How Far Should Poverty Alleviation Be a Priority for Any Government?

How far should poverty alleviation be a priority for any government? * True that there are more concerns * Poverty: * affects individuals, families; social conflicts; * hampers progress, lifestyle and earnings * Poverty: * hampers economic growth; * human capital affected; * disease in the society * Education: high illiteracy rate * Job creation * Health and sanitation: * Increase life expectancy * Nutrition, water supply * Road network, sheltering * SIDS: * Small countries like Mauritius, with its only resource being the human capital, poverty alleviation is absolutely essential. * They are among nations most impeded by “brain drain” * NHDC housing, EPZ schools support to inclusive development awareness activities, capacity building. * Progress monitored on key poverty and related indicators on support of sustainable human development * Vulnerability: * Reliance on international communities * Empowerment of women * Helping poor nations * G8: * Aid agencies * Venture capitalism * Political stability * Despite spectacular achievements in economy and reduction of poverty, promoting social equity and paying due regard to the environment, poverty still remains prevalent in some countries * 8% unemployed, 8% in destitution and 61% women

Living in the twenty first century, when the world has witnessed unparalleled achievements in the scientific and financial world, the high level of poverty – more precisely, half of the world’s population living on less than two dollars a day – is an unacceptable fact. This phenomenon has reached a critical point and blaming the poor for their own predicament is not enough. Eradicating poverty should be the top-most priority for all powerful decision-making bodies, that is, governments, around the world.
It is rightly said that the state of a nation mirrors the quality of its government. Hence for the most popular democratic form as well as for the less appealing totalitarian form, all governments have the duty of alleviating extreme poverty – a state characterizing those who do not even have basic needs. Whether it is due to revenue scarcity, malnutrition or lack of sanitation, those living in poverty suffer on personal and family grounds and also, in the social realm. Homelessness and hunger are fundamental symptoms of poverty. One decimal three billion people live in destitution worldwide – an eloquent figure triggering concerns of the international community about the pressing need for help. From this stemmed the “New Millennium Development Goals” of the United Nations, with the eradication of extreme poverty being the first of the set of eight goals to be achieved by 2015. They have served both as a commitment and an incentive for governments to take measures against poverty.
Impoverished people suffer from many diseases. One million people die annually from malaria since they cannot afford the basic vaccinations, tuberculosis and measles are the leading childhood killer around the world although they are vaccine-preventable. Moreover, factors such as malnutrition and hunger make people more vulnerable to illness; hungry children are four times more likely to be ill than those who are not. As a result six million children die each year. It is an outrageous fact, especially when contrasted with the twenty percent of the developed nation consuming eighty six percent of the world’s goods. In an attempt to curb homelessness and hunger, Mauritian government has built hundred NHDC houses with water and electricity available and payment facilities for the poor. The Obama campaign in 2008 promoted cheap and easily accessible medical care for the poor to reduce child mortality and increase the life expectancy of people.
Rampant poverty also fuels social scourges throughout the world. Instability and enormous suffering act as spurs for social exclusion and encourage robbery, alcoholism, drugs and more organized crimes. The desperate poverty and high rate of unemployment roiling England has been linked to the recent London riots. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse and addiction to drugs unfortunately fade into the normal trends of life in households with less than a dollar a day. To boot, poverty is also the breeding ground for illicit financial flows, arms trafficking and black organ markets. In China, unscrupulous middlemen are the ores profiting from both the organ donation dearth and the sprawling poverty in rural areas. For every hundred and fifty patients waiting in line for organ transplant, there is only one legal donor. Thus organ trafficking has emerged as a thriving business for those middlemen while illegal organ donors are offered only meager sums of money. The Chinese government is equally guilty since it refuses to criminalize such an offence and maintain that the toothless by law forbidding organ trafficking is enough – typical of a dictatorship.
Another effect of poverty, also due to bad governance, is the arms trade. Angola has been synonymous to the bloody diamonds. Thousands of people die yearly out of poverty even though the earth beneath them is brimming with the most expensive precious stone. Millions of people are denied access to fresh water and appropriate sanitation. The world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya has seventy thousand people living outside the camp. Not only is the arms trade burying those with enough resources to have an affluent lifestyle in deeper poverty but it is also promoting conflicts amongst the tribes and nations. It is up to the governments to reach the core of the problem and the very first step would be to condemn corruption. During the last thirty years, Africans are believed to have lost two trillion dollars through illicit financial flows, sustained by a highly corrupted system of governance.
