Developing country in the context of Human-made disaster

Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement (including mental health), reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.

Global health is not to be confused with international health, which is defined as the branch of public health focusing on developing nations and foreign aid efforts by industrialized countries.

The exploitation of natural resources describes using natural resources, often non-renewable or limited, for economic growth or development. Environmental degradation, human insecurity, and social conflict frequently accompany natural resource exploitation. The impacts of the depletion of natural resources include the decline of economic growth in local areas; however, the abundance of natural resources does not always correlate with a country's material prosperity. Many resource-rich countries, especially in the Global South, face distributional conflicts, where local bureaucracies mismanage or disagree on how resources should be used. Foreign industries also contribute to resource exploitation, where raw materials are outsourced from developing countries, with the local communities receiving little profit from the exchange. This is often accompanied by negative effects of economic growth around the affected areas such as inequality and pollution.

The exploitation of natural resources started to emerge on an industrial scale in the 19th century as the extraction and processing of raw materials (such as in mining, steam power, and machinery) expanded much further than it had in pre-industrial areas. During the 20th century, energy consumption rapidly increased. As of 2012, about 78.3% of the world's energy consumption is sustained by the extraction of fossil fuels, which consists of oil, coal and natural gas.

The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group. The bank is headquartered in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It provided around $98.83 billion in loans and assistance to "developing" and transition countries in the 2021 fiscal year. The bank's stated mission is to achieve the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. Total lending as of 2015 for the last 10 years through Development Policy Financing was approximately $117 billion. Its five organizations have been established over time:

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), 1944
• International Development Association (IDA), 1960
• International Finance Corporation (IFC), 1956
• International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), 1965
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), 1988

The first two are sometimes collectively referred to as the World Bank. They provide loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing economic development. These activities include fields such as human development (e.g. education, health), agriculture and rural development (e.g. irrigation and rural services), environmental protection (e.g. pollution reduction, establishing and enforcing regulations), infrastructure (e.g. roads, urban regeneration, and electricity), large industrial construction projects, and governance (e.g. anti-corruption, legal institutions development). The IBRD and IDA provide loans at preferential rates to member countries, as well as grants to the poorest countries. Loans or grants for specific projects are often linked to wider policy changes in the sector or the country's economy as a whole. For example, a loan to improve coastal environmental management may be linked to the development of new environmental institutions at national and local levels and the implementation of new regulations to limit pollution. Furthermore, the World Bank Group is recognized as a leading funder of climate investments in developing countries.

The fishing industry includes any industry or activity that takes, cultures, processes, preserves, stores, transports, markets or sells fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, as well as the related harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors. The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. The livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends directly or indirectly on fisheries and aquaculture.

The fishing industry is struggling with environmental and welfare issues, including overfishing and occupational safety. Additionally, the combined pressures of climate change, biodiversity loss and overfishing endanger the livelihoods and food security of a substantial portion of the global population. Stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels decreased from 90% in 1974 to 62.3% in 2021.

The People's Republic of China has a developing mixed socialist market economy, incorporating industrial policies and strategic five-year plans. China has the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2016 has been the world's largest economy when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). China accounted for 19% of the global economy in 2022 in PPP terms, and around 18% in nominal terms in 2022. The economy consists of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and mixed-ownership enterprises, as well as a large domestic private sector which contribute approximately 60% of the GDP, 80% of urban employment and 90% of new jobs.

China is the world's largest manufacturing industrial economy and exporter of goods. China is widely regarded as the "powerhouse of manufacturing", "the factory of the world" and the world's "manufacturing superpower". Its production exceeds that of the nine next largest manufacturers combined. However, exports as a percentage of GDP have steadily dropped to just around 20%, reflecting its decreasing importance to the Chinese economy. Nevertheless, it remains the largest trading nation in the world and plays a prominent role in international trade. Manufacturing has been transitioning toward high-tech industries such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, telecommunications and IT equipment, and services has also grown as a percentage of GDP. However, recent research indicates that China’s Total factor productivity (TFP) growth has slowed significantly. IMF estimates show that TFP growth declined from approximately 3.7% in the 2000s to around 1.9% during 2010–2019. Structural reforms and technological progress in manufacturing between 2010 and 2020 contributed only modestly to productivity gains. Additionally, a 2024–2025 IMF working paper finds that factor misallocation resulting from industrial and regulatory policies implemented since the early 2010s reduces China’s aggregate TFP by roughly 1.2% annually. IMF research suggests that while China’s state-led push for high-tech self-reliance since 2013 has supported rapid innovation, it has been accompanied by efficiency losses. Policy measures, including targeted state subsidies appear to favor politically connected firms, crowd out competition, and lead to overcapacity, undermining overall productivity. China is the world's largest high technology exporter. As of 2023, the country spends around 2.6% of GDP to advance research and development across various sectors of the economy. It is also the world's second-largest importer of goods. China is a net importer of services products.

Human waste (or human excreta) refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and feces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated and disposed of or reused by one method or another, depending on the type of toilet being used, ability by the users to pay for services and other factors. Fecal sludge management is used to deal with fecal matter collected in on-site sanitation systems such as pit latrines and septic tanks.

