Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla

I have used this remarkable 14 minute report from Paul Mason from BBC Newsnight in both my AS and A2 teaching. It prompts plenty of discussion about housing as a need (and a want) and whether the continued existence and growth of informal settlements (slums) is sustainable and preferable to state spending on slum clearance. Geography students (most of whom will study the economic geography of slums) see many connections with economics. The report is superbly edited and ties in well with lessons on concepts of absolute and relative poverty and the extent to which forces of globalisation are driving millions more poorer people away from rural areas into the slums.

Colleagues with IWBs who want to bring up relevant background information on the economy of the Philippines might want to make use of the Timetric data page for this country. Here is the link.

GNI per capita for the Philippines

Philippines from Timetric