Across the globe, approximately 1.7 people live in destitution today (Vetterlein 514). Poverty can be relative or absolute depending on the extent of the level of lacking. Many people living in absolute poverty cannot access basic facilities such as food, healthcare, shelter, clothing, and education. Apart from absolute poverty, other people live in relative poverty, whereby they cannot afford socially acceptable secondary items or income like the others in the same region. For a long time, communities and societies accepted poverty as a way of life, believing that nature could never be sufficient enough to offer the whole population a better living. Global poverty has affected very many people in the world, and means of reducing poverty levels need to be considered.
The following paper discusses the characteristics of world poverty, causes of world poverty, current poverty statistics and facts, role of the World Bank and WHO in poverty issues, and the ways of reducing poverty levels.
Characteristics of World Poverty
World poverty can be categorized into several categories, depending on the manner in which it affects people.
Health
Lack of robust health and health facilities are clear indications of poverty among the people. People who usually earn low incomes struggle to maintain their health. Hence, they are more prone to diseases, and are more likely to die young because of their ill health (Chivers 52). Therefore, health is a vital basis of determining the extent of poverty amongst the people.
Hunger
World hunger is one of the major signs of global poverty. Hunger encompasses inter-related issues connected to world economics (Chivers 51). For example, in many areas across the world, hunger is brought about by issues such as land ownership rights, agriculture focused on exporting, unreliable agriculture, drought, or poor agricultural output.
Education
The other characteristic of world poverty is the issue of lack of education. Lack of education in some regions shows the extent to which poverty has affected young children. Parents who live in destitution are usually unable to offer a decent education to their children, meaning that the vicious cycle of poverty still exists (Chivers 56).
Housing
Provision of housing is a basic right, but, unfortunately, many people across the globe are living without decent shelter. This is another crucial characteristic of poverty that shows to what extent poverty thrives amongst the people. In the developing world, people living in rural areas are seen to live in destitution, and slum dwellers in urban areas can be seen to live in even worse conditions (Chivers 56).
Causes of World Poverty
The main causes of poverty are as follows:
Agricultural Issues: Agriculture can be unpredictable, especially with the current seasons of extreme weather and climatic conditions. Most people in the rural areas of developing countries usually rely on agriculture for subsistence farming (Caranti 40). When occurrences such as Tsunami, floods and droughts affect agriculture, these people usually lack anything to eat, leading to extreme hunger and poverty.
War and Conflicts: From recent conflicts and wars such as the Iraqi War, one can understand the extent to which the factors can cause poverty and destitution. An example of Warfare cause is the Desert Storm in Iraq that led to a fall of the country’s GDP from $3500 to $761 in three years beginning 1990 (Caranti 45). This is usually caused by damaged infrastructure and social amenities, leading to destitution.
Natural disasters: Natural disasters such as earthquakes also cause devastating effects on society. This is caused by the destruction that natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and landslides have on the infrastructure, food, buildings and animals. Many nations are not usually in a position to put up measures to counteract natural disasters eventually (Caranti 51). This leads to absence of disaster management strategies, thus causing detrimental effects on the persons affected by such occurrences. People end up losing livestock, crops, jobs and health care facilities, leading to increased poverty.
Underlying Factors contributing to poverty
There are a number of underlying issues that have an effect on the current status of poverty across the globe. These factors are as follows:
Colonial History: In most nations with history of colonialism, the regions lack uniform development especially in basic infrastructure. The colonizers usually developed only the areas they felt they would utilize to gain economically, but they did not extend the development projects to other areas in the colonies (McAfee 380). Therefore, countries that were colonized lack uniform basic amenities, for instance, in African countries.
Corruption: This is another underlying factor that continues to haunt various countries, whether developed or developing. Corruption leads to poverty, and the persons affected are those who elected the corrupt leaders. Most corrupt leaders (whether political or religious) are not accountable to the people that they serve, and they carry out practices that directly inhibit development (McAfee 380). They also squander money and acquire property through corrupt means, thus hindering the development of vital societal needs.
