Poverty in Less Developed Countries Essay

This never-ending cycle of debt is the reality for most, if not all of Third World countries. In the 1970’s, Western banks loaned out huge sums of money to Third World nations with the intention of one day making profit. And they succeeded.

Global poverty comes in many shapes and sizes with numerous underlying causes. Many of those living in an impoverished state live without things that most people take for granted in first world countries on their day to day lives. Such as running water, access to clean water, healthcare, and reliable source of income. Without many of these basic needs, the country is left in a stagnant state and many times things spiral out of control for decades before a things begin to improve in the slightest. In many of these cases, the people living within an impoverished state cannot be held solely accountable. Many of the causes that lead to everyday people living in poverty are out of their control. Some of which can be large-scale government

Poverty is an idiom that is generally used to describe a condition or state in which a person or society lacks the monetary resources and necessities to enjoy a minimum basic quality of life and safety that are considered acceptable in society (Merriam-Webster). It is commonly divided into two segments absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation. It general terms it means not having enough for a basic level of well-being, (i.e. nutritious food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, and other necessities). Relative poverty is a condition in which people have enough to survive compared to most other people in their culture, but they appear deprived. People living in either absolute poverty or relative poverty can feel powerless. They may feel unable to change their situation. That in turn can affect their sense of dignity and self-esteem (Kowalski, p. 12, 2003).

There are two ways of measuring poverty, Low income is one way of is the basic needs poverty measure which looks at the minimum resources that are needed to survive and keep

Many ask what causes a family or an individual to be impoverished in a world that we consider to be developing? Well honestly, many things can lead to poverty. While some of these reasons can be removed using different measure, eliminating the most difficult underlying causes still remains a challenge today for the already developed, or those currently developing nations. Some causes of poverty include lack of education, having a culture of poverty, high divorce rate, changing

One of the most successful efforts to reduce and more effectively measure poverty has been Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) in New York City. This paper will explain how CEO was and still is so successful in combatting poverty and will argue that its tactics should be implemented in cities across the nation. Poverty is one of the most important issues that the modern world has attempted to confront. For the most part it has been a huge success. Extreme global poverty has been cut in half in the past 20 years. This statistic is staggering, and not enough people realize how successful industrialization and the globalized world have been at eradicating extreme poverty. While this should be celebrated, there is a different problem that the United States faces while looking inward. The poverty rates within inner cities have not been following the global trends and decreasing, rather they have been on the rise. CEO has been able to turn New York City from one of the nations highest poverty rates in large cities to one of the lowest. For this reason their tactics should be looked at closely as a model for cities across the nation and across the world.

Unlike America where we are considered a developed country, many parts of the world are still considered as developing countries. These countries are called developing countries because they lack political stability and proper economic development. Countries in the South East Asia and parts of Africa are all categorized as developing countries. All these countries share one major element in common—poverty. Without essential resources, many people living in these countries are living in poverty. Poverty affects the lives of the citizens in these countries, especially young women. In these developing countries, poverty prevents proper education and effective health services for young women.

The next two types of poverty are absolute and relative poverty. “Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is the same in all countries and which does not change over time” (Palmer 1). This type of poverty refers to those living under the recommended amount needed to survive. The most common example would be people in third world countries, where people are living in extremely rough conditions with only enough

There is also relative poverty which is about how people function in modern society in comparison to others for example: To go without shoes, clothing and a warm healthy home or healthy food available three times a day. It is also when people are unable to participate fully within the society that they live. Relative poverty is not having basic items that meet the socially accepted level in the society that they are a part of due to lack of resources. Poverty has a massive impact on health, education, care and support.

Most of the developing countries are mired deeply in economical obstacles, which prevent them from development significantly. In order to overcome those embarrassments world’s society struggles to find the efficient solution for poor countries’ economies. Historically, developed countries undertook policy of giving aid to their colonies, afterwards by the end of The Second World War the United States and United Nations embarked the global sponsorship to the developing countries and countries of the Third World due to humanitarian considerations. Since then many other countries have joined in the effort to provide financial aid to lesser developed or poverty ridden countries. But none of those countries that received an aid had experienced a prosperity phase and rapid economic growth.

The causes of poverty are very complex and there isn’t just one single solution to fix it. However, the problems could generally be reduced by equal distribution of the basic resources such as water, food and land. These basic human needs can be met by doing simple suggesting such as having the country invests in seeds, irrigation and tools for people to grow and harvest foods. Fixing the education systems and meeting the needs of local communities that can’t afford to go to school – providing the knowledge. Providing advice and marketing encouragement to those countries that want to improve and be involved. With such basic skills and knowledge a country would be about to provide the basic needs for its own people. The world is not short on food. Many of the developed countries have enough of it, but people in the third world countries are suffering because they are unable to gain the access to the food, water and land or unfortunately can’t afford to purchase it or make it.

The reasons why many countries cannot provide the basic needs to the populations are complex; namely, one of the many causes is the result of political, economic, structural and social decisions taken without considering the impact that these can cause. Also, these bad decisions are reinforced by the absence of a good government and the measures taken by the rulers according to the exploitation of local resources. Based on statistics by the World Bank researches there is a 12.7% of the world population living at $1.90 a day on 2011. This is a global data of poverty; however, the bigger numbers are in areas such as Africa with a 42.7% and some conflict affected countries with a 39.9%. Countries with a lot of poverty should not be isolated from global decisions. Therefore, countries with more economic resources should distribute these resources to the developing nations in order to provide poor countries more equal access to wealth and basic services.

The majority of the world’s nations and people are in a state of poverty. Most in-debt nations are a result of guidelines set by global establishments that use the nation’s desperation to their advantage. Also, many causes of hunger result in poverty. Additionally, the world as a whole has spent unfathomable amounts of money for wants, when achieving basic necessities for developing countries is far less. Poverty would not have to exist if the developed world was not greedy to satisfy and only concerned with their own wants.

Poverty is believed to be a global phenomenon and it is caused by lack of resources, war and political conflicts, natural disasters and inheritance of poverty in a country. Social discrimination is one of the many causes of poverty in developing countries. It does not only cause but also act as a hurdle in alleviating poverty. According to Pernia and Quibria (1999), poverty has many dimensions other than income or consumption. Among the other dimensions are health, nutrition, education and gender equality. UNIFEM (2000) also proclaimed that an alternative approach is used to define poverty such as lack of assets, dignity, autonomy and time apart from being elucidated as shortcomings in consumption or income. Therefore, the three effects of social discrimination that contributes to poverty in developing countries that this essay would discuss on are gender inequalities in education, gender variabilities in work force and racial background disparities. Racial background hereby means ethnicity which is categorized based on a group of people with similar traits for instance common heritage, language, cultural similarities within the group, sometimes the geographical connection to a specific place, common food and even faith (Christian, E 2017).

Low income countries are those with a gross national income per capita of $1,025 or less in 2015, as defined by The World Bank. In these countries, mainly Haiti, Afghanistan, Nepal, North Korea, and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, low income has a very severe negative impact on children and teenagers. Some of the struggles and affects from living in a low income country include poor healthcare, little or no education, and deadly diseases spreading like wildfire. These challenges are expensive to overcome especially in low income countries where money is scarce due to unstable governments, weak economies, wars, and geographical disadvantages.