Analyzing the Main Reasons for Poverty Persistence Globally

This essay delves into the complex issue of poverty persistence around the world, examining the multifaceted reasons behind its continued prevalence. The essay begins by defining poverty and highlighting its various manifestations, including malnutrition, lack of access to basic necessities, and soci...Read More

THE MAIN
REASONS FOR THE
PERSISTENCE OF
POVERTY AROUND
THE WORLD.
• NAME-PATEL ANTRIX N.
• NUMBER-516881
• PROFESSIOR NAME- MARIE BOURNE

Warmer Questions:
1. What is the poverty in simple language?
2. Is there any poor people you can see where you live?

INTRODUCTION
• Introduction
• Inadequate access to clean water and nutritious food
• Limited access to clean water and food with high
adequate nutrition requirements.
• Limited access to quality education
• Conflict
• Climate change
• Lack of infrastructure
• Inequality
• Corrupt governments
• Environmental degradation
• Conclusion

BACKGROUND
Poverty can best be defined as the lack of income or adequate resources that ensure a livelihood
that is sustainable (Ravallion, 2017).
There are various ways that depict poverty.
These include malnutrition, hardship accessing basic needs such as food and shelter, hardship
accessing quality education, discrimination in social set-ups as well as limited chances to be
involved in decision making processes.

By the year 2030, more than half a
billion people are expected to wallow in
extreme poverty (Lewis, 2017).
Most of these people are projected to be
in sub-Saharan Africa.
Studies show that it is so severe that
almost half of the world’s population live on
less than 2.5 dollars a day.

In another study, 783 million people live below the international line of poverty, that cuts off at
1.90 US dollars in a day. Most of these people come from sub-Saharan Africa as well as southern
Asia (Landes, 2015)
However, strategies to curb this projection have been put in place.
Just like China and India improved from being some of the poorest nations, to being the richest,
there is hope.

Limited access to clean water and food with
adequate nutrition requirements.
Studies show that more than 800 million people go to bed on
hungry stomachs. Additionally, more than 2 billion people have
limited access to clean water for domestic use.
Lack of food may lead to a weak nation, and therefore low
economic output.
Inadequate access to clean water may lead to illnesses such as
cholera, diarrhoea, bilharzia among others.

• These factors weaken a person’s ability to work, think or earn, leading to poverty
(Bowles, Durlauf and Hoff, 2016).
• Additionally, these sick people may need to travel for long distances to seek medical
attention.
• They may be required to use their little savings, which leads to poverty.

Limited access to quality education
Poor education leads to few
opportunities to explore the job
market.
It limits one to develop the
mind, in order to acquire skills
necessary to make ends meet.

Limited access to quality education
cont’d.
Studies show that world poverty can be reduced by half if all people had the
chance to acquire quality education (Marris, 2018).
According to UNESCO, more than one hundred and seventy one people can
escape poverty if they had the chance to acquire basic skills in reading from school.

Conflict
In Syria, national conflict lead to a huge decline in the
country’s economy (Lewis, 2017).
Conflict can cause massive destruction of infrastructure and
resources.
Additionally, people may flee, to seek peace and safety,
leaving behind their assets and resources such as land and
agricultural projects.

Conflict cont’d
•Injuries and accidents may occur in the course of war, leading to huge
medical bills that cause a surge in a family’s livelihood sustainability.
•These factors lead to persistence of poverty.

Climate change
Climate change events include drought, severe storms
and floods.
In poor countries, these events may seem to cause great
havoc because they are never prepared for such disasters.
Most of these countries depend on farming for survival.

Climate change cont’d
•Therefore, they are more prone to massive destruction by these events.
•This leads to poverty.
•According to studies, climate change events can cause re-occurrence of poverty in
such countries affecting more than 100 million people, in the next ten years
(Desmond, 2016).

Lack of infrastructure
Lack of infrastructure
implies lack of or poor roads,
bridges, power, internet cables
among others.
Lack of these important
amenities may inhibit growth
and progress, leading to poverty.

Lack of infrastructure cont’d
•Lack of roads may challenge transportation, limit trade and movement and
consequently cause poverty.
•Additionally, it inhibits going to school or work places.
•Travelling for very long distances causes use of too much money, that may have
been used for other basic necessities (Marris, 2018).

Inequality
There exists several types of inequality in the world today.
Among them are gender inequality, social inequality and tribal
or racial discriminations.
People stricken by any kind of discrimination may be prone to
extreme poverty as they do not have the means needed to grow
and progress economically (Bowles, Durlauf and Hoff, 2016).

Inequality cont’d
•They may not have a voice to speak out what they need,
causing them to wallow in poverty.
•This kind of discrimination should be alleviated, especially in
developing nations

Corrupt governments
This is mostly common in developing
states.
Corruption is when a leader in the
government embezzles funds meant to
raise the quality of life of a normal
citizen.

Corrupt governments cont’d
•The normal citizen’s dreams remains unfulfilled as
national projects remain pending (Desmond, 2016).
•This facilitates persistence of poverty.

Environmental degradation
Also common in developing nations.
The poor people depend on natural
resources for survival.
Depletion of natural fauna and flora is
common and continues to take place even

Environmental degradation cont’d
 This leads to contamination of water sources leading illnesses.
 Additionally, when natural plantations are depleted, it may lead to
other calamities such as drought and floods.
 The cycle of poverty repeats in a vicious manner.

Environmental degradation cont’d
poverty
Depletion of
natural
resources
Drought and
floods

Conclusion
In conclusion, poverty is a menace that causes major backwardness in the world today.
Measures should be taken to effectively curb and completely alleviate the pain of poverty in the world today.
The reasons for persistence of poverty around the world are known. We therefore have a starting point at
dealing with poverty.
Each country should compile their own strategies and revise what will work for them.

Questions to my audience
What measures should be taken to alleviate poverty in the world?
Do you think there are groups of people in your country who are living
below ‘The poverty line’ if so what can be done to assist those people ".

References
Bowles, S., Durlauf, S.N. and Hoff, K. eds., 2016. Poverty traps. Princeton University
Press.
Desmond, M., 2016. Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. Broadway Books.
Landes, D.S., 2015. Wealth and poverty of nations. Hachette UK.

References cont’d
Lewis, O., 2017. The culture of poverty. In Poor Jews (pp. 9-25). Routledge.
Marris, P., 2018. Dilemmas of social reform: poverty and community action
in the United States. Routledge.
Ravallion, M., 2017. Poverty comparisons. Routledge.