Extreme poverty
Facts that Everyone Should Know
and
Where We Are in Ending the Global Poverty.
Sunway College, ENG4C
By
Saman Hakimi
Introduction-What is Extreme Poverty?
● According to Oxfam International, a charitable organization
working to end poverty, “almost half of humanity is living on less
than $5.50 a day.”
● The World Bank defines ”extreme poverty” as people who live
with less than $1.90 a day.
● This has to change.
Why Poverty Is a Very Important Issue?
●
Poverty is a socio-economic issue.
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Poverty manifests itself through hunger and
malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare services,
limited access to education, and social services
Our first obligation should be to present an accurate
version of reality.
●
What Caused Extreme Poverty?
1. Inequality and Marginalization-the most important cause!
2. Conflict
3. Lack of Infrastructure
4. Lack of Education
5. Climate Change
6. Lack of good healthcare
Why Inequality?
THE WORLD’S RICHEST 1% HAVE MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH WEALTH AS 6.9
BILLION PEOPLE.
The very top of the economic pyramid sees trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of
a very small group of people, predominantly men, whose fortune and power grow
exponentially.
ONLY 4 CENTS IN EVERY DOLLAR OF TAX REVENUE COMES FROM TAXES ON
WEALTH.
While the richest continue to enjoy booming fortunes, they are also enjoying some of
the lowest levels of tax in decades
Who Is Most Affected by Extreme Poverty?
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People who are living in rural areas and do not have access to proper
education,work in agriculture, and are under the age of 18.
Women. Women are more likely to be poor than men because they do not have as
many opportunities to receive an education, work, or own property.
Children the most,because the resources they lack have long-term developmental
consequences that limit their future and worsen the cycle of poverty.
More than one-fifth of children under the age of 5 in developing countries live in
extreme poverty.
The Actions that Have Been Taken
●
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By the start of the new millennium In September 2000, all 191 UN member
states Millennium Development Goals had eight goals that they had agreed to
try to achieve by the year 2015.
The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000
commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy,
environmental degradation, and discrimination against women.
The Eight Millennium Development Goals:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To having universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower females
4. Decrease the rate of death for children
5. To improve maternal health and safety
6. To fight against Malaria, HIV and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development
Reference: United Nations Development Program, Millenium Development Goals,
Online Article, UN, (undp.org)
How Successful Was Millennium Development Goals?
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Approximately two-thirds of the lives saved were in sub-Saharan Africa,
around a fifth we're in China and India and the remainder were in the rest of
the developing countries.
Between 8.8 to 17.3 million of the lives were saved due to expanded
treatment for HIV/Aids, 3.1 million due to declines in Tuberculosis deaths,
and approximately half a million due to improvements in maternal mortality.
At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to accelerated progress.
How Successful Was Millennium Development Goals?
What Are Sustainable Development Goals?
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The Sustainable Development Goals are the foundation of a better and more
sustainable future for all.
They deal with problems that we face including poverty, inequality, climate
change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
All the 17 Goals are interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is
important that we achieve them all by 2030. The SDGs, set in 2015 by the
United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year
2030,
What Are Sustainable Development Goals?
How can we improve this social justice issue?
●
For decreasing the rate of extreme poverty we can mention Economic
growth, effective social safety nets, and the educational system but the
biggest driver of the success is economic growth, but not any kind of
economic growth.
●
Give cash to poor people! Studies showed people are more responsible if
they have their money directly and they will use it in a right way to have better
life.
Video
https://youtu.be/xM7KozmQcSw
Discussion – Questions/answers
1-Why do you guys think wealth distribution is so unfair?
Mainly it's because of the current global economic system. It’s profit-based
and current wealth tax system is very unfair.
2-Do you believe MDG and SDG are ways to end poverty?
The data is hopeful but still, there is a long way to go.
3-Do you feel the world's leaders' plans for ending poverty are enough?
No, not even close, because if their plans were enough then we wouldn’t
have any poverty.
Conclusion
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What’s needed is economic growth that improves the income-generating
opportunities of the poor.
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Experts don’t know what a poor person needs. But guess who does? Poor
people.
Works Cited
https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sdgoverview/mdg_goals.html
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/mar/30/how-successful-wer
e-the-millennium-development-goals
https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/extreme-poverty-definition-statistics-rate/
https://www.fastcompany.com/3049642/how-to-fight-poverty-its-simple-give-cash-to-poor-people
https://www.princeton.edu/haushofer/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf