“Poverty used to be a reflection of scarcity. Now it
is a problem of identification, targeting, and distribution. And that is a
problem that can be solved.” (The
Economist—June 1, 2013 edition)
This is such an encouraging concept: We have
adequate resources in this world, albeit inadequate distribution.
According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia currently experience the highest levels of poverty. The first step, identification
of needs, is relatively easy: nutrition, clean drinking water, shelter, health
care, education, safety, etc.
The next step—targeting—or pinpointing the neediest
members of these regions, is a bit more difficult. Most poverty statistics are
based on a measure of a country’s per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product). GDP/capita
measures the average productivity of a country. It does not take unequal
distribution of resources into account. There are people in every country who
will go to bed hungry tonight. There is someone not far from you who can’t
afford his medications. There are cities all over the world--where the homeless
sleep on the streets, children lack proper education, and families don’t feel
safe.
The final step, distribution, is the most complicated
of the three mentioned. Transportation of food, medicine, and building
materials can be expensive as well as logistically troublesome. In many
impoverished regions, food aid is often confiscated and sold on the black
market by the warlords. Corrupt leaders regularly funnel aid money into their
own pockets. News about these incidences leads to compassion fatigue among
donors.
The global poverty rate may have been decreased
significantly in the last two decades. However, we are far from solving this challenging problem.
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