Archive for category: Poverty Reduction

Information and stories about poverty reduction.

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How Much Does it Cost to End Poverty?

How much does it cost to end poverty?

Today the world produces enough food for everyone on the planet. So why are more than a billion people still dying of hunger? Why is life itself tenuous for so many families while the eight richest people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of people in the world?

The answer is poverty. But poverty can be stopped, and this raises the question, “how much does it cost to end poverty?”

Poverty can be categorized as moderate, relative or extreme. Here we will try to define the cost needed to end extreme poverty. But first, what is extreme poverty? It refers to the state of the poorest people in the world. They are barely able to meet their minimal needs for survival, as they live on less than $1.90 per day, according to the World Bank.

But poverty is more than just very low incomes. It is hunger, high mortality rates, conflicts, a lack of education or health services and a lack of a future for hundreds of thousands of women, men and children.

Broadly, poverty affects most of the people in the world. In 2005, 71 percent of the world’s population lived on an income below $10 a day. To eradicate poverty is possible, but at what cost?

In his book End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, provides one answer to the question “how much does it cost to end poverty?”

He argues that poverty could be eliminated by the year 2025 thanks to “well-placed development aids”. Investment in local farms to boost capital and productivity, education for both children and adults, enhancing access to health services and leveraging renewable energy resources are the best ways to end poverty.

So, how much does it cost to end poverty?

Jeffrey Sachs, as one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty, stated that the cost to end poverty is $175 billion per year for 20 years. This yearly amount is less than 1 percent of the combined income of the richest countries in the world, and only four times the United States’ military budget for one year.

Ending poverty is possible and at a low cost. Now we just need ordinary citizens as well as multinational corporations to start meeting their responsibilities to help the poor and the left behind.

– Léa Gorius

Photo: Flickr

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Reducing Poverty in Southwest China

Poverty in Southwest ChinaSouthwest China is comprised of the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, the Chongqing municipality and the Tibet Autonomous Region. While the Chinese government has been making great efforts to reduce poverty in southwest China, in 2016, about 20 million people remain below the poverty line. Tibet, Guizhou and Yunnan rank among the top six poverty rates in China.

Poverty in Southwest China results from several major factors: the development of transportation is relatively slow, communication and technology often fall behind and large areas of mountain and plateau restrict the growth of the economy and education in this region.

Conventional views are aimed at “treating poverty by education.” Hence, the government in impoverished areas tried to get rid of poverty with the aid of intellectual support provided by education. In spite of the severe hardships of financial budgeting, it still did their best to develop education and even at the cost of heavy debts. However, the data suggests that education levels in impoverished areas have not effectively changed the status of poverty even after a large amount of investment.

Nevertheless, there has been progress in the fight against poverty in Southwest China. The Tibet Poverty Alleviation Office announced that last year, 150,000 rural residents rose out of poverty in Tibet. In its thirteenth five-year plan, China aims to help Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan to release about one million people from poverty each year. The ultimate goal is to eradicate poverty in Southwest China by 2020.

It is well recognized that improving transportation is a prerequisite for gaining wealth. As part of the thirteenth five-year plan, the city of Chongqing will see the investment of $60 billion toward constructing the transport hub in southwest China. Besides dozens of new projects in other southwest provinces, local governments have also been installing new solar street lamps and water heaters, upgrading roads, houses and cultural activity rooms. Such measures create conditions for the acceleration of economic developments in rural, remote areas in Southwest China.

A further measure is reinforcing vocational education in poor counties and paying more attention to the economic growth and education of ethnic minorities. In the Yunnan province, a project was launched by the World Bank and provincial government in 2012, which was oriented to improve the quality and relevance of technical and vocational education and training, in order to produce skills matching the demand of labor markets.

Nine vocational schools were implemented, where 6,000 teachers and school managers were trained. As a result, more than 24,000 students benefited from training in crucial economic sectors, 80 percent of whom were from poor, rural areas and about 30 percent of whom belonged to ethnic minorities.

In order to achieve the comprehensive alleviation of poverty in Southwest China by 2020, governments and international organizations are working hard with specific, feasible and staged plans toward this goal.

– Xin Gao

                                                   

Solar Power a Key Piece in the Fight Against Poverty

Solar Power in the Fight Against PovertyHunger, lack of education, conflict, disease, war; these human calamities have a common factor: poverty. One word to define a worldwide phenomenon which unfortunately hits 2.8 billion people on earth, or near half of the total entire population.

So, what are the solutions to fight this burden? Investment, innovation, technology and education are all viable options. But more and more multinational companies, associations and even simple citizens are now engaged in the fight against poverty, using a very special tool: solar power. As a source of renewable energy that is good for the environment, solar power can also help people get out of poverty by giving them access to electricity.

Today, most inhabitants of developing countries rely more on kerosene than on electricity for their basic needs such as household lighting. This is not only because the cost of electricity is extremely high, as the poorest people in the world pay 40 times more for the same energy services, but also because, most of the time, the nearest outlets are located miles away from where poverty is striking.

Because of this poor resource distribution, 15 percent of the global population still lives without access to electricity, and it is this inequality that solar power is attempting to balance by giving people easier access to electricity, information and education. For example, in Bangalore in India, families using solar panels can save $100 a year, money they tend to invest in their children’s education.

According to Simon Bransfield-Garth, Azuri’s CEO, a leading company in solar power in emerging markets in Africa, “a child spends an extra [two] hours per day doing homework if he has electricity.” But giving people access to electricity, and thus to information and education, is only one advantage this form of energy has to offer developing countries.

First, using solar power requires only one natural resource: the sun. This free, nonpolluting and unlimited
generator makes solar power one of the most environmentally friendly energies in the world. Furthermore, green energy is reliable and cheaper in the long run than kerosene or generators. It is also safer and easier to preserve in case of natural disasters, as solar panels are detachable and can be put indoors.

Helping in both the fight against poverty and climate change, solar power seems to be the perfect solution for those who still don’t have access to electricity. But there is much more at stake here: every year, more than four million people are killed by indoor air pollution, more than AIDS and malaria combined. Developing clean energy is, now, a matter of life or death.

As concluded Justin Guay, associate director of Sierra Club’s International Climate Program, “Just providing a few hours of solar lighting alone improves the human condition.”

– Léa Gorius

Photo: Flickr

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How Argentina Lowered its Poverty Rate in 2017

Argentina lowered its poverty rate

From the second half of 2016 to the first half of 2017, Argentina lowered its poverty rate by 1.7 percent. Though that number may seem small, it represents a significant step forward for a country who has over 30 percent of its citizens living in destitution. What steps did the nation take to reverse years of trends? How can other struggling parts of the globe learn from Argentina?

Market-Friendly Policies
One of Argentinian President Mauricio Macri’s goals was to attract foreign financing. From 2003 to 2016, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Argentina averaged at $575 million. But in the second quarter of 2016, the FDI increased to $788 million. This amount represents the highest investment in the country since July 2014.

Steep Currency Devaluation
To combat record inflation, Macri took an unpopular measure. Currency devaluation in 2015 resulted in surging prices and a temporary increase in the country’s poor. Money was now worth less, though this was little comfort to those with little money to start.

All Macri’s program needed was time. Private sector investment and job creation rose in the past year, which led to more consumer spending. Not only has the poverty rate recovered from its drop, but the country now has a solid base of businesses and investments to continue its trends. A healthy economy tends to create lower poverty… though that truism doesn’t always hold.

Not Depending On Businesses Alone
Despite the advances made under Macri’s leadership, his government is riddled with issues. His critics claim that Macri’s attempts to court businesses only led to a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Reducing subsidies for electricity and gas led to a 40 percent rise in inflation in 2016.

But in a non-business sense, Macri’s initiatives represent a step forward. In 2013, former President Cristina Kirchner claimed that Argentina lowered its poverty rate to five percent, and refused to back that claim with evidence. The current state of Argentina challenges that dubious claim. More so than any business, the best move Argentina made for its impoverished was to admit it had a problem. For each positive gain spearheaded by Macri, government humility made them all possible.

Erasmo Mema, a political analyst from FTI Consulting, predicted that Argentina’s 2017 economic successes would make or break Macri’s legacy. As of November 2017, the Macri administration appears secure. But Mema warns Argentina that “…any foreign direct investment will have to be buttressed by the government’s commitment to transparency, [and] a sound economic policy…”

– Nick Edinger

Photo: Flickr

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Thailand’s Poverty Rate Declining Rapidly

Thailand is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of about 69,000 people and a history of underdevelopment and impoverishment. The good news is that Thailand’s poverty rate is declining rapidly due to incredible progress in development. The country has moved from a lower-income country to an upper-income country in less than a generation. Thailand is the success story of Southeast Asia.

