Recent World Bank study has found that global poverty is on the increase and that the disparity in income levels is also on the increase. According to the study, more people are living in extreme poverty in developing countries than previously thought, having regarded such issues to an adjusted yardstick for the measurement of global poverty which moved from US$.1 a day to US$.1.25 a day.
This adjustment was necessary in view of the depreciation of the US dollar visa vice other currencies.
The Reports concluded that there are roughly 1.4 billion people or one quarter of the world’s population who currently live in a state of grinding poverty. Last 2 years there were one billion people who were considered to be living below the poverty threshold, an increase of some 200 million people compared to the previous year.
The situation is particularly pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia, in which close to half of the regions’ population were thought to be living below the poverty line. While most of the developing countries, in particular China and India have succeeded in reducing poverty, the situation in Africa has not seen any significant changes and in fact may have gotten worse. What is even more alarming is the fact that the gaps in income levels continue to increase, despite the steep increases in productivity levels due to the application of more advanced forms of production technology.
What this means in effect is that the benefits of technological advances are not being enjoyed by the average worker but are siphoned off in the forms of super profits to a privilege few.
The gaps in income levels are more paramount in the advanced industrialised countries, such as the United States, Canada, Brazil and India where there are high levels of poverty despite significant levels of economic growth. Brazil and India are particularly noted for high levels of inequity in terms of income distribution.
India, for example, has a growing middle-class which in absolute terms are equal to the entire population of the United States. This is quite at variance with the Republic of China which has a much larger population and higher levels of economic growth but with fewer millionaires as compared to India, Russia or the United States.
This is why the Chinese model of economic growth needed to be carefully examined by development practitioners to determine what could be done from a distributional standpoint to bridge the income gap, which seemed to be a pervasive feature of western economies. The fact that China has been largely successful in terms of meeting the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty by half by year 2015 is in itself significant and worth studying if not replicating in other parts of the developing world.
Not only is the country doing well in economic terms but it has also excelled in terms of sports and in the performing arts as the last Olympics in China has so strongly demonstrated. The Chinese team won most of the Gold Medals and came second in the total medals count, second only to the USA by a small margin.
Poverty is not something that cannot be resolved, if there is the will to so do. It is within the reach of mankind to eradicate and to alleviate poverty at all levels, given the resources available. The problem has always been one of inequitable distribution of the global wealth which is highly skewed in favour of the rich. What is needed is a new global human order in which people and not profits are put at the centre of human activities.
This point was repeatedly made by Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who is a strong advocate for a new order which incidentally got the endorsement of global community in the form of a United Nations Resolution. It now remains for the resolution to be acted upon, something which needed to be actively pursued.
Mr. Nelson Mandela has shown how it is possible to end poverty through a re-allocation of resources away from the military stand point to human development among other measures. Poverty is a scourge that must be addressed by the global community as a matter of urgency.
There are far too many people who are dying of hunger and far too many children who are deprived of education, health care and social welfare. The Millennium Development Goals to which all countries of the world have committed themselves to, are becoming increasingly elusive, in terms of the realization of those set targets.
The time is long overdue for less talk around the table and more action to plant a seed into the soil, which must be on the part of all rich and industrialised nations.
Media Blackberry
