Archive for category: Poverty Reduction

Information and stories about poverty reduction.

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5 Facts about Child Poverty

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Child poverty is a multifaceted issue whose impacts are far-reaching and pervasive. While adults may fall into poverty for a period of time, children in poverty are often trapped forever. Seldom are they able to start anew because their poverty that lasts a lifetime. Furthermore the depths of child poverty often lead to greater entrenchment in social inequality. Thus governments and individuals must commit to understanding and tackling global child poverty.
Child Poverty is real and it is poses a threat to millions of children. Here are 5 key facts about child poverty.

  1. According to UNICEF, 1 billion children are living in poverty throughout the world. Of these children, 121 million are out of education and 22,000 die due to poverty each day.
  2. 30% of the children in developing nations live on less than $1 a day. Of this 30%, 270 million children have no access to health care services.
  3. The result of this dangerous poverty is extreme malnourishment. 27-28% of all children in developing countries are underweight or stunted in growth. In 2011 alone, 165 million children under the age of 5 were stunted due to hunger and starvation.
  4. Child poverty does not only affect developing nations. In a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United States ranks 34th amongst 35 countries examined for child poverty rates. In fact more than one in five American children live below the poverty line today.
  5. Sadly, the Millennium Development goal to halve the proportion of underweight children will not be reached if current trends continue. The mark will be missed by 30 million children due in large part to slow progress in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Though these facts are bleak, the truth is that child poverty can be fought. For example, in the year 2000 it would have cost an estimated $6 billion a year to place every child in school. Though the cost may have fluctuated since then, such a seemingly large amount was only a tiny fraction of how much the world spent on weapons alone. Eliminating child poverty is indeed a feasible goal.

– Grace Zhao

Sources: Global Issues, UNICEF, Do Something, The Washington Post
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Top 10 International Poverty Statistics

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  1. Nearly half of the world’s population lives on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day). In the developed world it is hard to fathom living on $2.50 a day, yet almost 3 billion people do so in their daily lives. The World Bank sets the extreme poverty line at $1.25 a day, and over 1.3 billion people live on such an extremely low income.
  2. More than 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and modern forms of energy. Electricity is necessary for modern development, yet so many people are denied its use. With climate change on the rise, it is ever more important to find sustainable, renewable energy sources for the world’s poor.
  3. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Many of these children live in single parent households, as many parents die from treatable diseases or leave their families for less poverty-stricken areas.
  4. 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day. Although it is not as extreme as $1.25 or even $2.50 a day, most in the developed world can’t imagine living on $10 a day. In fact, the poverty line in the US is set at just over $30 a day. Yet an overwhelming majority of the world’s population lives at less than a third of that.
  5. Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment. Diarrhea takes many  lives annually, when just access to proper water supply could reduce around 40% of all cases.
  6. Women produce half of the world’s food, work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, earn only 10% of the world’s income, and own less than 1% of the world’s property.
  7. Women make up around 70% of the world’s 1 billion poorest people. Women’s empowerment and equality is the silver bullet to ending poverty. Enabling women to get the same opportunities as men, such as access to credit and education, would lift whole communities out of poverty. Women are much more likely than men to reinvest their wealth into their local communities.
  8. About 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation – roughly two-fifths of the world’s population. The global water, sanitation and health crisis has reached an incredible level, to the point where it will soon not only be the developing world which is affected by it.
  9. Of the 22 countries where more than half the population is illiterate, 15 are in Africa. This underscores the fact that Africa, despite its vast natural resources, is the most underdeveloped and neglected continent on the globe.
  10. It would cost approximately $40 billion to offer basic education, clean water and sanitation, reproductive health for women, and basic health and nutrition to every person in every developing country. $40 billion may sound like a lot, but it is less than the operational cost of two US aircraft carriers (which cost $26.8 billion each).

– Martin Drake

Sources: Global Issues, DoSomething.org, Compassion.com, Convio.net, Face the Facts USA
Photo: Press TV

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What Is International Poverty?

What Is Global Poverty
Global poverty, at least on first blush, seems to be a rather self-explanatory concept. To be poor, we understand as Americans, is being unable to afford certain necessities. But what it is to be poor, that is, what it is to be unable to afford certain necessities would surely depend on who you are asking. What you consider necessary, such that it would constitute a necessity, would most certainly change your definition of what it means to be poor. So, is global poverty subjective?

Extreme global poverty, as defined by today’s standards, is living on less than $1.25 USD per day. To be considered extremely poor, therefore, would require living on about $450 USD a year or less. Worldwide, there are 1.2 billion people who would “qualify” as living in extreme poverty. But is living on less than a certain amount of money a day all there is to poverty?

