Poverty alleviation: cash or non-cash assistance?
Alleviating poverty has never been an easy task for both developed and developing countries. Alongside the debate of who are considered poor, the public has never come to a conclusion whether cash or non-cash assistance should be prioritized for poverty alleviation. This essay explores the benefits and challenges of both types of approaches. Additionally, the country context is also discussed to analyze how the level of countries’ economic development affects the effectiveness of any poverty alleviation programs.
Who are the poor?
According to the World Bank, the poor are those whose income is under the international poverty line, USD1.90/day. Aside from that statistical explanation, though, this essay focuses on the more interesting descriptive explanation of poverty. It explains that poverty should also be defined by the poor people’s lack of assets and difficulties of accesses including the access to high-paid employment, goods, and services which their livelihood is based upon (Ghosh, 2011). Poverty alleviation programs are mainly divided into cash and non-cash approaches which commonly aim to enhance poor societies’ capacity to increase their well-being, social security and stability. Even though both seem to have common objectives, their approaches for alleviating poverty are quite different.
Cash assistance: benefits and challenges
Cash assistance proponents believe that this type of program aims to alleviate
Many individuals all over the world are affected by poverty. In order to completely understand the cause, the effect, and the solution to ending poverty, we must first understand the meaning of poverty. Poverty is the condition where an individual’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met (business dictionary). According to the World Bank Organization, poverty is also the lack of healthcare, education, information, and jobs. There are two general types of poverty: Absolute and Relative. Absolute poverty occurs when individuals cannot obtain adequate resources to support a minimum level of physical health. Relative poverty occurs when individuals do not
Poverty is a major global issue in today’s society. It also has a broad definition as it is very complex and cannot be specifically defined. Poverty is circumstance-dependent. According to Sharif Mohammed, author of Poverty Reduction - An Effective Means of Population Control, “Poverty is a multidimensional condition of human survival, not just a measure of deficiency in income. It is generally defined in relation to a minimum standard of decent living. The levels of living below this are referred to as survival standards. Failure to attain and enjoy the standard is called absolute poverty.” Millions around the world are affected by poverty and it’s an issue that has plagued the globe for centuries. Different
Poverty is an issue that has affected society since civilization was first created. Even with a globalized economy and economic opportunity prevalent nearly everywhere, there is still a vast majority of people who live in financial strain. According to recent information obtained by the World Bank, “10.7% of the world’s population live on less than US $1.90 a day”(World Bank 2013). In the United States considered the wealthiest nation on Earth, the poverty rate is 12.7% which is 40.6 million people(US Census Bureau 2016). Though some people are in poverty because of their own choices, poverty is a result of structural institutional practices in place.
It's hard to believe in a country as wealthy as the United States, that we have the problem of poverty. Poverty has not become a recent problem of our
“What is poverty? Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (The World Bank, 2009).
There is this idea that the poor are all the same and that they all became poor the same way. This is not true, the amount of information the average person has related to poverty is small, almost a “snapshot” of what is truly happening to the impoverished. Measuring poverty is very difficult because of this, every person’s experience is different which makes it hard to find a way to measure them all the same way. Although some people are born into poverty, many are only impoverished for a small amount of time. Without understanding a person’s past with poverty and their “poverty spells” it is hard to tell how poor they are and what should be done about it. To put a person on a certain spot on the poverty spectrum, not only will their financial value need to be evaluated but also their well-being. If poverty is to be defined correctly, poverty spells must be acknowledged. So that the view America has is not a “snapshot but a movie”
Poverty is a global phenomenon affecting every country. According the United Nations, poverty is the inability to seek basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter based on the incapability of not having enough money. However, it is not all about the inability to seek basic needs but beyond that. “It is about the denial of opportunities and choices that are widely regarded as essential to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others” (United Nations- Global Teaching and Learning Project, 2014, 1). Poverty makes other major problems worse including slave labour, human trafficking and the spread of diseases. However, the root cause of these global
Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better
When it comes to poverty, there is the magnitude of definitions explaining the term. The definition of poverty has important implications from point of view of policy making, politics and academic debates. Each view has its own value judgments and explanations. Over the times, new definitions have surfaced the debates and yet, there is not a single universally acceptable definition of poverty. Definitions usually set the perimeters of the terminology and often subject to limitations and criticism. According to the definition of the World Bank, the term lack refers to the scarcity of economic resources while the term inability refers to the failure of competence to take part in a community (Bellu & Liberati, 2005). It is now widely
Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.
One can easily identify the fact that poverty is generally considered as one among the most serious problems in human life. But the mainstream society provides less importance to this serious problem because human life did undergo transformation from empathy to disinterestedness. The western nations are comparatively safe from poverty and related issues, but the third-world nations are under the threat of the same. The problems related to global poverty is unimaginable because it forces human beings to do anything, just for survival. Still, world nations, especially the developed nations, can play the most important role in alleviating poverty from the world. Thesis statement: Global poverty, the most serious problem faced by humanity primarily
Poverty is the lack of the basic needs of life, including food, shelter, clothing and safe drinking water. For a person to live normally, it is important to meet a certain level of physical, social, and emotional needs. People who live in poverty have difficult time to achieve those as they are not welcomed in many places. Because of their low incomes, they have troubles in maintaining their health, hunger, education. Poverty has become a large issue around the world. It is something that many of us know about but we’re not realizing just how big of a problem it is. This paper will include basic information about poverty, its effects, facts and statistics which can make people aware and want to help reduce poverty.
This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main
Thousands of individuals are living in poverty. Why is it that this worldwide dilemma is still rising in rapid numbers till this day? Is it because of a lack of authoritative power, or a lack of one’s self control to do good? Despite the unknown cause, it has managed to drastically affect the lives of many. Poverty is like a curse, one that is wrongfully placed, difficult to get out of, and resistant to many forms of help.
Poverty is a social problem that affects everyone on an economic, political and social level. The problem of human suffering is one that we must combat strategically on many levels. According to the United Nations, “in 2015 more than one billion people around the world live in a state of poverty, lacking the basic goods food, clothing, and shelter that humans need to survive” (“Poverty”). There are a great number of areas that keep individuals poor, such as lack of resources, inadequate income, lack of education, language barriers and the high cost of child care. Being able to work and provide basic necessities is our basic human right and we should not be deprived of these basic human rights that individuals need in order to live satisfying lives. The government has the responsibility of helping individuals in need with the economic assistance to feed, clothe, house, educate, provide health care and decent wages for every individual. They should ensure that individuals have access to resources that will help them build a better future. There are several ways that we can work together to strategically find solutions to end inequality among the poor individuals in our society.