Poverty Eradication - Literature review Example

Student Name: Name: Title: Poverty Eradication Course: Institution: Introduction According to World Bank (2002), poverty is the depreviation in well being, and encompasses several dimensions. It entails low incomes as well as the incapability to attain basic services and goods essential for survival with poise. Poverty also includes low levels of education and health, poor access to sanitation and clean water, lack of voice, insufficient physical security and inadequate opportunity and capacity to better an individual’s life. Poverty is cause by many things such as lack of education, poor health, corruption and natural events such as floods and drought. Poverty has enormous impact on continents, nations and the entire globe. Through countering its causes, it is possible to eradicate poverty. Eradicating poverty must commence with a rigorous endeavor to provide every person with what is essential for human improvement and welfare. Ways of eradicating poverty Improvement of access to education Lack of education is key causes of poverty in several nations. According to McCarthy (2007), A good number of individuals are poor due to the fact they do not possess the skills and knowledge that they require to get good jobs. The function of education in poverty eradication, in close collaboration with other societal sectors is vital. No nation has attained social and economic success without educating its people. Education is significant in eliminating poverty and is also a means of creation of wealth. Through attainment of education, individuals are capable to find their place within the society and attain employment to move out of poverty and support themselves, their families and the entire nation. Several communities prohibit women and girls from attaining the education they require. Without education, people are illiterate and thus do not contribute to the economy of the nation. In addition, they do not get jobs due to lack of the skills needed for their employment which force majority of them to remain poor. Therefore, it is possible to eradicate poverty through provision quality education as well as employment opportunities (McCarthy, 2007). Improvement of health care Poor health is a big contributor of poverty. Poverty occurs as a result of poor health sick people are not able to work and thus don’t have the money they require to support themselves and move out of poverty through improving their living conditions. Franco (2009) argues that when a society has a high rate of disease, absenteeism from work is high, and there is low productivity and less creation of wealth. Apart from the death, discomfort and misery that occurs due to poor health and diseases they are also a key contributor of poverty within a community. Lives lost imply lessen economic productivity and personal tragedy. Productivity is slowed when people are sick or looking after the sick. In poor nations, a lot of money is lost each year due to diseases and deaths form malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. This lessens economic growth in nations that are already living in poverty. Being well assists people who are healthy and also greatly contributes to elimination of poverty within a community (Franco, 2009). Through improving the health of a populace through provision of primary health care, it is possible to eradicate poverty. A healthy population is equal to a healthy economy. Lynch et al (2000) note that good health leads to elimination of poverty more on the basis of access to clean and safe drinking water, and knowledge of disease prevention and hygiene . Poverty is both a key cause and outcome of poor health. Poverty raises chances of poor health which subsequently traps societies in poverty. Infectious as well as neglected tropical illnesses weaken and kill millions of poor and most susceptible people every year. Vulnerable individuals and marginalized groups are usually the most affected, deprived of money, information or access to health services that can assist them to treat and prevent diseases. According to Lynch et al, (2000), people living in poverty and earning low income face particular difficulties in maintaining good health. They are highly likely than people with high incomes to become sick and die at younger ages. They usually reside in deprived environmental conditions with few healthcare resources, a factor that compromise access to health care and health status. Poverty can thus be eradicated through public programs. Public programs can play a crucial role in assisting to minimize inequalities in health through income through supporting health plans targeted to people with low revenues and maintaining a secure net of social and health services for the jobless and poor people. Public health has a core role in addressing the impacts of poverty on well being and health and reducing inequalities in health through income. Civic health initiatives focused on protection of health of populace is significant in minimization of communicable illnesses and provision of preventive health services to the low income populaces. Provision of immunizations, improvement of sanitation and reduction of environmental hazards, treatment of tuberculosis and combating of sexually transmitted diseases are public health functions that can directly eradicate diseases and poverty of vulnerable groups. Efforts of public health can also reduce poverty and enhance health and well being of individuals through focusing resources in the underserved areas (World Bank, 2000). Crisis prevention and recovery It is possible to eradicate poverty through crisis prevention and recovery. According to McCarthy, (2007), natural calamities such as constant floods and droughts are a key cause of poverty in several regions. Several people live in poverty since they don’t have adequate food for survival or commodities to trade in order to earn money. Some people lack appropriate accommodation because their homes get demolished regularly by floods. Through pledging a small portion of their national income, countries can offer assistance to the poor through offering irrigation and farming techniques that will enable people living in regions that regularly experience droughts to plant crops in adverse weather. The money can be utilized to construct dams and water reservoirs to curb floods and to stimulate artificial rainfall to resolve problems that occur as a result of drought. Fighting corruption It is possible to eradicate poverty through addressing and fighting corruption. Corrupt regimes are a key cause of poverty. Corruption results to unequal distribution of resources and makes several individuals to live in abject poverty. Corruption usually goes along with centralization of power where leaders aren’t accountable to the people they serve. Mason (2006) argues that corruption hinders development when leader use money and resources for their personal gains other than for development projects. In addition, leaders usually reward political support though offering services and resources to their followers. In regions where corruption is