The World Bank suggests that poverty is a pronounced and multi-dimensional deprivation in well-being. Rather than placing a number at which one is considered poor or extremely poor, the World Bank definition operates on a holistic approach that takes multiple factors into consideration. For example, communities with inadequate access to health services or education may be considered to be facing the circumstances of poverty, though they live on an amount in excess of the global standard for poverty. Likewise, living with insufficient physical security or certain basic human rights, say freedom of speech, may constitute poverty.

Clearly, what is poverty is not limited to a financial over/under amount, such that it demands a more inclusive, and perhaps malleable, definition. Because understanding what poverty actually is is so fundamental to addressing poverty as an important global issue, however, the United Nations has dedicated both time and resources to better recognizing and defining the many facets of poverty. As a result, the world’s largest multi-governmental organization has developed several working definitions of poverty, including “absolute poverty” and “overall poverty,” while the official United Nations definition of “poverty” is as follows: “Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and cloth a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.”

– Herman Watson

Sources: United Nations, The Global Poverty Project, One Day’s Wages Brookings Institution
Photo: National Geographic

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Beyond The Military: How Drones Can Alleviate Poverty

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Drones have gained a negative reputation as aggressors, due to their military use in times of conflict, but the unmanned aerial technology is earning a positive reputation from those who are receiving aid from it. Matternet, a start-up company based out of Silicon Valley, is looking to use drones for social good. The company is trying to develop a network of unmanned mini-helicopters to help transport goods to rural areas and to places that are inaccessible due to lack of developed transportation infrastructure.

The mini-helicopters are capable of flying at heights of roughly 400 feet, and can travel up to six miles in each trip it makes. Matternet lays out a three-stage project which will utilize the technological power of the drones to deliver aid. The first stage will establish stations for drones to swap out batteries along their journeys and second phase will work to establish drone helicopters with solar-powered charging capacity, allowing the drones to travel without having to stop for a charge. The final stage of Matternet’s project will create a global network of drones, allowing for large-scale coordination and transportation of goods.

The mini-helicopters are capable of carrying 4.5 pound loads. While this capacity will not for allow for heavy shipments, it will accommodate most small aid packages. The company states that “80 percent of e-commerce packages are below 2kg,” or roughly 4.5 pounds. The drones should be able to carry items such as medicines for individual or household use, which is one of the main focuses of the project’s development.

Matternet gives an example of how its technology can improve health care in developing areas. Without Matternet’s drones, a mother in rural Africa could have to put off a day’s work and travel many miles to visit a doctor and receive medicine for her daughter’s ear infection. Or, by using the new technology, the same mother could call a doctor, and the medicine that her daughter needs could be shipped to her via drone within minutes, saving time and in critical circumstances, possibly saving lives.

Developers of Matternet emphasize their innovation’s ability to quickly and cheaply transport goods. The company states that it can establish 50 base stations and build 150 drones in Lesotho for $900,000 while it would cost about $1 million to build a single one-mile, one-lane road.

Matternet’s drones were first deployed to Haiti and the Dominican Republic for humanitarian purposes last year. The company says it needs to improve navigation and battery systems in its technologies before the drones can be used on a large scale, but Matternet hopes that in the future its drones will be utilized to help create enormous positive change in the developing world.

– Jordan Kline
Sources: The National, The Guardian Matternet
Photo: Kevin Byrant

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How the Government of Lithuania is Bettering the Lives of its Poor

How the Government of Lithuania is Bettering the Lives of its PoorWhen one thinks of poverty-stricken countries, the first one that comes to mind is not Lithuania. The small Baltic nation, however, has been dealing with serious poverty problems since it became independent in the early 1990s. Lithuania was, in fact, the first republic to break away from the USSR in 1990. In 2009, the economy took a turn for the worse. GDP dropped 15%, interrupting almost two decades of steady fiscal growth. Nonetheless, the recession did not fatally injure the Lithuanian economy. The resilient nation recovered quickly, enlisting the investment of foreign interests in Lithuanian enterprises while capitalizing on the strength of trade relations with Russia, Latvia, and Germany, among other countries.

Lithuania’s seemingly instantaneous recovery from the recession is amazing, especially considering the extremity of the economic downturn in the Baltic states. Her ability to exploit chief exports such as textiles, plastics, and heavy machinery has given the country the diversified type of income that facilitates longterm budgetary growth. What truly sets Lithuania apart though is the shocking rise in the minimum wage that took place last year. In 2012, the monthly minimum wage was raised almost 25% from around 850 litai ($850 US dollars) in January to 1000 litai ($372 US dollars) in December. This has significantly raised the status of the poor in Lithuania, where a measly 4% of the population is now living below the poverty line. Prior to 2009, a little over 20% of Lithuanians were on or below the poverty line, unable to meet basic daily needs.

