An Unbalanced World: A Distribution Exercise
This activity can be used with both youth and adults. It can also be adapted and simplified to work for children by dividing children into the three income groups and showing them how much of the bread each group will receive. Children can then discuss how it feels to be in each income group and whether it is fair.
Objective
This exercise provides a visual example of the distribution of the world's food and wealth. Use it to stimulate discussion about our role as citizens and as a nation in bringing about fairness, justice and a balanced world.
Time
Approximately 30 minutes depending on length of discussion.
Supplies
One loaf of bread, six country description cards (included), one dinner plate, one paper plate, a map of the world, tacks or tape
Overview
Divide participants into three groups (based on the percentages below) to represent high-, middle- and low-income countries. The high-income countries will have the fewest people, but the most bread; the low-income countries will have the most people and the least bread. Give the dinner plate to the high-income group and the paper plate to the middle-income group. The low-income group does not receive a plate. Pass out the country description cards to two people in each group. State that the three groups represent wealthy, middle-income and poor countries. Read the short group description for the high-income group (see below). Then ask the cardholders in that group to read their card and tack it to the country they represent on the map. (You may want to locate the countries prior to the exercise in case anyone needs assistance). Once both cards have been read and placed on the map, put the appropriate amount of bread on the plate explaining that this represents the amount of food the group gets. Repeat for the middle and low-income countries. Participants should refrain from eating the bread until the exercise is over. Allow the groups to share only if they choose.
Country Descriptions
High-income (also called "Developed Countries")
- Number of participants: about 15 percent of your group
- Percentage of bread = 90
- Group description: About one in six people worldwide live in high-income countries that include places such as the United States, Japan and Australia. Many people get more to eat than they need.
Country Description Card 1:
My name is Yuko. I live in Japan, an island that is slightly smaller than California. The average life expectancy is 81.25 years, and less than .1% of people are living with HIV/AIDS. Education is a priority here; every child is enrolled in school, and our literacy rate is 99%.
Despite my country’s wealth, 14% of Japanese children live in poverty. A rising divorce rate has increased the number of mothers supporting children on one income. Most of these single-parent families live below the poverty line. Low wages for women and non-payment of child support contribute to this problem.
Country Description Card 2:
My name is Meredith. I live in the United States, which is 2.5 times the size of the European Union but less than a third of the size of Africa. Our average life expectancy is 77.85 years, and .6% of our population lives with HIV/AIDS. Most states require education between the years of 6 and 16, and 99% of our population is literate.
While many people in my country are wealthy, 12% of people live below the poverty line. 12.4 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger. The U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world, mostly due to large disparities among different racial and ethnic groups. African Americans, for example, have an infant mortality rate that is twice as high as the national average.
Middle-income
- Number of participants: about 25 percent of your group
- Percentage of bread = 8
- Group description: One in four people worldwide live in middle-income countries. These include places such as Albania, Thailand and Guyana. Many people do not get enough to eat.
Country Description Card 1:
My name is Diego, and I am from Costa Rica. My country is a bit smaller than West Virginia, and our life expectancy is 77 years. Our literacy rate is 96%. Poverty has been significantly reduced over the last 15 years, and my country now has a strong social safety net. However, nearly one-fifth of the population still lives below the poverty line. Our unemployment rate is 6.6%.
The HIV/AIDS prevalence is .6%. The National Health System offers free and universal HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment.
Country Description Card 2:
My name is Lydia. I live in Ukraine, which gained independence in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union. My country is slightly smaller than Texas. We have a 99.7% literacy rate, and our life expectancy is nearly 70 years. HIV/AIDS is a growing problem, however. The prevalence rate is 1.4%, and Ukraine reports the highest number of annual AIDS deaths in Europe. Most of those living with the disease do not have access to antiretroviral treatment.
My country's government reports a 2.9% unemployment rate, but the International Labor Organization estimates that the real rate is 9-10%. Nearly one-third of Ukrainians live in poverty.
Low-income (also called "Developing Countries")
- Number of participants: about 60 percent of your group
- Percentage of bread = 2
- Group description: More than half the people in the world live in low-income countries like Haiti, Bangladesh and Mozambique. Nearly 800 million people in developing countries are malnourished.
Country Description Card 1:
My name is Mwenzi. I am from Zambia, which is slightly larger than Texas. The life expectancy in my country is 40 years, and the HIV/AIDS prevalence is 16.5%. There is a high risk of infectious diseases, such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, malaria, and the plague. Neither of my parents can find a job, although both want to work. The unemployment rate here is 50%, and the poverty rate is 86%.
Four out of five people over the age of 15 can read and write. Zambia received $640.6 million in development aid in 2002. Our telephone facilities are aging, but are among the best in Sub Saharan Africa. Internet service is widely available, although few people have computers.
Country Description Card 2:
My name is Farishta, and I am from Afghanistan. My country is slightly smaller than Texas, and the terrain is mostly rugged mountains. The life expectancy is 43 years. The HIV/AIDS prevalence is .01%, but we have a high risk of infectious diseases like malaria and typhoid fever. Just over a third of our population is literate.
Our unemployment rate is 40%, and over half of the Afghani people live in poverty. At the Berlin Donors Conference for Afghan Reconstruction, 60 countries pledged $8.9 billion in development aid from 2004-2009. An estimated 4 million refugees fled in October 2001, but today, 2.3 million have returned. On average, four out of 100 Afghani citizens have cell phones.
Note: These are generalizations. Within each group, there are very wealthy and very poor people. This exercise is simplified for the purpose of starting a discussion. The percentage of bread represents an estimate of the distribution of world wealth in order to show the discrepancy between high-, middle- and low-income countries. It does not represent exactly how much food is available in these countries. Finally, estimations of HIV/AIDS prevalence vary. This exercise uses CIA data, which is based on 2003 estimates.
Discussion Questions
Follow-up discussion is a very important part of this exercise. Make sure you allow enough time for people to talk about what they experienced, learned and observed.
- For the high-income group, how did it feel to have so much food compared to your neighboring countries?
- For the low-income countries, how did it feel to have so many people and so little food?
- For middle-income countries, what is preventing you from achieving a better standard of living?
- Has anyone had a personal experience witnessing poverty in the U.S. or in a visit to a low-income country? How differ across nations like the U.S., Ukraine, and Zambia?
- What are things you use every day that you might not have if you lived in poverty? (Examples: books, Internet, flush toilets, police protection, medicine, running water.) How would this affect your educational and economic opportunities?
- What can we do, as students, church members, and citizens, to bring about a more equitable wealth distribution in the world?
- What are ways in which the United States and other developed countries can invest in people throughout the world? How can advocacy influence these decisions?
Close the activity with a prayer.
All data and information came from the CIA World Factbook, UNAIDS, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Economic Survey of Japan 2006: Income Inequality, Poverty, and Social Spending, Cortin, Sean. “Japan, Land of Rising Poverty.” Asia Times. February 11, 2005.