Environmental Degradation: The increased environmental awareness across the globe shows just how serious the impacts of environmental degradation. Amongst the developing world, poor people usually rely on natural resources to enable them meet their needs (McAfee 380). They end up cutting down trees for charcoal and fire wood, thus increasing environmental degradation in those regions. The depletion of these natural resources causes a negative effect on water, a basic necessity in people’s lives. Also, the carbon cycle ends up causing global warming, thus affecting agriculture and other human activities vital for human survival. These activities eventually lead to poverty in nations across the globe.
Social inequality: This is another underlying cause of poverty in various regions globally. Social inequality comes in many forms such as gender inequality, ethnic inequality, and social classes. The social and cultural ideas associated with such people may lead to inequality in work places. An example of social inequality is the apartheid laws that declared different economic opportunities for blacks and whites in South Africa (McAfee 380).
Poverty Facts and stats –Source (Vetterlein 514)
Poverty kills more than 50,000 people, the number rising to 18 million people each year
The statistics above show that, among the people dying globally each year, one third of them die of hunger- related issues.
1.37 billion Persons live on less than $1.25 each day while 2.56 billion persons survive on less than two dollars each day. Those who survive on less than $10 a day conform of 80% of the whole world’s population.
Extreme poverty is particularly affecting weak nations governed using poor policies. These nations also have occurrences of war and terrorism due to their fragile status.
Hunger- related issues caused the death of 5.8 million children, losing approximately 16,000 young children’s lives daily.
“In 2008, 1.02 billion people did not get enough food to eat, and this figure comprised of one sixth of the whole global population” (Vetterlein 514).
In 2010, I billion people did not have enough food to eat, the largest percentage being in Asia Pacific and Sub- Saharan Africa.
Studies show that the total GDP in the poorest 48 countries in the world is less than the total riches of the three richest people in the world.
Annually, over 10million children living in the developing world die before the age of five, and over 5 million of the deaths are related to malnutrition.
Hunger and preventable disease cause the deaths of over 30000 children daily. This means that a child dies every three seconds due to hunger and preventable diseases
World Bank and Poverty
World Banks mission has always been to see a world free of poverty. Therefore, it engages in many activities relating to research on global poverty and finding programs aimed at ensuring that there is poverty reduction among the people globally. This corporate mission guides the Bank in ensuring that it performs financial analysis in all client countries across the world, with an aim of eradicating poverty (Vetterlein 524). The World Bank has been working, with the United Nations, to ensure developing countries can achieve the millennium development goals by 2015. The millennium development goal aims at reducing the global poverty by half, and World Bank does this by ensuring that people get access to education and opportunities in life (Vetterlein 516). Furthermore, the Bank recognizes the escalating issue of the widening gap between the poor and the rich amongst many nations. Hence, the Bank has come up with a poverty-reduction strategy by considering the following issues:
Growth and Employment: The Bank has ensured that there are many and better job opportunities for young people in various communities and societies. The Bank recognizes that there is a tight connection between job creation and global economic growth, and it hopes to strengthen the connection between the two (Vetterlein 525).
Shocks: The Bank also has come up with strategies to explore the issues that affect human welfare. This is because there are many issues that affect people across the globe especially in instances where natural disasters occur. The World Bank usually advices people and enterprises on the best mechanism and the best policies to implement (Vetterlein 526).
Poverty measurement and analysis: This is yet another mechanism that the Word Bank uses to curb poverty rates in the world. The World Bank measures the causes of poverty in various regions so as to establish whether caused by low productivity, poor infrastructure, or lack of job opportunities (Vetterlein 530).
World Health Organization and Poverty
World Health Organization (WHO) is consistently committed to creating a corporate and global responsibility of reducing poverty among the poor nations. It does this within the United Nations and together with the international community because it understands that the effect of poverty is detrimental to the health of every human being on the earth. According to Skotheim et al. (1793),
“people living in absolute poverty are five times more likely to die before reaching the age of five, and two-and-half times more likely to die between the ages of 15 and 59, than those in higher-income groups. Differences in maternal mortality are even more dramatic: the lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where almost 50% of the population live in absolute poverty, is one in 12 compared to one in 4000, in Europe.”