Furthermore, catering for the needs of the vulnerable part of the society adds to the state’s responsibilities. Women, children, elderly and handicapped persons are unable to rise above poverty or have much more difficulty to do so due to their powerlessness. Hundred and thirty thousand children do not attend school, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and in south and west Asia. The irony is that two-thirds of these children are girls, while studies have shown that educating girls leads to improved family health and nutrition and more economic, social and political stability. In 2000, during a world conference, all governments had taken the initiative to promote education through modern technologies. In Mauritius, the government has made the internet – an essential tool for students – available at a moderate cost and it has ensured that every household has access to a computer. The impact of education has been obvious; the poverty rate has fallen by forty percent during the last decade in our society. The social security scheme, introduced by the United States in the 1990s is also an example of how helping the elderly people rise above the poverty threshold has successfully alleviated extreme poverty.
If a society breeds poverty and its government continues to have an apathetic attitude it can quickly become ingrained in the culture and traditions of that society. For instance, in remote areas in India, girls aged between five and fifteen years old have more chance of going into the sex business rather than school since it has been the means for the family to meet their basic needs for many years before. In fact, the sexual exploitation of children is a lucrative business, attracting one billion children worldwide each year. Moreover, those children are denied access to education. As families opt for alluring and illegal ways to have money, due to desperate poverty, they become entangled into the poverty trap. If governments do not act against these illicit practices, more and more people will be found in destitution and extreme poverty will mushroom over the world. However, poverty can be a vicious circle for those who lack the incentive too. In the United Kingdom, five billion people who receive government benefits have not shown considerable progress during the last few years. Their complacent behavior and passive attitude have inhibited them to aim higher, which is why they remained in the poverty ghetto.
As socialists advocate that the role of the government is to ensure the welfare of its people, capitalists argue that its main concern is the economic progress of the country. Indeed, for a nation to prosper, it is essential to have a stable economy. To eradicate poverty, governments need to invest in sectors with employment elasticities, such as the agricultural, non-agricultural in rural areas, and in the export hub. The forty eight poorest countries account for only 0.4 percent of global exports. This situation needs immediate remediation. Moreover, behind the interconnectedness promised by globalization, the negative impacts have been felt by the poorest part of the population. For example, the economic meltdown in 2008 had such an influence upon the whole world, mainly due to globalization. With the Euro zone rived by conflict and disagreements, the job market is likely to deteriorate unless governments come up with an effective measure to sustain the economy. For the world’s upcoming economic powers such as China, the economy has known a growth of seven decimal five percent in 2010. However, instead of having a decrease in the rate of extreme poverty, the poverty gap has widened. Those in moderate poverty were able to have a better lifestyle due to the economic reform in 1970s but the disparity between health and education outcomes has increased as those in extreme poverty were unable to afford the basic commodities since prices have soared.
A poor economy will not eradicate poverty and a poor ration will be unable to boost a country’s economy. Hence governments should work towards eliminating poverty and promoting the economy simultaneously. Professor Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner, had successfully introduced the micro-credit in Bangladesh and in Africa. It improved the situation of families drastically through the empowerment of women. There has been a rise in literacy, prolonged life expectation and better sanitation. Also, it incidentally brought about economic prosperity and political stability to the country. Following the same path, the Tanzanian government has taken the initiative to distribute acres of land rightfully to women, for them to become economically independent, through agriculture.
For Small Island Developing States, such as Mauritius, eradicating poverty is the most important priority for the government since the only viable resource is the human capital. Moreover, these nations are severely crippled by the brain drain factor, when the most competent and elite members are lured by blooming job markets and high salaries in developed countries. This is the reason for the Mauritian government to lie so much emphasis upon the need for education. Today, Mauritius tops the list of African countries with ninety seven percent literacy rate. EPZ schools, capacity building and support to inclusive development are among the incentives taken by the state to eradicate poverty and empower individuals as an integral part of the society. In the last decade, the government has taken a leap forward by reducing poverty to one percent of the population.
Although the first to be concerned about the eradication of poverty are the governments, their powers are not limitless. The international community has its share in the poor state of the nations. Considerable achievements have been made when the poverty threshold was increased by a quarter of a dollar per person daily. However, unequal distribution of resources and debt repayment are still major obstacles to the UN goals by 2015. The developing world spends thirteen dollars on debt repayment for every one dollar it receives in grants. It is enough to conclude that the developing world are abusing of the poorest nations, where the people not having any direct benefit from the money contracted have to repay the debt. It is one of the factors impeding the progress of the southern countries. Moreover, individuals having the financial and political clout should contribute on the same level together with NGOs to alleviate poverty. For instance, the annual star-studded UNDP football match organized by Zidane and Ronaldo communicates the sense of urgency to eradicate poverty and raises gains for it.
To sum up, poverty is the major scourge in all societies. Governments have already been committed to eradicating it – be it for the betterment of its people or for the country’s economic growth. There have been some successful measures, indicating that despite the plethora of obstacles, ending poverty is not a utopian fantasy. As Buzz Aldrin said, if we can conquer space, we can conquer poverty.