Here are 6 Reliable Strategies To End Poverty in Developing Countries

Poverty

Here are  6 Reliable Strategies To End Poverty in Developing Countries. Poverty is a phenomenon that can be perceived through different ways. One can see it as a social injustice, as a kind of inequality. It should be seen from that perspective because the world has enough resources to meet the needs of all human beings, however, because of our nature of human greedy the resources become unsatisfactory.

 

Poverty is a serious economic and social problem that afflicts a large proportion of the world’s population and manifests itself in diverse forms such as lack of income and productive assets to ensure sustainable livelihoods, chronic hunger and malnutrition, homelessness, lack of durable goods, disease, lack of access to clean water, lack of education, low life expectancy, social exclusion and discrimination, high levels of unemployment, high rate of infant and maternal mortality, and lack of participation in decision making.

 

Because poverty has deleterious impacts on human well-being, its eradication has been identified as an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind. Thus, the eradication of poverty and hunger were key targets in the Millennium Development Goals that the United Nations adopted in September 2000, and continue to be a priority in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations General Assembly subsequently adopted in January 1, 2016.

 

Extreme Poverty

Although poverty exists in all countries, extreme poverty is more widespread in the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia [8, 10]. The causes of poverty in these countries are complex and include the pursuit of economic policies that exclude the poor and are biased against them; lack of access to markets and meaningful income-earning opportunities; inadequate public support for microenterprises through initiatives such as low interest credit and skills training; lack of infrastructure; widespread use of obsolete technologies in agriculture; exploitation of poor communities by political elites; inadequate financing of pro-poor programs; low human capital; conflicts and social strife; lack of access to productive resources such as land and capital; fiscal trap; and governance failures.

Liu et al. Beegle and Christiaensen [12], and Bapna [13] note that although considerable progress has been made to reduce poverty in the last two decades, more needs to be done to not only reduce the rate of extreme poverty further, but to also reduce the number of those living under extreme poverty. This is an important aspect of poverty reduction given that the rate of poverty can fall while the number of the poor is increasing simultaneously. For example, the poverty rate in Africa decreased from 54% in 1990 to 41% in 2015 but the number of the poor increased from 278 million in 1990 to 413 million in 2015.

 

This constitutes a compelling case for robust well-thought out policies that not only stimulate economic growth but also produce outcomes that are inclusive and sustainable and address other dimensions of well-being such as education, health and gender equality. Examples of poverty reduction initiatives that various countries have adopted are Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy, Ethiopia’s sustainable development and poverty reduction program,

 

Kenya’s economic recovery strategy for wealth and employment creation, Senegal’s poverty reduction strategy, and Uganda’s poverty eradication action plan. Toye [21] notes that the measures outlined in these strategic policy documents have not been effective in reducing poverty because they were initiated as a condition for development assistance under the debt relief initiative of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

 

Critical Analysis

A critical analysis of the poverty reduction measures contained in these documents, however, reveals that to a large extent their failure to significantly reduce the incidence of poverty can be largely attributed to factors such as how the programs were designed, how the poverty reduction policies were targeted, and how they were implemented. This chapter is based on the premise that success in poverty reduction can be achieved by identifying who the poor are, assessing the extent of poverty in the different regions of developing countries, determining both the root causes of poverty and the opportunities that exist for reducing the incidences of poverty and improving the standards of living, and removing the various obstacles to poverty reduction [1, 3, 6, 15, 22].

 

The assumption that economic growth automatically results in a reduction of poverty also needs to be re-examined given the existence of empirical evidence that shows that economic growth can occur while poverty is worsening [8, 16, 17, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]. The focus needs to be on inclusive growth that addresses the unique needs of the poor and increases their access to basic services, employment and income generating opportunities, reliable markets for their products, information, capital and finance, and adequate social protections that remove the causes of the vulnerability of the poor.

 

Commitment to Justice

The experience of diverse rapidly growing developing countries demonstrates that with political will and visionary leadership that is committed to justice, equality, and rule of law, the goal of reducing poverty and improving the living standards of the poor is achievable. Sachs [4] notes that through such leadership the downward spiral of impoverishment, hunger, and disease that certain parts of the world are caught in can be reversed and the massive suffering of the poor brought to an end.

 

Sachs is categorical that although markets can be powerful engines of economic development, they can bypass large parts of the world and leave them impoverished and suffering without respite. He advocates that the role of markets be supplemented with collective action through effective government provision of health, education and infrastructure.

 

Low Productivity

The World Bank, Acemoglu and Robinson [34], and Beegle and Christiaensen [12] argue that in much of Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture is the main occupation, low agricultural productivity is a primary cause of poverty. They assert that the low agricultural productivity is a consequence of the ownership structure of the land and the incentives that are created for farmers by the governments and the institutions under which they live.

 

More recently, the COVID-19 global pandemic has significantly increased the number of the newly poor. The World Bank [16] estimates that in 2020, between 88 million and 115 million people fell into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic and that in 2021 an additional between 23 million and 35 million people will fall in poverty bringing the new people living in extreme poverty to between 110 million and 150 million.

Conclusion

But the World Bank also points out that even before the pandemic, development for many people in the world’s poorest countries was too slow to raise their incomes, enhance living standards, or narrow inequality. Coates [35] contends that in February 2020, poverty was in fact increasing in several countries while many others were already off track to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1. In what follows, I explore these issues and identify practical measures that can be applied to stimulate inclusive growth and reduce extreme poverty in developing countries. I also present some case studies to demonstrate how these measures have been successfully applied in various developing countries.

 

References

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/79838