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Running head: PAPER #2
Poverty Rates in Australia, Sudan, Canada, Brazil and France
Paper #2
Western Washington University
Tina Pham
Running head: PAPER #2
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A social issue that has seen a global impact is the issue of poverty. This issue of poverty
is prevalent in different countries around the world, but the level of severity ranges from country
to country. The impact of poverty is largely dependent on the development of a country’s social
system and its available resources. Some factors that influence poverty are: health,
hunger, education, housing and utilities, violence, etc. These elements help categorize countries
by poverty level. As shown in Figure 1, one example of how poverty is categorized is by Human
Development Index; Vietnam, Australia, Sudan, Canada, Brazil, and France are all categorized
differently. A more in-depth look into poverty within those six diverse countries will help create
a scope of how poverty differs upon a global scale. This paper will briefly cover the experiences
of poverty in those six countries, distinguish their susceptible populations, and identify a few
systems that impact this particular issue.
Figure 1: United Nations’ World Human Development Index Map (2010)
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The issue of poverty in Vietnam has seen significant improvement in recent years as the
development of the country as a whole has increased. Unfortunately, the problem of poverty is
still widely prevalent. The 2013 Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations ranks
Vietnam at #127 (Malik, 2013). In Vietnam, poverty in the rural regions are most prevalent
because it is associated with the scarcity of productive resources, lack of irrigation, and the
deficiency of education and public infrastructure (Dollar, Glewwe & Litvack, 1998, p. 94).
Consequently, the people living in the rural regions—underdeveloped and mountainous
areas, are most vulnerable. The rural area is an example of the community system affected by
the issue. The personal systems involved within these regions are: farmers (agricultural
workers), ethnic minorities (economically and socially isolated from the rest of the nation), and
rural households consisting of only women and child/ren. Households consisting of only women
and children create an interpersonal system that affects poverty because the working mother
would create a disconnection between herself and her child/ren. This disconnect is evidenced by
David Ciscel, “Living wages are important to women, because women supporting families find it
difficult to earn a large enough income to provide for financial self-sufficiency” (Figart, 2004, p.
52).
In comparison to Vietnam, Australia is strides ahead in terms of development and level of
poverty. The issue of poverty in Australia is very low, which is portrayed by the country’s #2
ranking in the United Nations’ 2013 HDI (Malik, 2013). Australia’s rank of #2 correlates
directly to the low rates of poverty in this country. Although the issue of poverty in Australia is
insignificant, it doesn’t imply that it is nonexistent. According to research, poverty is still widely
seen in populations in rural and urban areas (Tanton, Harding, & McNamara, 2010). The urban
areas had a high concentration of people living in poverty, which creates an interpersonal system
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that distinguishes the separation between those from the rural regions. Additionally, there are
still areas in Australia that are under-developed and populated by aborigines, who are indigenous
groups of people that live a socioeconomic life subpar to the rest of the population. Aborigines
represent personal systems because the individuals within the group has a direct effect from
poverty, due to their lower standards of living. With such a wide range in poverty levels, highly
developed country create a community system, in which the concept of poverty becomes
misunderstood because it is experienced differently and varies from one community to another
(Callander, Schofield & Shrestha, 2012).
As an extreme contrast in poverty levels, Sudan has a level of poverty far different from
that in Australia. The issue of poverty in Sudan is one of the biggest underlying issues in the
country. The United Nations HDI ranking for Sudan is #171 (Malik, 2013), which resides in the
lower 10% of the world. The low human development, along with the extreme living conditions
that the majority of the population lives in, creates for the high prevalence of poverty in this
country. Sudan, a country and a community system, is vulnerable to poverty. Throughout
history, Sudan has had trouble with poverty during its tenure under the Civil Rule and “it has
been unable to climb the development ladder and improve living standards since gaining
independence” (Dagdeviren, 2006, p. 473). The personal systems that affect poverty are solely
based on rapid population growth, in which puts pressure on a fragile ecosystem (Omar, 2007).
A fragile ecosystem is essentially based on drought susceptibility, which directly affects the
agriculture structures, an example of an interpersonal system. Civil Rule, lack of development,
rapid population growth, and droughts all contribute to the issue of poverty in Sudan.
Different from Sudan, Canada is a country where the poverty rate is vastly unlike most of
the countries discussed earlier in the paper. Canada’s United Nations’ DHI ranking is #11
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(Malik, 2013) and due to a well-developed country, it constitutes to a lower prevalence of
poverty. What distinctly sets Canada apart is that they have no official poverty measure, rather
“it is generally agreed that poverty refers to the intersection of low-income and other dimensions
of ‘social exclusion’, including things such as access to adequate housing, essential goods and
services, health and well-being and community participation” (“Primer on poverty,” 2008). This
measure, or lack thereof, is the main difference between Canada and other countries. The
community system affects poverty based on the way the government chooses to measure it. As
defined by the Canadian government, poverty is based on low-income and lack of access to
adequate living conditions. The people that suffer from the lack of amenities and incomes are
the most vulnerable population. Canada has measured poverty based on Low-Income Cutoffs
(LIC), which is interpreted as an interpersonal system between this standard and the population
that falls under this cutoff. Poverty being based on income, leaves out a specific population
unrelated to this, children. Child poverty in Canada is a concern simply because of how child
poverty is measured (Crossley & Curtis, 2006, p. 238). The lack of a measurement technique for
child poverty affects poverty as a personal system.
Another country that is poverty stricken is Brazil with a United Nations HDI ranking of
#85 (Malik, 2013). Though, Brazil is considered in the moderately developed range, and there
are concentrations of people in urban and rural areas that live an underprivileged life,
representing a community system that is affected directly by poverty. The issue of poverty is
very much prevalent, where residents of the slums/favelas are vulnerable, accounting for 18
million poor rural people, and is considered the largest in the Western Hemisphere (IFAD, n.d.).
The limited amount resources this population has to live with makes it extremely hard to
overcome poverty, hence how the personal system is affected. More specifically, the populations
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that are most vulnerable to poverty are Brazilians with African descent. The combination of
being Afro-Brazilian and living in the slums result for the most at risk-for-poverty population.
The interpersonal system that affects poverty is the socioeconomic discrepancy between AfroBrazilians and the rest of the population (Gradin, 2008, p. 1246). Brazil faces many levels of
poverty, whether from those living in urban or rural areas, to those who face income inequalities.
Lastly, France a country ranked #20 in the United Nations’ DHI (Malik, 2013) is also
considered a well-developed country, however poverty is still prevalent. Although France has
made major strides in combating poverty, it is difficult to rid its existence. Currently, one in six
French people live in poverty (Caulcutt, 2012), meaning they live under the poverty line
established by the French government. The most vulnerable populations, as a community
system, are those that live in urban areas or as the French call, “shanty towns”. These areas are
located on the outskirts of France and have little access to roads or services, which creates a
division from the French nationals, an interpersonal system. Another population, a personal
system that is vulnerable to poverty is the young (people under 25) individuals because of the
lack of hours that are available for them to work if they have jobs, as well as the deficiency of
alternative choices to make an income. Some young people may be independent, however don’t
have the opportunity to have a source of income due to their age, which results in financial
struggles (Jamet, 2007, p. 10).
In conclusion, it can be seen that poverty is in fact a global issue. No matter how
developed a country is, even based on the United Nations HDI ranking, poverty still exists.
Comparing the six countries: Vietnam, Australia, Sudan, Canada, Brazil, and France in terms of
poverty would be difficult because of how it is defined by each country. What can be concluded
is that poverty in these countries is a result from at least one of the factors that define poverty:
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health, hunger, education, housing and utilities, violence, etc. Rural areas are mainly the location
for poverty in all of these countries. Conversely, aside from Canada, poverty is measured by a
poverty line based on income, which varies from country to country. As seen in this paper,
poverty is a global issue that result in countries from around the world being affected, different
systems are impacted by the problem, specific populations are susceptible, and although some
countries are more developed and contain rich resources, people in poverty are very much
prevalent.
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Running head: PAPER #2
References:
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