This change illustrates the way in which a government, faced with insurmountable challenges, can institute economic policies that positively impact the well-being of the working poor. When compared to its neighbor Latvia, where the monthly salary from a minimum wage job does not fulfill minimum subsistence level requirements, Lithuania is doing significantly better. Lithuania did not allow the economic crisis to distract from the problem of the minimum wage, implementing sound laws to raise the status of the poor. In the wake of the global recession, other Baltic countries should follow the example of Lithuania and raise the minimum wage. The poor will be much better off for it.

– Josh Forgét

Sources: The Baltic Course, Bloomberg, CIA World Factbook
Photo: Flickr

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Homemade Helicopters Lift Africa out of Poverty

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A growing movement in Africa finds solo innovators experimenting with homemade flight technologies out of mere curiosity. The daring, Wright-esque pioneers involved are sourcing materials from scrapped vehicles and local junkyards to build helicopters, and even piecing their projects together with cheap gum. One would-be pilot, Gabriel Nderitu Muturi from Kenya, hopes the interest in flight will one day lift Africa out of poverty.

On the ground, individuals are making progress with their flying machines, from life-size, remote control helicopters to two-seater airplanes, but they receive no governmental support for their projects. In some cases, the government obstructs the aviation development. One man had his helicopter confiscated as a security risk and was fired from his job for pursuing the interest on the basis of media attention distracting from his work. Those continuing the fight for flight say such obstacles result in wasted talent that could help lift developing nations and their people out of poverty. The technological curiosity is apparent, but the capacity and reward system stands lacking.

Hackerspaces and fab labs have cropped up to support the solo innovators in impoverished nations, where government assistance is either minimal or nonexistent, but they are by no means commonplace. For creators of homemade airplanes these spaces are a veritable Godsend, as they offer community-based resources and the actual space to design and experiment. Without these spaces, these pioneer inventors would face many obstacles to the flight of their helicopters.

Mr. Muturi reports his use of the Internet as the most significant variable in his formula for success. He cites the web as a source of information for research and a marketplace for fabrication as it allows him to order parts from the United States. Though he completed the project on his own, he urges governments to recognize the importance of supporting interest in science and research as an indispensable resource that will pull Africa out of poverty and underdevelopment.

In light of increased fiber optic connectivity from more developed nations investing in Africa, the Internet will likely prove a valuable resource for individual and community-based projects like Mr. Muturi’s. Nonetheless, there is the problem of providing such a resource to rural communities, where e-learning depends on first establishing free digital centers, heretofore inadequately represented in such locations.

– Herman Watson

Source: BBC, Hackerspaces, CNN
Photo: BBC

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Extreme Poverty Has Been Cut in Half Since 1990

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In 1990, 43% of the world’s population subsisted on less than $1.25 per day. By 2010, that number had shrunk to 21%. This success comes 5 years before the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of achieving such a number by 2015.

The conversation has now shifted to the remaining 21%. Optimists hope to achieve similar success by 2030. However, there are several unique obstacles to addressing that 21%, and the economic conditions that allowed such a rapid decline before are unlikely to be replicated in the coming decade.

Much of the success of the last two decades was achieved by slightly elevating the conditions of those living just below the $1.25 per day line. Pulling a person living at $1.15 per day over the $1.25 line is much easier than pulling someone living at $0.25 to over $1.25. In other words, much of the remaining 21% was the bottom half of the original 43 percent. The challenge of the next decades will be to improve the lives of the most impoverished people on Earth.

China’s growth over the past decades was instrumental in lowering the extreme poverty rate. In the twenty years, from 1981 to 2001, China pulled 680 million of its own citizens out of extreme poverty as it rapidly developed. With China’s extreme poverty rate now at low levels, the focus will now shift to new developing countries, primarily India and Africa. The challenge will be to replicate the economic conditions for such an achievement in vastly different governmental and cultural contexts.

Should such a success be achieved by 2030, however, the fight against poverty will hardly be over. The $1.25 a day figure is simply an accepted global standard of extreme poverty, and does not account for those living in poverty in developed countries. In the U.S., the poverty line sits at $30 a day–a marked difference. However, with extreme poverty levels eradicated, the world would be able to focus anew on those living just below the line.

– Andrew Rasner

Sources: The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist
Photo: The Economist,

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Poverty in Cape Verde

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Cape Verde is a small archipelago island nation in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa. The country is mired in absolute poverty, with 30% of its citizens below the poverty line. The World Bank estimates that 14% of the population is living in extreme poverty. With a crisis of this magnitude, the government of Cape Verde is dependent on the receipt of international aid to maintain relative stability.

Poverty in Cape Verde is precipitated by a number of factors, but the main inhibitors of economic growth are a gross lack of a natural resources and a limited economic base. Due to repeated droughts, Cape Verde is beleaguered by water shortages and poor soil. Due to a lack of domestic agriculture, over 82% of the country’s food supply is imported. The nation’s narrow economic base stems from over dependence on tourism as the sole source of economic revenue.