Thailand’s economic growth started in the 1960s and continued until 1996 at a rate of about 7.5 percent per year. After the Asian financial crisis that lasted from 1995 to 2005, Thailand still saw remarkable growth at an annual rate of five percent. Millions of people were pulled out of poverty due to the many jobs that were created at this time.Thailand has made a great deal of progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has created its own MDG-plus targets. The country has a firm commitment to the MDGs and to the U.N.’s Office for South-South Cooperation making Thailand an increasingly active global partner in development.

Some contributing factors to the decline of Thailand’s poverty rate are that a growing number of children are getting more years of schooling, almost every citizen is covered by health insurance and other forms of social security have expanded. HIV rates decreased in the 1990s from about 125,000 infections to fewer than 20,000 in 2003.

Thailand’s poverty rate has been declining considerably over the last four decades from 67 percent in 1986 to 10.5 percent in 2017. Thailand has the third-lowest poverty rate in Southeast Asia after Malaysia and Vietnam. Thailand has a 20-Year National Strategy that will last from 2017 until 2036 with the purpose to attain developed country status through reforms. These reforms will address economic stability, human capital, equal economic opportunities, environmental sustainability, competitiveness and effective government bureaucracies. Previous reforms included large multi-year infrastructure projects, improving state-owned enterprise governance, the approval of progressive inheritance and taxes and the beginning of the National Savings Fund.

There are still many issues facing Thailand but the good news is that there are many goals and deadlines being made by the Thai government to ensure that Thailand’s poverty rate keeps dropping. The country consistently meets target dates for development goals and gets one step ahead by creating newer objectives in order to reach the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goal to end global poverty in all forms by 2030.

– Lorial Roballo

Photo: Flickr

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4 Reasons Why Women’s Education Leads To Less Poverty

4 Reasons Why Women's Education Leads To Less PovertyDr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” But the inverse can also be true. When a socially marginalized group gains access to rights and opportunities, it can benefit everyone around them. This statement holds true for women’s rights. History has proven that easy access to women’s education leads to less poverty. Here are four examples that support this claim.

Women’s education results in better family planning

Niger is not only one of the world’s poorest countries, but it boasts one of the world’s highest birth rates. Women from Niger each give birth to an average of 7.6 children. The country sees large families as a sign of power and wealth. But “it’s impossible to feed, educate and care for all these children in the short term,” according to the nation’s family planning division.

Niger developed Project Sawki to teach women about birth control, family planning and forced marriages. Their goal is to encourage smaller family sizes. Aid workers created this project to let women speak freely about their marriages and future. “Husband schools” also exist in Niger to teach men the benefits of family planning through educated women.

The BBC, reporting on Niger, concludes that, “Education appears to be the key to reducing the number of babies born.”

Countries that invest in schooling become richer and healthier

Women’s education leads to less poverty, but also to several other benefits. UNICEF studied how countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America changed by investing in women’s advancement. The investing countries found an increase in economic development, income per family and health. Human trafficking and child mortality rates for those same nations declined. By contrast, the countries in the study who did not invest in educating women were met with reduced income and slowed growth.

Female empowerment comes from female choices

The ultimate obstacle to women’s empowerment, according to The Guardian, is the culture they live in. Women not only contribute 70 percent of the world’s working hours, they also make up 70 percent of the world’s poor. The most limiting factor to a girl’s future can be the people closest to her. These limitations take the form of a neighbor shaming a school-attending girl, or a parent arranging a girl’s marriage. If women’s economic choices are tied to their families then they will have few tools in escaping poverty.

The World Bank supports gender equality in addition to poverty elimination. It does so by providing resources to impoverished women while promoting gender equality in the household. The result is large development payoffs in society.

Education, in general, leads to less poverty

The American Prospect (TAP) looks into the complications of integrating education into an anti-poverty initiative. It is certain that both men and women’s education leads to less poverty. However, TAP notes how education only fights poverty in places where economic returns are viable and achievable for those with higher learning. Workers require a context wherein they can be rewarded for their skills and can see the benefits of the growth they help create.

Job training improves the quality of workers for a global market, which allows poorer nations to benefit from their wealthy peers. Supporting women’s education will create the context where girls can improve their lives and improve the world at the same time.

In 2017, Congress introduced the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings act. Through providing women’s education, the United States can bring about the positive changes recorded, and predicted, by the BBC, UNICEF, The Guardian and The American Prospect. If you are an American citizen, you can support this bill at The Borgen Project’s website.

