Absolute poverty is when people are only able to meet the bare essentials of life such as food, clothing, clean water, education, shelter etc. Economic development is the improvement of people’s freedom to live long and healthy lives and to focus on other goals they have reason to value.
Reducing absolute poverty should, in theory, help achieve economic development. This is mainly down to the fact that once absolute poverty is reduced less people will be worrying about issues such as starvation and lack of healthcare. Instead more and more will be focussing on other issues such as earning enough money to run a car. By reducing absolute poverty economic development will automatically occur. The reduction of absolute poverty would allow people to have access to things they once lacked such as food, clean water, clothing etc. This means that reducing absolute poverty is sufficient to achieve economic development.
Reducing absolute poverty would also increase wages among people in poverty leading to them having access to certain goods and services they couldn’t previously afford. This means that more people have access to more life sustaining goods and services, which is a key factor in achieving economic development.
In order to reduce poverty the government would need to create enough jobs within the economy to reduce unemployment and get those in poverty earning more money. This would be a huge expense for the government however it is a step in the process to achieving economic development. Another way to reduce poverty is to provide clean water, food sources and protection to the whole economy. In countries like Zambia and Kenya, this would be such a huge project that the governments don’t have enough finance to fund these projects.
However, reducing absolute poverty isn’t enough to achieve economic development. Economic development is aimed at everyone and it is the improvement of