Geography-Global poverty (how to reduce poverty)

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1. POVERTY IN BRIEF THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL POVERTY ‘African Tsunami’

2. Defining Poverty

3. Extreme poverty was originally defined by the UN in 1995 as "a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food , safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information .” In the mid-1990s, people in extreme poverty were earning less than US $1 a day – there were around 1.9 billion people living below this ‘international poverty line’ in 1990. The US $1 figure was raised to US $ 1.25 a day , measured in terms of 2005 international prices, and more recently to US $ 1.90 a day , measured in terms of 2015 international prices. The World Bank estimated that around 700 million people were living in extreme poverty at the end of 2015.

4. More commonplace in the world today is the existence of moderate poverty , where someone has an income between US $1.90 and $3.10 a day. More than 1.5 billion people worldwide fall into the moderate poverty category, a number that has increased over time as many of these people were previously living in extreme poverty. There is also relative poverty in the world. Relative poverty can be identified in society, as the term defines household income below a given proportion of a nation’s average. For example, the UK considers anyone whose income is less than 60% of the national average as being in relative poverty.

5. Characteristics & Measurement of Poverty

6. It means children and mothers walking miles each day simply to collect water and firewood. It means not being able to read or go to school. It means not being able to see a doctor. It means children and adults suffering infectious diseases that were eliminated from rich countries decades ago. Above all, it means living one day at a time, powerless and without the choices that most in the world take for granted. Poverty goes far beyond inadequate income for hundreds of millions of families living in LEDCs .

7. Distribution & Extent of Poverty

8. In 1990, East Asia accounted for half of the global poor, whereas just 15% lived in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, this is almost exactly reversed. According to the UN, 34 out of the world’s 48 LDCs are located within Africa . The remaining 14 are split between Asia (9), Oceania (4), and the Americas (1). Much of the reduction in extreme poverty has been the result of economic growth in Asia, particularly in China, Indonesia, India , Pakistan and Vietnam . These five countries helped 715 million people to escape extreme poverty between 1990 and 2010 . In contrast, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa rose by almost 125 million over the same period.

9. India is home to the largest number of people living in extreme poverty in the world, with 250 million of its 1.24 billion people living on less than $1.90 a day , around 20% of its population. Despite the huge figure, extreme poverty has fallen considerably since 1990. China’s rapid industrialisation of the past two decades has helped to lift more than 400 million people out of extreme poverty , although there are still thought to be nearly 100 million Chinese living below the $1.90 dollars a day benchmark, representing 7% of its population.

10. In sub-Saharan Africa, 47% of the population continue to live in extreme poverty . The very highest percentages of extremely poor people are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Madagascar, Liberia and Burundi, with figures in excess of 80%. In total, 400 million Africans are experiencing severe daily hardship resulting from trying to survive on less than $1.90 . Much of the extreme poverty within Africa occurs in rural areas, dominated by subsistence farming economies, where the long-term problems of inadequate food production, and subsequent malnutrition, are made worse by shorter-term disasters such as floods, drought, plagues of locusts and civil wars.

11. Causes of Poverty

12. The causes of poverty are often highly complex, the result of numerous interrelated factors that lead to people becoming, and then remaining, poor. Families affected by this so-called ‘ poverty trap ’ find it almost impossible to escape. Food insecurity leads to malnutrition , sickness, hunger-induced conflict, and virtually no incomes for farm households, which are stuck without the means to invest in agricultural improvements. Any new problem exacerbates the hardship. Through desperation to survive in the short-term, the poor are forced to use their local environment unsustainably. The outcome is that the cycle of poverty continues in the long-term.

13. Addressing Poverty on a Global Scale

14. The number of people living in extreme poverty has reduced from 1.9 billion in 1990 to around 700 million today (World Bank figures ). Tackling extreme poverty was the first Millennium Development Goal set by the UN in 2000 . The target of reducing the extreme poverty rate in half by the end of 2015 was actually met 5 years ahead of schedule .

15. The UN has now set a new target of ending extreme poverty everywhere by 2030 . This will be much harder to achieve, due to the possibility that those who have recently moved out of poverty may be forced back into poverty by sudden economic shocks, political instability, conflict, corruption, food insecurity and climate change .

16. Beyond Poverty: The Development Continuum

17. Globalisation: Where on the Elephant are you? The room is globalisation, the increasing international economic integration we have lived through over the last few decades . The elephant is what that development has arguably done to the distribution of income.