Poverty is an increasing problem in our world today. A report by the National Welfare found that 17. 2 percent of Canadians live below the poverty line in 1998. It is however, measured differently in developing and developed countries. People who struggle financially in countries like Canada or even the United States, when compared to people living in third world countries are considered above the poverty line. Income at developing countries falls at less than one dollar per person a day, which led to an estimation that 1. 3 billion people lived below the poverty line.
Even so, third world countries may not have the same opportunities and probabilities first world country get. Say, the homeless and illiterate ones in developing countries who need more of their freedom to promote their cause are the ones denied by the government if they try to improve their conditions. While people living in advanced countries give importance and sometimes neglect things such as education, food, and safe water, families in third world nations unfortunately lack all these life essentials and would certainly want to have these necessities to help them aid poverty.
Around the time of World War II, the International Monetary Fund or IMF and the World Bank handed some loans and assistance to help other countries improve their standards of living through economic growth. Further more, the effect of poverty gives sufferings for both women and children. Men have more control and have a higher status. Women have no legal rights unlike other men. They may also have to work half a day for their families’ survival. Children on the other hand, are frequently the ones who suffer first from diseases and famine.
It was estimated that 1. 2 billion people are deprived of having clean, safe water. The World Health Organization estimated that about 80 percent of world’s diseases are from contaminated water. The widespread of diseases such as HIV or AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and STIs, are not just a huge threat to developing countries but also posing a threat to the citizens of developed countries. Clearly, poverty is the main cause of all these problems in the developing world. They are facing these hardships that results to death.
Billions of dollars were given to these countries to help them aid poverty and yet, there is no visible improvement in their very poor condition. It is quite difficult to measure precise economic development, most especially to the developing countries. Knowing what to measure to compare developments is a struggle. A measure appoints that the poverty line in developing countries is at less than a dollar per hour. In contrary with measuring standards of living, it is not only measured on the income people earn, but it also includes things such as health care, nutrition, life expectancy, and the status of women and children.
Quality of life also depends on people’s freedom of expression and the right to promote their cause. Given the example of homeless and illiterate ones in developing countries who needed to promote their cause and themselves more are the ones denied by the government if they try to improve their conditions. A report by the National Council of Welfare accounted that people living on less than a dollar or two per day spends a huge portion of their incomes on necessities of life such as food, shelter, and clothing.
In 1998 a report shows that 5. million Canadians lived below the poverty line. The effect of poverty gives sufferings for both women and children. In developing countries, men have a higher status than women and children. They may also have no legal rights and may have to work half a day to make sure of their families’ survival. They are treated as property. In some countries, women are treated like an animal where they are asked to eat whatever’s left after men finishes their meals leading to malnutrition. In most developing countries, the rate of men literacy is higher than women.
They believed that education is wasted on girls. Families would usually make them stay at home to help with chores and to look after their younger siblings. When this comes to an improvement, educated women are more likely to have a better understanding of consequences after giving birth and contraception, resulting to reduced birth rate. In children, it is important to be educated younger to help their development. Educating these young citizens will help break poverty. Education is very important basic essential for developing countries. It is the solution to improve their situation.
There are 800 million people who starve to death in the developing countries. Often, children are the first victims of famine. Though they survive the first five critical years, children have fewer opportunities and are frequently used to child labour. Some are even put in to sex trade. The Progress Nations Report released a new child risk index measuring the risk of children world wide based on, mortality rate of children under the age of five, percentage of children who are underweight, number of children who are not educated, risks from armed conflict and from diseases such as HIV or AIDS.
There are approximately 540 million children in the world living in a dangerous and an unstable situation. In most of the developing nations, children are working to give help to themselves and their families. On the other hand, a numerous amount of people around the world are lacking clean water. Their sources of safe water are contaminated. The World Health Organization estimated that about 80 percent of world’s diseases are coming from contaminated water, making it easy for diseases like malaria, typhoid, and cholera to multiply easily.
The widespread of these diseases are not just a huge threat to developing countries but also posing a threat to developed countries. At the very least, a third of people living with AIDS are between the ages of ten and twenty-four. As of 2000, eight million babies were suffering from AIDS. When dealing with AID or HIVs it needs to have a large number of cooperation internationally. Companies such as UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, and World Bank help together to put a solution on this worsening problem. Billions of dollars were already given to these countries to help them aid poverty.
Around the time of World War II, the International Monetary Fund or IMF and the World Bank handed some loans and assistance to help other countries improve their standards of living through economic growth. They encouraged these developing countries to make dams and to have agricultural irrigation. However, these megaprojects did not succeed. It caused damage to the environment and did not improve the countries economy. Basic needs of people like food, was taken away from Zambians because of the structural adjustment programs forced the government to stop supplying.
This caused many of the unemployed Zambians rioted. Moreover, most of the debtors have few resources to put in to market but since wealthier countries receive much of what they sell, they buy it in a very low cost for they already have an oversupply of the product. Lenders then started to do something to reduce the debt of these countries. HIPC agreement helps the poorest developing countries by cancelling about half of the debt of these poor countries like Mozambique who has $2. 5 billion debt. Half of the money owed will eventually be gone.
Their goal is to reduce the piles of debt of these countries aiming their insufficient resources go towards the reduction of poverty rather than to debt servicing. Clearly, poverty is the main cause of problems in the developing nations. From measuring economic development to improving their situations are all a struggle for developed nations to help them aid poverty. A lot of today’s people are still lacking complete nutrition – having poor health, not sheltered, and are illiterate. Billions of dollars handed to these countries, improvements to statuses of women and children’s health, yet there is no improvement to their poor condition.
