Global Issues. Kristen A. Hite
is achievable; however, pessimists question whether this goal is genuinely achievable.
A Pessimistic View: The Persistence of Poverty
Now, here’s some information for the pessimist. The United Nations claimed in 2014 that about 1 in 8 people in the world, or 827 million people, endured chronic hunger between 2011 and 2013, and 1 in 4 children, or about 160 million, suffered from chronic undernutrition in 2012.26 In 2018, the United Nations reported that chronic hunger rose to approximately 1 in 9 people in the world.27 We review this in more detail in Chapter 4.
As illustrated in Figure 2.5, over 700 million people still live in extreme poverty.28 From 2012 to 2014, 11 percent of the global population, or about 770 million, still lacked clean drinking water and 2.5 billion lacked adequate sanitation (Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals).29 About 1.2 billion had no electricity.30 (We return to discussions on clean drinking water, electricity, and sanitation in subsequent chapters of the book.) In 2015, about 47.18 million people living in East Asia and the Pacific lived in extreme poverty, as did about 7.15 million in Europe and Central Asia, 25.90 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 18.64 million in the Middle East and North Africa, and 413.25 million in sub‐Saharan Africa. In 2013, about 274.49 million in South Asia lived in extreme poverty.31
Plate 2.2 The weight of poverty falls heavily on children in poorer nations
Source: United Nations.
A depressing number of countries (46) actually became poorer in the 1990s.32 Many of these were in Africa and a few were in Latin America and in Europe and Central Asia. In Africa many of the countries growing poorer are in sub‐Saharan Africa and are being hit by an HIV/AIDS epidemic, among other problems, while in Europe and Central Asia parts of the former Soviet Union found the transition to becoming an independent country difficult. For many the path from a planned, state‐managed economy to a freer economy was filled with obstacles.
Figure 2.5 Number of extremely poor individuals by region
Source: The World Bank. “http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/povDuplicateWB.aspx
Where are the world’s poor? Figure 2.5 shows that the world’s poor are concentrated in Africa, East Asia, and South Asia, with a particularly high concentration in sub‐Saharan Africa. Within regions and countries, the poor tend to be concentrated in rural areas with a high density of population, such as on the Ganges plain in India and on the island of Java in Indonesia. Although urban poverty is a growing problem due to demographic migration toward cities, 76 percent of extreme poverty occurred in the rural areas of the poorer countries as of 2013.33 Part of this is due to how poverty is defined, part is due to differences between rural and urban livelihoods, and part is due to disparities in economic opportunities.
Figures 2.6 and 2.7 show an interesting contrast in the poverty situation. From 1990 to 2015, the proportion of those in two of the poorest regions in the world – sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia – who were living in extreme poverty actually decreased, while at the same time the number of people in both regions living in extreme poverty increased. Do you know why it was this way? As we will see in Chapter 3, population is still increasing rapidly in both regions of the world so there are now more people living in these regions and thus more people at the bottom economic rung. Further, the weight of poverty in the less developed nations falls heaviest on women, children, and minority ethnic groups. We will take a closer look at the repercussions of poverty for marginalized peoples in Chapter 3.
Figure 2.6 People living on less than International Poverty Line ($1.90 USD): Sub‐Saharan Africa
Source: The World Bank. http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/region/EAS
Figure 2.7 People living on less than International Poverty Line ($1.90 USD): South Asia
Source: The World Bank. http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/region/EAS
Fighting poverty – can an individual do it?
Is there any way an individual can aid the efforts to reduce poverty in our world? Yes, there are ways. If you can’t personally work with the poor, you can give some funds to an organization that is working to improve the lives of the poor. Here are a few of those we donate to annually: Doctors Without Borders, Grameen Foundation, International Rescue Committee, and Oxfam (where author Hite has worked).
But you might ask: How can I be sure the organizations I give my money to will not waste my money? Several reputable organizations evaluate other organizations for this very characteristic. One of the best is the American Institute of Philanthropy, called by the New York Times “the pit bull of watchdogs.”
Note: If you are one of those rare individuals who wants to personally aid those who are poverty‐stricken, read the following article to learn how others are doing this: Nicholas D. Kristof, “The D.I.Y. [Do It Yourself] Foreign Aid Revolution,” New York Times Magazine, October 24, 2010, pp. 49–53.
How much are the richer nations doing at present to help the poorest nations? Over the past several decades, there have been some agreements to reduce the debt of poorer nations, but other economic challenges (like trade barriers) remain. Nontariff trade measures, such as quotas, subsidies, and restrictions on exports, are increasingly prevalent and may be enacted for policy reasons having nothing to do with trade. However, they have a discriminatory