The World Bank has agreed to provide significant amounts of funding to Cape Verde and has developed an economic strategy to alleviate the poor conditions there. The World Bank’s plan is four-fold, involving an improvement in the quality of education and healthcare, a diversification of the economic base (exploiting tuna fishing as an additional source of income), an improvement of the already existing infrastructure, and the institution of welfare programs for the disadvantaged.

These changes will have to be implemented from the top down in order for them to be successful. The World Bank is working with the government of Cape Verde to implement these much needed changes. This combination of economic diversification, aid, and development will most assuredly provide a way for Cape Verde to rise out of extreme poverty.

– Josh Forgét 

Sources: The World Bank, The CIA World Factbook
Photo: Cape Verde Against Poverty,

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Zambia: Poverty and Promising Signs

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Known for its stunning natural beauty and variety of wildlife, the country of Zambia draws thousands of global travelers seeking adventure and awe-inspiring views in its world-renowned state parks, along the mighty Zambezi River, and at the famous Victoria Falls, a UNESCO world heritage site.  More than half of the country’s 752,000 square kilometers is arable land, and the country is rich in natural resources, especially copper, one of its major exports. Compared to many of its neighboring countries, Zambia has also been somewhat stable politically. Zambia made relatively peaceful transition from British colonial rule in 1964, and the country has been spared the kind of serious civil war that countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo have faced in recent years.

Zambia’s natural beauty and great agricultural capacity are a stark contrast to the economic problems facing the country today, however. According to World Bank figures, an estimated 60% of the country’s 13.8 million people live below the poverty line, with most of those in Zambia’s many rural areas. Life expectancy for the average Zambian is 49 years, in part because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has ravaged the population. Just over 12% of Zambians ages 15-49 are infected with the virus, and UN figures show that about 1 million people were living with the disease in 2011.  One-third of the population is without access to clean water, and more than 25% of the country’s schools do not have access to clean water and proper sanitation.  The country is reportedly on track to meet Millennium Development Goal #2, but enrollment in primary schools is just under 72%.

Efforts to combat widespread poverty and its attendant health and social effects in Zambia have been comprehensive, involving a coalition of private and public, national and international organizations. Through USAID, the United States recently launched two new health programs aimed at addressing poverty and HIV/AIDS by empowering small farmers with new tools to make their farms viable and profitable. The programs have drawn praise from the Zambian government. Zambia is also making progress toward its Millennium Development Goals, reducing child mortality from 191 per 1,000 births in 1992, to 119 per 1,000 in 2007.  Extreme poverty in the country declined from 58% to 51% over the same period, and in 2002 the country eliminated school fees for basic education, taking an important step toward universal primary education. These indicators are promising signs that progress is indeed being made toward relieving the misery of poverty and disease in Zambia. They also suggest, however, that there is much more work to be done. 

– Délice Williams

Source: Lonely Planet, UNAIDs, UNICEF, World Bank
Photo: Presentation Primary Terenure

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Poverty in Chad

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Poverty in Chad? Surprisingly for an oil-producing nation, Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world. After gaining its independence from France, Chad struggled to find its footing. Mismanagement, corruption, conflict and a harsh climate did the country no favors, and Chad has consistently remained one of the poorest countries in Africa.

Over half of Chad’s population lives in poverty; this is partly a result of the harsh geographical conditions. The majority of Chad is covered by desert and for a developing country that depends largely on subsistence farming, this presents a significant challenge. The most successful practice is migratory farming, where herds can move and adapt to changing climate conditions, but even these are severely limited by resources. As well, droughts in the 1970s and 80s aggravated already sub-optimal conditions. Recently, changes in climate have brought lower rainfalls and consistent overuse has led to soil erosion and land degradation. Farmers lack infrastructure, support and resources needed to grow sufficient food.

Geographic isolation, a lack of cultural cohesion and lack of education are all contributors to the problem. Spread out among a huge amount of land, Chad’s citizens are separated by large swaths of land, making it difficult to distribute necessary resources. Most people do not speak either of the country’s official languages (Arabic and French) and 90% of the country is illiterate.

Gender discrimination is also rife in Chad, though women are an essential part of a family’s survival. They are given work outside the home as well as the responsibility of raising a family, tending farms, gathering water, raising children and cooking. Yet they are culturally limited from access to education or training, and marginalized by society. These women are especially vulnerable to the psychological as well as physical effects of poverty.

Chad’s reality is brutal; a large percentage of the population is undernourished and lacks access to education, as well as high levels of food insecurity and infant mortality. Chad is not set to meet the MDGs as a result of poor management and weak planning and implementation.

Chad’s story is not a pretty one, but an important one. It is a reminder of the harsh reality that is daily life in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the amount of work that remains to be done in the region.

– Farahnaz Mohammed

Source: Rural Poverty Portal, World Bank
Photo: Charity in Chad