Global Health Issues - Essay Example

International relations/Global Health Issues How do trends in globalization and/or increasing inequality affect the relationship between chronic poverty and health? Analysis of how increasing inequality or global trends affect the relationship between chronic poverty and health have found out that the rich or privileged people in the society live healthier and longer lives when compared to the poor people. Thus, increasing inequalities create a visible gap between the haves and have nots. The have nots as a result of inequalities (especially economic inequalities) experience chronic poverty which consequently translates to poor standards of health. Thus, increasing inequalities between nations, communities or individuals lead to the creation of chronically poor people. This has a negative impact on the health of the chronically poor since they can not afford good medical care. On the other hand, global trends lead to economic disparities among individuals or nations leading to chronic poverty. Subsequently, chronic poverty leads to health inequalities or poor health services. To achieve millennium development goals on global poverty reduction, the global trend to stopping impoverishment include preventing conflicts and proper disaster management programs. Others include availing universal health coverage, management of economic vulnerability and insuring against risks. Global trends to combine efforts and end poverty is one way of reducing economic inequality that exists between developed countries and developing countries. To achieve the millennium development goals, the poverty gap must be bridged and global policy formulation on poverty reduction is a smart move to achieve this goal. Reducing economic inequality will reduce chronic poverty and improve health. Poverty reduction means that economic status of the people will greatly improve. Therefore, they will afford better comprehensive care (Moser, Caroline & Rodgers, 55). They will also manage to eat healthy and avoid health risks and thus prevent disease from manifestation. The policies on poverty reduction also aim at increasing medical coverage and insuring against major medical risks. The efforts will drastically reduce health risks and improve state of medical health globally. Another trend in globalization is the shift of international trade from commodity markets, making countries that deal with commodity goods loss a source of livelihood. The shift reduces the demand for commodity goods and loss of international market. This is especially so in Lowly developing countries (LDCs) that are commodity-dependent. Poverty is all pervasive in these countries because they are failing to participate in global economic growth. This results in economic stagnation, short growth spurts that lead to collapse of the economy. Therefore, the global shift from demand of commodity goods produced by third world countries result in chronic poverty in LDCs. This is because economic stagnation reduces the average household incomes and consumption. It reduces per capita income and the overall GDP of these counties (Milanovic 677). Chronic poverty leads to environment al degradation as people eat into the environmental capital stock to survive. This undermines the productivity of key assets that are key to sustaining lives and livelihoods. For example, the state of health care is poor and underdeveloped in these countries. The governments focus on provision of basic needs for survival to its poor population. It barely has any resources to invest in proper medical facilities and ensure sound medical coverage. Technological advancement is another global trend sweeping across all nations like a whirl wind. To achieve sustainable development, countries turn to technology to reduce costs of production and increase efficiency. Governments and private companies invest heavily in technology to increase their productivity and quality of products and services offered. Countries that invest in technology experience economic growth because of mass production and industrial revolution that results from use of technology. These countries enlarge businesses and participate in international trade. Investors are more willing to invest in the countries and increase the rate of employment. More employment opportunities empower the citizens, increase their disposable income and hence, their purchasing power. Chronic poverty is eradicated when countries adopt technological trends to boost their economy. Technology increases availability and improvement of health care services. Through technological advancement, medicine to cure formerly incurable diseases such as cancer is discovered. Technology facilitates medical research and development to identify medicine and new ways of treating chronic and other diseases. Medical technology saves lives that were initially lost due to lack of appropriate equipment such as surgical equipment that facilitate sensitive surgeries such as heart surgeries. Technology makes it cheaper to access medical care and improve the general state of health. Increasing inequality in income distribution leads to chronic poverty and poor state of health in many affected countries. In the last 20 years, income inequalities have increased across many countries. The global trend shows that income gap has increased remarkably in many countries. The gulf in the quality of life between the poor and the rich has increased alarmingly, resulting in chronic poverty and poor health for the disadvantaged poor, despite huge wealth accumulated through impressive growth performance. Ironically, the sharpest rises in income inequality have been experienced in countries that successfully achieved rigorous economic growth and high income ranks. Rather than eradicate inequality, economic growth in these countries increased the poverty gap. Inequality jeopardizes economic growth and poverty reduction. It has stagnated growth in health care provision in many countries as it limiting the opportunity to access quality health care for the majority poor. Therefore, countries are focusing on human development to help achieve the millennium development goals of ending poverty by eliminating economic inequalities and improving global health status (Alkire 4). Thus, increasing inequalities lead to chronically poor individuals or communities. Subsequently, chronic poverty attracts poor health services and statuses. 