Since the 1990s, world leaders have made tremendous progress in their efforts to unite and lead the fight against world poverty. However, poverty remains a prominent issue worldwide. Only five countries have achieved the goal of allocating one percent or more of their federal budgets toward foreign aid. The United States is not among these countries, despite surpassing the next eight countries combined on military spending.

The Big Picture: Poverty Around the World

Statistics are useful indicators of how poverty affects certain regions, but to further understand global poverty, it is also important to explore the living conditions for individuals under the poverty line. Lack of clean water, sanitation and nutrition leads to harsh living conditions for poverty victims, rendering them vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. In some parts of the world, children march on their feet for hours a day to locate and bring back drinking water.

Funds allocated to underprivileged areas can massively improve conditions for people living in poverty. For example, funding can be used to improve education, which leads to higher levels of self-sufficiency and reliance. Beyond funding, aid can also come in the form of poverty innovations — technology or other creative inventions that bring resources to those in need. Here are five poverty innovations designed to help the world’s poor.

5 Impactful Poverty Innovations

1. LifeStraw: Access to clean water is vital to alleviating poverty and improving living conditions. Not only is clean water important for drinking, but it can also be used for bathing, washing clothes and performing general sanitation. One in nine people worldwide — 785 million people — lack access to safe water. LifeStraw is a portable water filter that turns contaminated water into safe drinking water. It does not require any batteries, and it uses a hollow fiber membrane. 3.4 million children have received a year’s supply of drinking water through a program organized by the company.
2. KickStart Irrigation Pumps: A majority (80%) of Africa’s poor are small-scale farmers. These farmers frequently go hungry during periods of drought. KickStart offers tools such as the MoneyMaker Max, an irrigation pump that sprays 16 gallons of water a minute and pulls from water up to 23 feet deep. KickStart has sold nearly 350,000 products so far.
3. Plumpy’nut: This is a therapeutic food supplement that helps children with severe malnutrition. More specifically, it’s a calorically-dense and nutritious paste wrapped in a foil packet. The paste is made of peanuts, as the name suggests. It’s easily replicable and responsible for “significantly lowering mortality rates during famines in Africa.” Products like Plumpy’nut have the potential to save children’s lives in particularly poor parts of the world.
4. Life Sack: Another tool aimed at solving the world’s water crisis, Life Sack is a shipping container that can be used to hold grains. Once the food is stored, Life Sack functions as a water purification kit that is powered by solar energy.
5. The Hippo Roller: This invention addresses the problem of carrying water. The Hippo Water Roller eliminates the need to carry water, instead allowing individuals to push a barrel filled with water. By the end of 2015, 46,000 Hippo rollers were provided to communities across at least 20 countries.

The fight to end global poverty requires not only financial support from wealthy nations but also innovations that improve the living conditions of the world’s poor. While the innovations listed above improve water collection, irrigation and nutrition for poor individuals, increasingly creative inventions will be necessary to eradicate poverty across the globe.

– Fahad Saad
Photo: Pixabay