Poverty Issues

Remedying only the superficial manifestations of the deeper
underlying problems of extreme poverty will never end
poverty itself. At best, this approach will temporarily
relieve urgent problems; at worst, it will exacerbate them
or create long-term trade-off problems. If we want to
eliminate poverty, we must look at its roots and apply
sustainable, pragmatic development solutions.

There are many popular misconceptions about underdeveloped
countries that prevent both politicians and private
citizens from seriously considering solutions. Some people
think less developed countries (LDCs) are poor as the
result of laziness, mismanagement, and corruption. While
corruption and mismanagement do play a role in the
inefficient and criminal diversion of aid funds, they
definitely do not make it impossible to conduct successful
development operations--unless, of course, we use corrupt
regimes as a justification to not give aid at all.

So what are some of the common root causes of poverty? Each
of the following roots of poverty can be eliminated through
development projects when they bypass government
involvement or develop mutual-accountability agreements
with governments to ensure the best results for the
program constituents:

Geographic Isolation:

Geographic isolation actually occurs on two levels:
1) within regions and continents; and 2) within countries.
The first type of geographic isolation generally includes
countries that are landlocked hundreds of miles away from
the closest port. These countries end up paying excessive
fees and costs for freight to export and import goods. The
other type of isolation--that occurs within countries--
generally includes villages that are separated from the
rest of the country because of a lack of infrastructure.
These villages typically lack electricity, adequate food
markets, and adequate sources of clean water.

Inadequate Access to Medical Clinics:

Most citizens of the Third World lack access to medical
clinics and basic medical counseling. This is generally
because governments in LDCs do not have enough resources
to sponsor sufficient medical programs. Many LDCs also lack
medical professionals as a result of underfunded
educational systems. When people cannot visit clinics
regularly, they do not get the counseling they need to
prevent illness and often end up incapacitated by easily-
curable illnesses and parasites, such as worms.

Underfunded Education:

Many citizens of the Third World also lack access to
education. Since governments in LDCs do not have funds
to provide an educational system for all students, they
often create unreasonably hard standardized testing systems
to prevent students from graduating; and even when they
do pass the tests, they are often held back because there
simply are not enough resources to support them. Without
access to basic and vocational education, new generations
in LDCs are being severely limited in both future choices
and ability to contribute to the country’s development.

Inadequate Access to Nutritious Food:

Much of the Third World lacks the money and resources to
eat or grow a nutritious diet--and instead must subsist on
one meal each day of starchy local food staples and
vegetables. This leads to severe undernutrition in both
adults and children, the often-fatal malnutrition-infection
cycle in infants and young children, and high-incidence of
diabetes in adults. Many people--specifically in certain
geographic areas--also lack the means to cook meals. This
causes those affected to choose between hunger and food-
borne illness.

Inadequate Access to Improved Water & Sanitation
Facilities:

These two problems are actually intimately linked: in areas
where people do not have access to improved sanitation
facilities, they often end up contaminating sources of
groundwater with human waste, which often leads to the
spread of worms and water-borne illness. Inadequate access
to improved water sources, such as pumps and wells, forces
people in geographically isolated areas to spend hours each
day just retrieving water, often from dirty sources. This
prevents most people from getting an adequate amount of
clean drinking water, raising incidence of water-borne
illness and general dehydration.