DISTRIBUTION AND CAUSES OF POVERTY & WAYS TO ADDRESS IT

There are many causes of poverty and they are often interrelated and often very complex. To show how easy it is for households to become (and stay) poor

1. Health
Good health is often denied to those living in extreme poverty. This can be due to malnutrition, a lack of clean water and sanitation, or insufficient money to pay for medical services. These factors lead to an increase in diseases (such as malaria, cholera and typhoid) that cause death or debilitate the population, leaving them unable to work.

2. Clean water
One in eight of the world’s population – 884 million people – do not have access to safe water, while 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation. At any given time, almost half of the population of LEDCs is suffering from one or more of the main diseases caused by dirty water, poor sanitation or water-borne parasites (resulting in 4000 deaths each day). Health problems from water-related illnesses place a huge burden on a country’s resources, as hospital beds and medication have to be supplied to sufferers to help them get fit to work

3. Availability of food
People in extreme poverty are often chronically hungry and unable to maintain an adequate diet. Many suffer from dietary diseases caused by malnutrition. Recently, rising food prices have compounded the problem because:
- Worldwide population increase has
meant more mouths to feed

1. The Millennium Development Goals:

In 2000, global leaders committed their countries to reducing extreme poverty through targets that became known as the Millennium development goals. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

2. Free and fair trade:

Farmers, workers and countries at the beginning of the chain don’t see enough of the benefits of trade much of this goes to the purchasers who control the price and the amount they buy from the people who grow or make it. To make more profit and to protect their own workers and factories they keep the prices they pay as low as possible. They place restrictions on manufactured goods coming from LEDCs making it even more difficult to sell. Revision of the global trade laws including the removal of all such trade barriers to ensure free trade could help improve levels of poverty in LEDCs.
Fair price for goods:
Ensure producers get a fair price for all goods they sell is by applying Fairtrade principles. Organisations promoting Fairtrade ensure workers have a decent wage and standard of living.
Transnational companies:
An increasing number of transnational companies including Starbucks, Nestlé and Cadbury are buying their goods from Fairtrade producers.

3. Microfinance initiatives

Governments and international organisations can help people that are suffering. In many countries it is impossible for people to improve their economic circumstances. In 1976 Bangladeshi Professor Mohammed Yunus saw this deficiency and set up the Grameen Bank to provide ‘micro-credit’ to those who needed it. This has helped people by livestock and materials they needed to start making money.

Poverty is a GLOBAL PROBLEM

It is important, however, to make distinctions between different types of poverty. In rich countries, for instance, we can talk about relative poverty by referring to a level of household income below a given proportion of the national average. The relative poor may not be able to obtain consumer goods, use recreation and entertainment facilities or access the best private health care and education, but they are very rarely starving to death or unable to afford housing or clothes.

The majority of the world’s poor (around 1.6 billion people) live in moderate poverty. The United Nations defines moderate poverty as having an income between US$1 and US$2 per day

Almost 90% of the world’s moderately poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and South Asia.

Defined by the United Nations as having a household income of less than US$1 per day.

Extreme poverty means people are unable to meet the basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry, unable to afford medicines or health care, and lack safe drinking water and means of sanitation. They cannot pay for their children to go to school, may not have proper shelter with solid walls and a roof, and cannot buy shoes and clothing

Lack of Government Funding - even in areas where governments try to do the best for their people, they may be thwarted because they have no money. A poor population means little revenue gained in taxation and little to spend on health, education and infrastructural improvements.

Government failures -corrupt politicians may line their own
pockets, rather than trying to help the people of their country.
Most of the population of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is extremely poor, but the family of President lives a life of luxury

Physical Geography- landlocked and mountainous countries such as Bolivia and Nepal find it hard to trade with the outside world, while other countries (Chad and Mali, for instance) are very arid and have prolonged droughts

There are huge differences in levels of poverty between continents and between countries, but also between different rural areas, between rural areas and urban areas, and between different parts of towns and cities within the same country.

The reasons for these differences in poverty and wealth within countries are very similar to the ones that exist across borders and in different parts of the world.