Lewis Aptekar: Problems Commonly Impeding Development in Developing Nations

A clinical psychologist and career academic, Lewis Aptekar has taken part in numerous research efforts, lectures and programs centered on creating an improved understanding, and better addressing, the issues facing disadvantaged populations within developing nations. Much of Aptekar’s focus in these efforts has been on the problems and issues confronted by street children; those often among the most vulnerable within any given society or community.

As someone who has devoted much of his time and research toward the study of struggling populations within developing nations, Lewis Aptekar has, at times, sought to immerse himself directly within those cultures and peoples so as to obtain a firsthand account of the situations they are experiencing; an effort essential to developing and implementing policies and procedures that not only better address the issues they face on a daily basis, but to help create a system more inclined to preventing such problems from occurring in the first place.

Developing nations tend to face particular difficulties and constraints when it comes “catching up” with the developed world; impediments that make the climb toward a more modern and industrialized economy and infrastructure a considerable challenge. Those nations that struggle to develop and/or improve their access to global markets, and/or to establish the diversification and division of labor many consider so central to a developed economy, often face significant issues of:

Severe Economic Poverty

Many developing nations have populations with high levels of extreme or severe poverty, where such essentials as food, adequate shelter and healthcare are ostensibly out of reach to a large majority of the population.

Unsafe Supplies of Water

Many of those in the developing world have very limited access to safe, clean sources of water. Some populations have no clean water access at all.

Poor Educational Infrastructure

Without access to sound and/or consistent educational opportunity, many populations within developing nations are unable to create or nurture the educated workforce needed to build stronger communities; those better equipped to cope with and overcome the many significant challenges they’re facing.

War/Conflict

The effects of war and ever-present conflict are commonly seen and experienced throughout impoverished nations, leading to untold suffering and often making the prospect of building a more developed economy/infrastructure that much more complex and daunting an undertaking.

The above factors, along with others, according to the World Bank, often combine to create “poverty traps,” those which must be broken down in order for developing countries to make really progress toward sustainable development.

Lewis Aptekar is responsible for co-writing Street Children and Homeless Youth: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (2014).