Alleviating Poverty: Role of Corporations and UN Principles for Responsible Management Education

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INTRODUCTION:
Poverty is an extremely pertinent issue in today’s world. Poverty can be described as a
social condition wherein people do not have the money to avail basic needs such as food,
medicines, clothes and shelter and tend to be marginalized in society. Poverty is a burning issue
that needs to be acknowledged, accepted and alleviated. There has been a decrease in global
poverty with global poverty being halved since 2000, but still there is a long way to go. Efforts
are required to boost the incomes of the people who live below the poverty line, alleviate
suffering and try to build the resilience of those individuals who are still living in acute poverty,
especially those people living in sub-Saharan Arica. One should implement and expand social
protection systems and try to mitigate risks for those countries, which are disaster prone and are
also the most impoverished countries.
DISCUSSION:
In order to eliminate poverty, one must first identify the causes that lead to poverty. The
causes of poverty include illiteracy and lack of education, overpopulation, diseases and natural
causes like lack of rainfall, which leads to drought and consequently famine. Excessively rainfall
on the other hand can also lead to poverty as it may result in floods which may destroy
everything that the poor people possess. Studies conducted by the International Food Study
revealed that one of the major causes of poverty is the inability of a family to set aside financial
resources for education, property, healthcare thereby continuing the vicious cycle of poverty.
Overpopulation leads to poverty because the growth of a country’s population exceeds the
growth of a country’s development and the growth of a country’s economy. Overpopulation
further leads to unemployment and an extremely lower standard of living. Countries where

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agriculture is the backbone of the economy can suffer due to lack of agricultural infrastructure.
Unequal distribution of assets, inflation and price hike also lead to poverty. Gender inequality
also contributes to poverty. Poverty can also be attributed to the fact that the underprivileged
sections of society do not have access to basic amenities as well as not having access to markets
and resources. Warfare and violence also contribute to poverty as it destroys everything and
drains the resources of a nation. Nothing is ever achieved by waging a war. War only leads to a
loss of lives and the decline of a nation and its people. Another reason for poverty is also
Colonialism. The main causes of poverty are unemployment, debt, inflation, corruption, extreme
weather, lack of access to education, global hunger, mental illness and the lack of psychiatric
care, overpopulation and diseases that cause epidemics. The historical causes of poverty include
war, conquest and slavery.
The effects of poverty are extremely serious. Poverty leads to malnutrition and hunger
and people who live in abject poverty are susceptible to various diseases because impoverished
people cannot afford medicines and basic healthcare. Children who grow up in abject poverty
may suffer from severe health problems like malnutrition and various diseases than children who
grow up in an environment that possesses the financial resources to support them. Many infants
who are born in very poor households weigh very less and are more prone to diseases because of
a weak immune system which, stems from a lack of food and nourishment. They are also prone
to having physical disabilities. These infants unfortunately have a low mortality rate.
Children who live in abject poverty and are extremely poor also tend to miss school
because they fall sick very often. They do not have access to proper food and adequate food and
also do not have access to proper medical facilities or healthcare. Most of these children have

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problems in their eyesight and suffer from anemia because of deficiency of iron. They also have
increase levels of lead in their blood, which leads to an impairment of the functions of a brain.
Loss of jobs and subsequent poverty leads to violence in impoverished families including
abuse of the elderly and child abuse. Extreme poverty also leads to homelessness and children
who are homeless are more often than not unlikely to receive proper food, medicines and
immunization, which, in turn causes malnutrition and other diseases. Poverty is a self-
perpetuating cycle and the only way to break poverty is through education, which will lead to
employment thereby alleviating poverty. Wastage of food around the world, lack of sanitation
The governments of impoverished countries can take the following measures to alleviate
poverty. The government can implement social protection plans to prevent and reduce poverty
and inequality at every stage of the life of a person by giving them benefits for children, by
giving benefits to mother with new- born babies, people who are physically challenged, elderly
people and to those people who are poor and do not have any jobs. Studies showed that in the
year 2016, only forty-five percent of the population of the world was protected by a social
protection system. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that elderly people get their
pensions on time regardless of where they live. The government should also provide disability
benefits to people with severe disabilities, provide unemployment benefits to those who are
unemployed and maternity benefits for expectant mothers. The government should try its best to
build the resilience of the poor in order to end extreme poverty in the most afflicted countries of
the world.
The government should ensure social protection for the destitute and the vulnerable
people in society, ensure that the poor people get access to basic services, and support people