negatively impacting physical health and wellbeing (HWB).

Similarly, climate change can increase changing weather events, such as heavy rainfall in Pakistan, which can ruin agricultural crops, increasing stress and anxiety for farmers as they are unable to sell sufficient amount of crops, increasing financial burden [and] negatively impacting mental HWB in Pakistan.

Additionally climate change can reduce children's ability in Pakistan to access education due to flooding and heatwaves. Lower levels of education can reduce the ability for children in Pakistan to increase their health literacy and socialise with other children. This can negatively impact their ability to participate in effective communication with others, negatively impacting social HWB in Pakistan.

End extreme poverty – This aims to eliminate extreme poverty, which is those living on less than ＄1.90 US per day. Millions of people still live in extreme poverty, decreasing their ability to afford resources, such as shelter, adequate food and safe water, hence contributing to a significant number of preventable deaths worldwide. Thus this objective is important as it will assist individuals in affording resources they need for a decent standard of living and assist them to lead a long and healthy life.

An aspect of SGD 13 is strengthening the resilience of countries to respond to and adapt to climate related hazards such as natural disasters. For example, by investing in building flood walls to protect the impact of flooding on communities, schools are less likely to be destroyed. This can mean children are able to go to school to gain knowledge and develop to their full potential by increasing numeracy and literacy skills. It also allows them to lead creative lives according to their interests by participating in school activities, such as art or sports, promoting human development.

Achieving SDG 4 would involve ensuring all children have basic literacy and numeracy skills. By helping to reduce school dropouts in Pakistan means children are more likely to be able to read health information around protecting themselves from infectious diseases, like waterborne diseases, thus reducing the chance they will drink unsafe water if they understand risks, thus helping to end epidemics of communicable diseases like malaria and waterborne disease, in turn achieving SDG 3.

Additionally achieving SDG 4 would involve ensuring girls have equal access to education as boys which would be achieved by ensuring girls in Pakistan can continue accessing education despite floods, thus reducing the chance they are forced into child marriage, where they have babies before their body is biologically ready, thus reducing maternal mortality rates, in turn achieving SDG 3.

For example: gender equality and disability inclusion, and expanding opportunities for everyone (see marking guide for more accepted answers).

Type of aid: Bilateral

Description: Bilateral aid is aid provided from the government of one country to the government of another country. Evidently, Australia is working with the government of Kiribati through the Ministry of Education to protect school facilities against the impacts of climate change.

Feature 1: Partnerships and collaboration. This involves organisations and groups working together to share resources and improve effectiveness of aid. The KEIP involves partnerships between the Kiribati Ministry of Education and the Australian government to share funding and expertise to ensure effective aid is delivered to ‘reduce future coastal flooding’ impacts through improvements to Kiribati school infrastructure.

Feature 2: Ownership by recipient country. This involves the country receiving aid being able to benefit from the aid long after the aid program officially ends. KEIP educates children about ‘climate change’ in Kiribati so that students, the next generation of Kiribati can continue to apply innovative ideas such as building flooring resistant infrastructure to minimise harm from flooding due to climate change in the future, after the KEIP ends.

The Kiribati program enables children to go to school & improve their knowledge by attaining literacy and numeracy skills. This may improve their future capabilities and provide them with greater choice on what field they want to pursue later in life. This may enable children to lead productive and creative lives according to their needs and interests.

By having teachers trained in climate change, the program may increase the capabilities of teachers in responding to and delivering curriculum about climate change. This may also improve their potential to get a job as they may have the relevant desirable skills & may be used to purchase resources like nutritious food & may assist in the achievement of a decent standard of living.