2. What are some of the key factors in the relationship between inequality, chronic poverty and environmental health? An imbalance in income distribution is a key factor that causes social injustices and inequalities. Income distribution becomes inequitable if a small percentage of the population shares most of the income while the vast majority share a small percentage of this income. For example, income distribution inequalities are rampant in countries where 80% of national income is only accessible to the wealthy while only 20% is available to the rest of the population. The effect of income injustices is that it results in chronic poverty. Chronic poverty is defined as a period of continuous and significant economic deprivation for more than five years. When the bigger portion of the population faces chronic poverty due to imbalances in income distribution, the country cannot achieve economic developments. This is because people who live in abject poverty live below the poverty line of less than a dollar per day. Chronic poverty in turn results in environmental degradation, which results in environmental health issues. For example, because income distribution inequalities lead to poverty, people turn to natural resources such as forests for survival. They cut trees to make shelters, cook and sell timber to make ends meet. If everyone results to tree felling without planting new trees, the quality of air is affected, carbon dioxide gases increase in the environment and result in respiratory diseases. Another effect of poverty on the environment is that the people cannot afford proper waste disposal systems. They damp their solid non-biodegradable waste on land. This breeds bacteria, and foul smells that affect people’s health. Lack of appropriate sewerage system forces the people to damp liquid waste in rivers, resulting in water pollution and infestation of a myriad of water borne diseases. Social injustices are another key factor in the relation between inequality, chronic poverty and environmental health. Social injustice refers to a society’s unkindness in its dissimilarities between classes and casts, and other incidental inequalities based on a person’s worldview of humanity. Social injustice issues occur globally, regionally, nationally and within groups. They result from unequal opportunities such as education and wealth distribution, unfair treatment of people with different characteristics such as race, culture, and religion, sex orientation and laws that support such injustices. Social injustices lead to chronic poverty because the discriminated group doesn’t get a share of developmental resources from the privileged group (Milanovic 682). Human development leads to poverty elimination and economic empowerment. Employment opportunities facilitate human development and boosts economy. Social injustices hinder human development because it denies the victims opportunities to gain meaningful employment, education to sharpen their skills and a chance to participate in leadership and develop their communities. This results in chronic poverty as social injustices cause stagnation in economic development. Social injustices hinder human development and cause adverse effects on the environment. Poverty that results from social injustices affect the natural environment negatively. For example, national resources allocated to areas prone to social injustices are used to purchase the basic needs to ensure survival. There are no resources left to improve the environment and reverser the effects of environmental pollution caused by poor states of waste disposal and pollution of the water sources. The government also focuses on providing basic resources to sustain life and has little resources left to allocate to the environment conservation efforts. Furthermore, social injustices hinder empowerment and increase illiteracy levels (Milanovic 667). The victims fail to see the importance of conserving social environment because they mainly concentrate on survival in the hostile environment. Therefore, social injustices result in inequalities that cause chronic poverty and the resultant environmental health risks. Insecurity is another factor that that results in equality, cause poverty and environmental degradation, exposing people to health risks. Insecurity is fuelled by many factors including political instability and international animosity, ethnic clashes and terrorism among others. Insecurity causes fear and violence. It leads to inequalities because when wars break out, the wealthy and the affluent can afford to protect themselves while people of meagre means feel the wrath of the war. For example, in lowly developed countries (LDCs), people who live in upcountry are affected more by insecurity because they have no resources to retaliate, neither are they ever prepared for such events. Insecurity lead to chronic poverty because it hinders economic growth. During the periods of insecurity, businesses are destroyed and people are unable to engage in employment. The government uses its resources to curb insecurity rather than invest in economic growth. Investors shun the country and global trade ceases, leading to chronic poverty. Insecurity has profound effects on environment because they cause environmental degradation and expose people to health risks. Harmful gases from war weapons such as machine guns cause respiratory diseases. During wars, damping of dead bodies in streets foul smells that are also associated with lung ad nasal irritation. Grenades and bombs affect chemical properties of the soil and its ability to support plant life. Extreme cases of insecurity and wars result in use of atomic bombs that exposes people to radioactive materials. This causes various types of cancers, alterations of genetic make-up that affects generations and cause untold human suffering. Therefore, insecurity results in inequality and chronic poverty. It also exposes people to environmental health risks that reduce quality of life. Work cited Alkire, Sabina. "Human development: Definitions, critiques, and related concepts." (2010). Hulme, David, and Andrew Shepherd. "Conceptualizing chronic poverty." World development 31.3 (2003): 403-423. Milanovic, Branko. "The two faces of globalization: against globalization as we know it." World Development 31.4 (2003): 667-683. Moser, Caroline ON, and Dennis Rodgers. Change, violence and insecurity in non-conflict situations. London: Overseas Development Institute, 2005: 52-57 Read More