The sanitation systems in place differ vastly around the world, with many people in developing countries having to resort to open defecation where human waste is deposited in the environment, for lack of other options. Improvements in "water, sanitation and hygiene" (WASH) around the world is a key public health issue within international development and is the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory approach used primarily in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices within communities. CLTS aims to achieve behavior change with a "trigger" that leads to spontaneous and long-term abandonment of open defecation practices, thereby improving community sanitation and overall health. The term "triggering" is central to the CLTS process. It refers to methods of igniting community interest in ending open defecation, usually by building simple toilets such as pit latrines. The effect of CLTS is two-fold: actions that increase self-respect and pride in one's community and actions that promote shame and disgust about one's open defecation behaviors. CLTS takes an approach to rural sanitation that works without hardware subsidies by facilitating communities to acknowledge the problem of open defecation, taking collective action to become "open defecation free," and improve sanitation.

The concept was developed around 2000 by Kamal Kar for rural areas in Bangladesh. CLTS became an established approach around 2011. Local governments may reward communities by certifying them with "open defecation free" (ODF) status. The original concept of CLTS purposefully did not include subsidies for toilet installations, as they might hinder the process.

A sanitation worker (or sanitary worker) is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain. This is the definition used in the narrower sense within the WASH sector. More broadly speaking, sanitation workers may also be involved in cleaning streets, parks, public spaces, sewers, stormwater drains, and public toilets. Another definition is: "The moment an individual's waste is outsourced to another, it becomes sanitation work." Some organizations use the term specifically for municipal solid waste collectors, whereas others exclude the workers involved in management of solid waste (rubbish, trash) sector from its definition.

Sanitation workers are essential in maintaining safe sanitation services in homes, schools, hospitals, and other settings and protecting public health but face many health risks in doing so, including from exposure to a wide range of biological and chemical agents. Additionally, they may be at risk of injury from heavy labor, poor and prolonged postures and positions and confined spaces, as well as psychosocial stress. These risks are exacerbated under conditions of poverty, illness, poor nutrition, poor housing, child labor, migration, drug and alcohol abuse, discrimination, social stigma and societal neglect. In many developing countries, sanitation workers are "more vulnerable due to unregulated or unenforced environmental and labor protections, and lack of occupational health and safety".

A developed country, or advanced country, is a country that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are the gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), the per capita income, level of industrialization, amount of widespread infrastructure and general standard of living. Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate. Different definitions of developed countries are provided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; moreover, HDI ranking is used to reflect the composite index of life expectancy, education, and income per capita. In 2025, 40 countries fit all three criteria, while an additional 22 countries fit two out of three.

Developed countries have generally more advanced post-industrial economies, meaning the service sector provides more wealth than the industrial sector. They are contrasted with developing countries, which are in the process of industrialisation or are pre-industrial and almost entirely agrarian, some of which might fall into the category of Least Developed Countries. As of 2023, advanced economies comprise 57.3% of global GDP based on nominal values and 41.1% of global GDP based on purchasing-power parity (PPP) according to the IMF.

A secondary city is an urban hub that fills specific regional and local needs related to governance, economics, finance, education, trade, transportation. A secondary city is defined by population, area, function, and economic status, but also by their relationship to neighboring and distant cities and their socio-economic status. A secondary city may emerge from a cluster of smaller cities in a metropolitan region or may be the capital city of a province, state, or second-tier administrative unit within a country. Secondary cities are the fastest-growing urban areas in lower- and middle-income countries, experiencing unplanned growth and development. By 2030, there will be twice as many medium-size cities as there were in 1990, outnumbering the total number of megacities. According to the World Bank, secondary cities make up almost 40% of the world cities population. Many secondary cities in the Global South are expected to undergo massive expansions in the next few decades comparable to city growth in Europe and North America over the past two centuries. These cities are unique environments that generally have limited data and information on infrastructure, land tenure, and planning.

Climate security is a political and policy framework that looks at the impacts of climate on security. Climate security often refers to the national and international security risks induced, directly or indirectly, by changes in climate patterns. It is a concept that summons the idea that climate-related change amplifies existing risks in society that endangers the security of humans, ecosystems, economy, infrastructure and societies. Climate-related security risks have far-reaching implications for the way the world manages peace and security. Climate actions to adapt and mitigate impacts can also have a negative effect on human security if mishandled.

The term climate security was initially promoted by national security analysts in the US and later Europe, but has since been adopted by a wide variety of actors including the United Nations, low and middle income states, civil society organizations and academia. The term is used in fields such as politics, diplomacy, environment and security with increasing frequency.

Climate change and poverty are deeply intertwined because climate change disproportionally affects poor people in low-income communities and developing countries around the world. The impoverished have a higher chance of experiencing the ill-effects of climate change due to the increased exposure and vulnerability. Vulnerability represents the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change including climate variability and extremes.

Climate change highly exacerbates existing inequalities through its effects on health, the economy, and human rights. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth National Climate Assessment Report found that low-income individuals and communities are more exposed to environmental hazards and pollution and have a harder time recovering from the impacts of climate change. For example, it takes longer for low-income communities to be rebuilt after natural disasters. According to the United Nations Development Programme, developing countries suffer 99% of the casualties attributable to climate change.

Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly comprises Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (excluding Israel, Japan, and South Korea), and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand). Most of the Global South's countries are commonly identified as lacking in their standard of living, which includes having lower incomes, high levels of poverty, high population growth rates, inadequate housing, limited educational opportunities, and deficient health systems, among other issues. Additionally, these countries' cities are characterized by their poor infrastructure. Opposite to the Global South is the Global North, which the UNCTAD describes as broadly comprising Northern America and Europe, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Consequently the two groups do not correspond to the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere, as many of the Global South's countries are geographically located in the north and vice-versa.

More specifically, the Global North consists of the world's developed countries, whereas the Global South consists of the world's developing countries and least developed countries. The Global South classification, as used by governmental and developmental organizations, was first introduced as a more open and value-free alternative to Third World, and likewise potentially "valuing" terms such as developed and developing. Countries of the Global South have also been described as being newly industrialized or in the process of industrializing. Many of them are current or former subjects of colonialism.

The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in developed countries in the early 20th century and subsequently spread globally until the late 1980s. In the late 1960s, farmers began incorporating new technologies, including high-yielding varieties of cereals, particularly dwarf wheat and rice, and the widespread use of chemical fertilizers (to produce their high yields, the new seeds require far more fertilizer than traditional varieties), pesticides, and controlled irrigation.

At the same time, newer methods of cultivation, including mechanization, were adopted, often as a package of practices to replace traditional agricultural technology. This was often in conjunction with loans conditional on policy changes being made by the developing nations adopting them, such as privatizing fertilizer manufacture and distribution.

The economy of Romania is a developing mixed economy, with a high degree of complexity. It ranks 12th in the European Union by total nominal GDP and 7th largest when adjusted by purchasing power (PPP). The World Bank notes that Romania's efforts are focused on accelerating structural reforms and strengthening institutions in order to further converge with the European Union. The country's economic growth has been one of the highest in the EU since 2010, with 2022 seeing a better-than-expected 4.8% increase.

In recent years, it witnessed growth rates such as: 4.8% in 2016, 7.1% in 2017, 4.4% in 2018 and 4.1% in 2019. In 2024, its GDP per capita in purchasing power standards reached 78% of the European Union average, up from 44% in 2007, the highest growth rate in the EU27. Romania's economy ranks 35th in the world by its total GDP (PPP), with a Int$784 billion annual output (2023 est.).

The Four Asian Tigers (a.k.a. the Four Asian Dragons or Four Little Dragons in Chinese and Korean) are the developed Asian economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Between the early 1950s and 1990s, they underwent rapid industrialization and maintained exceptionally high growth rates of more than 7 percent a year.

By the early 21st century, these economies had developed into high-income economies, specializing in areas of competitive advantage. Hong Kong and Singapore have become leading international financial centres, whereas South Korea and Taiwan are leaders in manufacturing electronic components and devices; Taiwan now produces the most advanced semiconductor chips in the world; South Korea has also developed into a major global arms manufacturer. Large institutions have pushed to have them serve as role models for many developing countries, especially the Tiger Cub Economies of Southeast Asia.

The economy of Ukraine is a developing social market economy. It possesses many of the components of a major European economy, such as rich farmlands, a well-developed industrial base, highly-trained labour, and a good education system. Ukraine has large mineral deposits across its landmass.

The depression during the 1990s included hyperinflation and a fall in economic output to less than half of the GDP of the preceding Ukrainian SSR. GDP growth was recorded for the first time in 2000, and continued for eight years. This growth was halted by the 2008 financial crisis. It grew rapidly from 2000 until the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis. The economy recovered in 2010 and continued improving until 2013. The Euromaidan in Ukraine caused a severe economic decline from 2014 to 2015, with the country's gross domestic product in 2015 surpassing half of what it was in 2013. In 2016, the economy again started to grow. By 2018, the Ukrainian economy was growing rapidly, and reached almost 80% of its size in 2008.

The economy of Russia is a high-income, industrialized, mixed and market-oriented emerging economy. It has the ninth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest economy by GDP (PPP). Due to a volatile currency exchange rate, its GDP measured in nominal terms fluctuates sharply. Russia was the last major economy to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming a member in 2012.

Russia has large amounts of energy resources throughout its vast landmass, particularly natural gas and petroleum, which play a crucial role in its energy self-sufficiency and exports. The country has been widely described as an energy superpower; with it having the largest natural gas reserves in the world, the second-largest coal reserves, the eighth-largest oil reserves, and the largest oil shale reserves in Europe. Russia is the third-largest exporter of natural gas, the second-largest natural gas producer, the second-largest oil exporter and producer, and the third-largest coal exporter. As of 2020, its foreign exchange reserves were the fifth-largest in the world. Russia has a labour force of about 73 million people, which is the eighth-largest in the world. It is the third-largest exporter of arms in the world. The large oil and gas sector accounted up to 30% of Russia's federal budget revenues in 2024, down from 50% in the mid-2010s, suggesting economic diversification.