– Nick Edinger

Photo: Flickr

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Six Ways Global Education Would Reduce Global Poverty

global educationTwo of the biggest myths about global poverty are that countries are doomed to stay poor no matter how much aid they receive and that global poverty is too big to fix. There is progress in the fight to end global poverty every day. Several of the largest importers of American goods and services, including countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, have graduated from U.S. foreign aid programs to economic independence, and global poverty has been cut in half since 1990.

Foreign aid helps contribute to the downsizing of global poverty, but there are other ways to help as well. If total global education were achieved, it would have a significant impact on the reduction of poverty.

Here are six ways global education can reduce global poverty.

  1. Education can reduce economic inequalities. If everyone had the same amount of education, disparity in working poverty would shrink by 39 percent.
  2. Education promotes economic growth. According to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), “In 2050, GDP per capita in low-income countries would be almost 70 percent higher if all children were learning.”
  3. Education can increase earnings. According to UNESCO, one extra year of schooling increases an individual’s earnings by up to 10 percent. According to the GPE, for each additional dollar invested in an extra year of schooling, earnings increase by $5 in low-income countries and $2.5 in lower-middle-income countries.
  4. Education can lead to gender equality. Women have been proven to reap higher returns from schooling, and some countries that fail to educate their girls properly lose out on an estimated $92 billion in economic growth.
  5. Education can lead to access to clean water. In rural areas, girls spend 15 hours a day collecting water for their families. If everyone, girls included, were educated properly about their health and water sanitation, local water sanitation would increase. This could potentially lead to a decline in the amount of time needed to fetch water.
  6. Education can lead to peace and justice. The world’s most dangerous countries are also the poorest. Educated people tend to participate in the democratic process and exercise their civil rights, according to UNESCO. They also tend to be more tolerant of people different than they are.

It would take only $16 billion a year in aid to send all children to school in low-income countries, according to UNESCO. For comparison, the U.S alone spends $601 billion on its military. Global education is attainable, and it can change and save lives.

–Dezanii Lewis

Photo: Flickr

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Tackling Poverty Together: Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy

Tackling Poverty Together: Canada’s Poverty Reduction StrategyThe government of Canada is showing its commitment to fighting poverty by developing and implementing Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. Canada’s focus on a modern approach to the problem of poverty should be an example to many other countries.

Overview of Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy

Approximately five million Canadians currently live in poverty, and poverty costs Canada between $72 and $84 billion each year. Canada has an opportunity to improve the quality of life of its citizens and also stimulate its economy through the Poverty Reduction Strategy. Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy included three initial steps:

  1. Consulting with Canadians in every area of the country on the issue of poverty
  2. Creating a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty that includes a combination of experts as well as people who have experienced poverty themselves.
  3. Conducting the Tackling Poverty Together project— a research project that will look at six different communities across Canada.

Consulting Canadians on Poverty

The first step in Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy was to consult people from all areas of the country and all walks of life. This phase included a combination of meetings with local governments as well as online forums and town halls so that all Canadian citizens were given an opportunity to be heard. The use of online tools to engage more people in the conversation is a great example of leveraging modern technology to help find solutions for complex problems like poverty.

Establishing an Advisory Committee

Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy includes an advisory board of 17 leaders from academia, business and beyond. The advisory group also includes members that have experienced poverty themselves. This is an important reminder that any decision-making body should include those who have lived experience with the topic being considered. The advisory board will discuss issues pertaining to poverty and give advice to the Canadian government.

Conducting Research

The Canadian government has also conducted a case-study in six different communities across Canada to look at what can be done to lift people out of poverty. The final report made key conclusions about what Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy needs to focus on moving forward. Many other countries can learn from Canada’s findings. The conclusions were as follows:

  1. There is a strong and ongoing need for federal government support to help Canadians get out of poverty.
  2. The Canada Child Benefit and Guaranteed Income Supplement are making a big difference.
  3. The federal government offers other important programs that could be helping, but very few people are aware of them.
  4. Many people cannot access the support they need because of how some programs are designed and delivered.
  5. Canadians were unanimous that there is a need for more support in different areas, and by different levels of government, to help people overcome poverty.

An Innovative Way Forward In the Fight Against Poverty

Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy should be an example to the world on how to create a cohesive, modern and organized strategy for fighting poverty. However, poverty is a complex issue and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Powerful governments like that of the United States and organizations like the United Nations have the opportunity to aid the reduction of global poverty. One way they can do this is by making sure developing countries have the resources they need to implement their own poverty reduction strategies.

