Key Idea: Global wellbeing at HL is about who converts a technology into an advantage. Equal access plus unequal ability to convert widens a gap, and the lever that is easiest to count is the one that changes least.
Paper 1 Section B
- Extended response on a global challenge
- Concepts named explicitly rather than implied
- Evidence from named cases, not general claims
Paper 3
- Recommend an intervention for the statement's situation
- Justify it using the statement and wider knowledge
- State what it does not reach, then conclude
Everywhere else
- 4.7: the three divides are the SL version of 5.1.1
- 4.2: automation is the SL version of 5.1.3
- 4.4: ageing populations drive the health technology case
Three levers, very different reach
| Lever | What it reaches | Why it is chosen anyway |
|---|---|---|
| Give access | The first divide only | Countable, and reportable in one budget cycle |
| Build ability to convert | The second divide | Slow, and hard to show in a photograph |
| Change what is rewarded | Everybody at once | Requires changing the system, not the people |
Recommend, justify, state what it does not reach, conclude. The limits paragraph is what separates the bands, and it is the one most candidates omit.
Populations and work
Four things to have ready
- Ageing needs care delivered with fewer people, and the group with highest need has lowest device ownership and confidence.
- Moving needs identity across borders, cheap transfers home, more than one language, and no assumption of a fixed address.
- Automation takes tasks, not jobs — and the entry-level tasks that go first were how people learned the work.
- Retraining needs three conditions — nearby work, time, and an income while training — and they fail together.
Important: Retrain, redistribute, reduce hours, redesign what gets automated. Each reaches a different group and fails differently, so the mark is in defending your choice rather than in picking the popular one.
Exam-style questions
A government is deciding how to support a region where one large employer has automated most of its routine work. Recommend one intervention and justify it.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Justify the claim that reducing inequality requires changing what a technology rewards rather than who has access to it.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Quick check
Why does neutral technology widen gaps? Converting a tool into an advantage takes time, skills and contacts — exactly what the group with less lacks.
The three levers Give access, build the ability to convert, change what is rewarded.
The digital health catch Highest need coincides with lowest device ownership, so the service is aimed at the least equipped group.
The four responses to automation Retrain, redistribute, reduce hours, redesign what gets automated.
Exam tips
- Write the limits card every time. It is the single biggest difference between a middle and a top Paper 3 answer.
- Name the population before the intervention. One that would suit any population suits none.
- Defend retraining or reject it — never reach for it by reflex.