How Poverty Can be Reduced: Essay Sample

Poverty is one of the biggest global concerns experienced by a very large population. Third-world countries are the most affected by poverty, with the gap between the poor and the rich being very large. Statistics have shown that a very large population has to survive on less than a dollar daily which is unfathomable because most families comprise many members.

Poverty is manifested by inaccessibility to basic needs like good health care facilities, education, food, clothing, and clean drinking water. It is also exhibited by an upsurge of unemployment, leading to idleness and crime. Third-world countries experience these because of poor governance by their leaders and poor utilization and mismanagement of resources.

Leaders grab public resources such as land for their gain. The institutions mandated to carry out transactions regarding these resources have employees who ask for bribes from the public and involve themselves in many corrupt deals.

Corruption affects poor people in many channels. It biases the government spending away from socially valuable goods such as education. It diverts public resources from infrastructure investments that could benefit poor people, such as health clinics. It tends to increase public spending on capital-intensive investments that offer more opportunities for kickbacks, such as defense contracts. Corruption also undermines public service delivery. (World Bank 2001:201)

The mortality rate of children and the general population due to preventable diseases such as malaria and water-borne diseases like cholera and dysentery is also very high in these regions. The HIV/Aids prevalence is also high because many women turn to promiscuity to survive. Deaths reported in connection with HIV/Aids are also numerous due to ignorance about the disease and lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs. Developing countries also have large debts owed to the first world countries.

As a result, all they earn is repaying the interests attracted by these loans. The situation is very serious because these countries are never able to repay the whole amount of the loan. The loans continue gaining interest as the time of repayment continues to increase. These debts largely contribute to third-world countries’ poverty because the latter spend a lot on foreign debt instead of utilizing their resources to improve their infrastructure, health, and social amenities. Poor infrastructure is a common feature in developing countries and a major setback to economic growth and development.

Poor transport systems such as roads and good airports lead to ever-growing poverty levels because producers in rural areas cannot transport their goods to manufacturers without incurring high costs, discouraging them from engaging in any productive activity.

However, certain measures can be taken to reduce or completely stop poverty. Industrialized countries can be of great importance in the fight against poverty. They can participate in the alleviation of poverty by ensuring that there is fair trade between them and developing countries. The first-world countries should relieve third-world countries of the debts owed to them because the amount is so large that the probability of it being cleared is zero.

Debt relief assists developing countries in investing in the future. It can include buybacks, debt exchanges, debt service reduction, forgiveness, rescheduling, and refinancing. Often debt relief is conditional on investment in health and education services to improve the lives of the poor. As aid levels have been falling, debt relief is a way to support future development. (Global Education: 2008).

Developing countries have a problem with debt because they pay interest on loans at the expense of investing in the times to come, e.g., in health and education. Another intervention measure is the improvement of trade relations between less developed countries and first world countries.

This is because trade is usually a source of employment for citizens and revenue for the country’s governments. Problems with trade set in because of barriers put in place on taxes imposed on exports and imports and regulations that put obstacles on some products produced by third world countries.

For poverty levels to go down, the private sector has to be improved. This is because it creates employment for many people and contributes to the increment of the Gross domestic product and the Gross national income, which are also indicators of poverty. In line with this, developing countries governments should help their citizens be productive by giving them loans through microfinance institutions that enable them to start their businesses, after which they repay their loans at reasonable rates. Such a move would also reduce the instances of prostitution and illegal businesses, whose consequences are detrimental to citizens’ health.

For the overall success of these intervention measures, there has to be proper governance where transparency and the rule of law are observed. The rule of law should be taken with utmost seriousness because failure to do so discourages those observing the law. Regardless of their affiliations, people who have been involved in crime should be brought to the book and justice done to them.

The governments of third and fourth-world countries should take up the burden of dealing with the poor by inventing policies that enable the latter to be in a position to enjoy the benefits that come with economic growth, like technology, education, and markets for their products, as well as property rights.

According to the Food Agricultural Organization, hunger should be addressed appropriately because when people are hungry, they are too weak to engage in any productive activity. Thus, there is a vicious cycle of poverty that the afflicted cannot get out of.

Further, it recommends good agricultural methods because agriculture greatly influences the environment and other resources. Water is used in agriculture as the land itself. In searching agricultural land, forests are felled as water catchment areas are encroached on, leading to degradation of the environment. Third-world countries should be cautious as they encourage agriculture to ensure that other resources are not worked on negatively.

International Humanitarian Organizations such as the United Nations should also step in. Their effort to alleviate poverty through setting millennium development goals is also very effective. The governments of developing countries and members of the United Nations came together in one summit and agreed upon some targets. Millennium goals were endorsed by poor and rich countries in 2000 and should be achieved by 2015.

It was agreed, by developing countries, that they would see to it that they pay greater attention to issues of education and health as well as other necessities like food for their citizens. They also agreed on improving the performance of their governments. They would make it a priority to eradicate poverty.

On the other hand, the rich countries pledged to improve the terms of trade and give aid to the developing countries, which would help them to fund projects. The rich countries were also to forgive developing countries of their large debt. This comes with the expectation that governments will provide necessities for their citizens. ( Booth, David:2003).

Good governance is also a prerequisite for the alleviation of poverty. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are mandated to oversee the governance in their member countries. Good governance includes managing public resources where such vices as bribery and corruption are absent. There needs to be accountability and transparency on the part of the government on how it handles transactions that have to do with the use of public amenities.

Policies should be in place that suppressessuppresspts by officials in charge of administration and institutions to ask for any favorsexecute their duties. These measures facilitate boosting the macroeconomic status of third-world countries. (IMF: 1997)

Developing countries should allocate money for intensive research in all fields, for example, in the healer agricultural, and industriasectorsor. This is important because it leads to invention and creativity. In the health sector, it can enable the countries to learn more about diseases and the drugs that would be most appropriate for them. An example demonstrating the need for research is the mushrooming of a resistant type of tuberculosis that attacks former patients who do not take drugs according to the instructions.

The new strain is very difficult to treat and costs a fortune to treat completely. Had research been intensified on this disease, the medical team would have ready solutions to combat this disease. The invention is only possible when research is underway, and it usually results in more effective and efficient products than those used presently. It aids technological advancement, for instance, in agriculture, where it would call for farmers to adopt new farming te that increases output more effectively and efficiently. This advanced technology would place developing countries in a better place to compete with their developed counterparts.

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References

Booth, David (Ed), “Fighting Poverty in Africa: Are PRSPs Making a Difference?” Overseas Development Institute, December 2003.

Global Education. Debt relief..15 October 2008. Common Wealth Australia.25 October 2008.

International Monetary Fund. Good Governance: The IMF’s Role. International Monetary Fund. 1997. 24 November 2008.

World Bank. Attacking Poverty. Oxford University Press. World Development Report 2000/2001