– Aaron Childree

Photo: Flickr

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BRAC: Eliminating Extreme Poverty Through Innovation

Eliminating Extreme Poverty Through InnovationThe Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) was formed in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, is an excellent example of a nonprofit bringing transformation through strong business practices.

Today, BRAC reaches around 138 million poor spread over nine countries in Asia and Africa, and employs 125,000 people, primarily women. And yet, BRAC has remained quite unknown in the West. BRAC U.S. and BRAC U.K. were launched to spread awareness about its approach and mobilize its resources as well as raise funds for its fight to eliminate extreme poverty through innovation. It has created self-employment opportunity for 8.5 million people, educated over 3.8 million children from 66,000 of its schools, and given microloans to six million borrowers. Its approach is, “small is beautiful but big is necessary.”

What They Do

The following goals are listed on the official BRAC website:

  1. Improve well-being and resilience through disaster management and climate change, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.
  2. Assist economic development and social protection – agriculture and food security, microfinance, enterprises and investment, targeting the ultra-poor.
  3. Expand horizons of education, migration and skills development.
  4. Empower communities, women and disadvantaged, human rights and legal aid, with urban development.
  5. Support programs for governance, management and capacity building.

Social Innovation Lab (SIL)

BRAC believes in eliminating extreme poverty through innovation. SIL was formed to explore the best practices and ways of creating impact at scale and incubating new ideas. It began in the 1980s, when diarrhea was the biggest killer of children under the age of five. BRAC successfully made the most illiterate population in the world adopt oral rehydration therapy, teaching poor households to prepare homemade saline. Now, they continue to work toward bringing family planning to people despite social opposition.

BRAC has accomplished quite a lot through frugal innovation, making Bangladesh the fastest-growing mobile money market with 13 million users, and creating large-scale financial inclusion.

Current Efforts

Hundreds of Rohingya children are living in Cox’s Bazaar on the border of Bangladesh. BRAC has made initiatives to ensure prevention of widespread diseases, by providing 167,000 individuals with oral cholera vaccinations. 153,000 health services through 60 mobile health camps and 10 fixed camps have been provided to treat fever, pneumonia and diarrhea. BRAC is providing access to safe water, sanitation, child-friendly spaces and critical supplies.

The “poverty graduation” scheme offers a way of eliminating extreme poverty through innovation by tackling poverty as well as providing social confidence. Women are given an asset, usually livestock. In return, they must look after the animal, their children must be sent to school and they must save a small amount of income, along with a tiny stipend to cover their food needs. A BRAC member visits them regularly to assess improvements for two years, after which they are expected to “graduate,” or break the chain of ultra-poverty.

In the next five years, BRAC plans to empower 20 million people to gain access to resources. They are working toward completely eliminating extreme poverty through innovation by 2020 with integrated efforts.

– Tripti Sinha

Photo: Flickr

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Rihanna Raises Five Million Dollars at Annual Diamond Ball

RihannaRobyn Fenty, popularly known as Rihanna, hosted the Diamond Ball with the help of Dave Chappelle on September 14th, 2017. The event occurred at Cipriani Wall Street, and this was her first time hosting the ball in New York City. The charity event raised over five million dollars for the health and education initiatives of the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) for the Caribbean Islands and Malawi. The CLF promotes innovative education, health and emergency response programs around the world.

The CLF actively participates in global advocacy with the goal of improving the quality of life for young people everywhere. The CLF’s current agendas are involved with the Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program, the Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados and the Barbados Micro Grants Program.

The director of the Clara Lionel Foundation, Justine Lucas, mentioned at the event that they were one of the first few organizations to aid Hurricane Harvey victims. They are also planning to invest in Irma recovery.

While the charity event was by invitation only, Rihanna’s family and many notable celebrities attended in support of the pop singer’s philanthropic efforts. Young Thug, Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx supported Rihanna’s cause. Even President Barack Obama sent in a video message where he thanked Rihanna for her work with her foundation. “You’ve become a powerful force in helping people find hope and dignity,” said a delighted Obama.

Through Dave Chappelle’s charisma and Rihanna’s ploy to get her guests influenced by alcohol (and their own compassion), the Diamond Ball raised over $5 million for health and education initiatives. “I hope that as you hear about what we are doing and what we plan to do, you too will be inspired to join our mission. The more you drink, the more inspired you’ll be to donate money … and help kids around the world,” Rihanna slyly encouraged her guests.

– Jalil Perry

Photo: Flickr