WHO recognizes that ill health can be termed as both an impact of poverty and a cause of poverty (Skotheim et al. 1794). When a family member becomes ill, the finances are deprived, leading to low living-quality levels for everyone in the family. In this case, poverty is created, and if the ill- health increases or affects more family members, the poverty is perpetuated. On the other hand, poor people are more likely to get sick because of the non- conducive environment that they live in, and the less nutrition they access. WHO has a favorable position to influence global poverty reduction because it is knowledge-based, it works through partnerships with the international community, and also it has a relationship with Member States.
Poverty Reduction Approaches
Improving the government’s capacity to provide
Governments should be encouraged, empowered, and improved to ensure the provision of clean water, affordable food, basic health care, controlled population and decent shelter. Currently, governments form different nations across the globe have vowed to allocate an appropriate part of their finances on human services and social services (Hughes and Nigel 34). The governments need to factor the appropriate mechanisms and policies to ensure that taxes are effectively implemented, and non governmental organizations may assist in ensuring that money is indeed used for the services it has been allocated.
Enhancing Education and Technology
Education is a key aspect of ensuring that a government is fighting against poverty. All countries should embrace education and innovative technology to ensure people have a better future and better job opportunities in the current competitive world. In essence, the girl child must be encouraged to embrace education because women are said to possess a strong bearing for their families (Hughes and Nigel 36).
Widespread employment
A more widespread employment can be economically beneficial to the people in a country. In most poor countries, the low income people are usually faced with too few jobs, thus exposing them to high poverty levels. This issue can be solved by ensuring the government implements policies that create distribution of employment, which complement the local environment (Hughes and Nigel 40).
Conclusion
It is clear that a majority of the global population especially in Asia and Sub Saharan Africa live in absolute poverty. The main characteristics of world poverty are ill health, hunger, lack of education, and lack of proper housing. The main causes of poverty are agricultural cycle issues, natural disasters and Warfare, although there are other underlying issues such as colonial history, corruption, environmental degradation, and social inequality among the people across the globe. The statistics of the people who live in poverty, those who die from hunger- related issues, others who die due to ill health caused by poverty is on the rise. However, the World Bank and the World Health Organizations have devised ways to analyze the situation and come up with the most appropriate strategies of coping with poverty. These ways are such as the millennium development goals initiated by the World Bank together with the United Nations. Also, WHO influences poverty reduction in conjunction with the international community. Therefore, world poverty can be reduced through improved government involvement in the needs of the people, enhanced education and technology and also creation of widespread employment opportunities.
Work Cited
Caranti, Luigi. "The Causes Of World Poverty: Reflections On Thomas Pogge's Analysis." Theoria: A Journal Of Social & Political Theory 57.125 (2010): 36-53. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 17 July 2012.
Chivers, Sally. "Resisting Poverty." Essays On Canadian Writing 77 (2002): 50-56. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 17 July 2012.
Hughes, Steve, and Nigel Haworth. "Decent Work And Poverty Reduction Strategies." Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations 66.1 (2011): 34-53. Business Source Complete. Web. 17 July 2012.
McAfee, K. "Why The Third World Goes Hungry." Commonweal 117.12 (1990): 380. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 17 July 2012.
Skotheim, Bengt, Bjørn-Inge Larsen, and Harald Siem. "The World Health Organization And Global Health." Tidsskrift For Den Norske Lægeforening: Tidsskrift For Praktisk Medicin, Ny Række 131.18 (2011): 1793-1795. MEDLINE. Web. 17 July 2012.
Vetterlein, Antje. "Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction, And The Role Of Social Policies: The Evolution Of The World Bank's Social Development Approach." Global Governance 13.4 (2010): 513-533. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 July 2012.