prevalent, several suffer and live in poverty. In spite of possessing enormous natural resources that can be used to improve the economy of a nation and living conditions of its citizens as well as enjoy booming trades, commoners don’t experience any improvements and thus continue with their pathetic poor lives. This is so because majority of the revenue and wealth earned from exploitation of natural resources and other economic activities aren’t returned to citizens but are instead used by the high ranking bureaucrats other than by commoners. As a consequence, there is an amassing of wealth at top level whilst other people live in poverty. If leaders in corrupt nations actively fight corruption, there will be equal distribution of resources and improvement in the living conditions of individuals. According to Stiglitz (2006), poverty is an outcome of economic exploitation by richer divisions of the society. Employers exploit their employees; rich industrialists abuse their workers and offer them only survival wages. If these form of exploitation is eradicated it is possible eliminate poverty. Poverty can be eradicated through improvement of global trade terms between rich and poor nations as well as global government and charity assistance schemes. Poor nations can also end poverty of its citizens through utilization of a universal welfare scheme that will ensure that the state plays an important role in the economic and social welfare of its citizens through provision of basic needs such as education and health care. Investment in infrastructure Lack of proper infrastructures is a key cause of poverty of several nations. Mason (2006) argues that lack of proper means of transportation such as good roads and rails implies that a nation is usually inaccessible , making it tremendously hard to transport services and goods within the nation and across other nations. As such, individuals lack the necessities they require whilst the economy of a country deteriorates when trading can’t be completed amid nations. Bad economy implies that several individuals become unemployed and with no work, these individuals are not able to feed and support their families. It is possible to eradicate poverty of such nations through establishment of transport facilities and introduction of technology to these people. Better technology assists in building of efficient network which subsequently lead to improved transportation and trading within a nation and across other nations (World Bank, 2000). Consequences of poverty Failure to eradicate poverty will lead to more deaths as a result of poor health, increase in diet and hygiene related diseases such as typhoid and cholera and increase in crime rates. According to Mason, (2006), poverty is a hazardous weapon that has the ability of hindering development and growth of a country. Persistence of poverty will make people to continue experiencing poor health. The spread of diseases like malaria will keep on increasing in poor nations due to poor health facilities available for control of these diseases. Poor families cannot afford money to attend to good health care facilities which offer better equipment and drugs that will assist in improving their well being and health conditions. Inability to access insurance and medical care by poor people will compromise their capability to maintain good health and make them to be less productive. Reduced access to health care facilities and services will occur due to lack of health care providers in poor regions, transportation difficulties in getting to health care providers and absence of financial means to pay for health care. Persistence of poverty will make more and more individuals to face financial woes. Poverty has a great influence both the mental and physical development of the affected persons. For instance, poverty results to malnutrition which in turn affects the mental thinking and health of the affected person. Poverty, being a hard to eradicate cycle, will only make the poor people to be poorer. This is harmful to the economy of a nation, because children from poor nations will not be able to have enough food to consume and will also be not able to get education. Therefore, there will be a lack of educated intellectuals to govern and run a nation, and thus the issue of poverty will remain. Stiglitz, (2006) notes that poverty limits the opportunities of educational achievement and simultaneously, education attainment is a key mechanism for fleeing from poverty. Poverty is a unrelenting problem all through the globe and has harmful effects in nearly every aspect of family and society as well as outcomes of children. Failure to eradicate poverty will also lead to an increase in the risk of war. Stiglitz (2006) notes that because poor nations are not able to keep up with the global economy, and do not have the markets and raw materials to engage in global trade may result to war in an attempt to attain novel markets for their goods and concurrently attain raw materials from other nations. This will result to trade restrictions form several countries or conflict amid peace keeping forces. Poverty has the capability of leading to mass immigration of population. Due to a country’s poor economic state and weak rule of government, the populace might seek to immigrate to regions with better economy, where trade is highly profitable and where low cost exists for all. Because individuals from these poverty stricken countries select to emigrate in search for better jobs and better living and social conditions, it might undermine the ability of the nation to recover from the impacts of poverty (World Bank, 2000). Conclusion It is possible to eradicate poverty through counteracting issues that cause poverty. Poverty is mainly caused by lack of education, poor health and inability to access health facilities, lack of proper infrastructures, corruption and natural disasters. Through offering quality and equal education to all people, providing health care, fighting corruption, preventing and responding to natural disasters, and improving infrastructures through technology we will be able to eliminate poverty and enhance the well being of the citizens. Failure to eradicate poverty will lead to more poverty, and reduced productivity of people and nations. Bibliography McCarthy, C, 2007, The causes of poverty, University of California Press, California. World Bank, 2002‘Poverty Reduction and Equity’, < retrieved on May 25, 2012 from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:22569747~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html > Franco, D, 2009, Poverty and the continuing global health crisis, Tate Publishing, Oklahoma Mason, O, 2006, Poverty, Heinemann Library, New Jersey. Stiglitz, J, 2006, Making Globalization Work, Norton, New York. Lynch, W, Smith, D, Kaplan, A. & House, S, 2000, Income Inequality and Mortality: Importance to Health of Individual Income, Psychosocial Environment, or Material Conditions. British Medical Journal 320:1200–1204. World Bank, 2000, World Development Report 2000–2001: Attacking Poverty. Herndon, VA: World Bank Publications. Read More