poverty of the world essay

By: Joe Hasell , Max Roser , Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Pablo Arriagada

Global poverty is one of the most pressing problems that the world faces today. The poorest in the world are often undernourished , without access to basic services such as electricity and safe drinking water ; they have less access to education , and suffer from much poorer health .

In order to make progress against such poverty in the future, we need to understand poverty around the world today and how it has changed.

On this page you can find all our data, visualizations and writing relating to poverty. This work aims to help you understand the scale of the problem today; where progress has been achieved and where it has not; what can be done to make progress against poverty in the future; and the methods behind the data on which this knowledge is based.

Key Insights on Poverty

Measuring global poverty in an unequal world.

There is no single definition of poverty. Our understanding of the extent of poverty and how it is changing depends on which definition we have in mind.

In particular, richer and poorer countries set very different poverty lines in order to measure poverty in a way that is informative and relevant to the level of incomes of their citizens.

For instance, while in the United States a person is counted as being in poverty if they live on less than roughly $24.55 per day, in Ethiopia the poverty line is set more than 10 times lower – at $2.04 per day. You can read more about how these comparable national poverty lines are calculated in this footnote. 1

To measure poverty globally, however, we need to apply a poverty line that is consistent across countries.

This is the goal of the International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day – shown in red in the chart – which is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty around the world.

We see that, in global terms, this is an extremely low threshold indeed – set to reflect the poverty lines adopted nationally in the world’s poorest countries. It marks an incredibly low standard of living – a level of income much lower than just the cost of a healthy diet .

From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line

What you should know about this data.

• Global poverty data relies on national household surveys that have differences affecting their comparability across countries or over time. Here the data for the US relates to incomes and the data for other countries relates to consumption expenditure. 2
• The poverty lines here are an approximation of national definitions of poverty, made in order to allow comparisons across the countries. 1
• Non-market sources of income, including food grown by subsistence farmers for their own consumption, are taken into account. 3
• Data is measured in 2017 international-$, which means that inflation and differences in the cost of living across countries are taken into account. 4

Global extreme poverty declined substantially over the last generation

Over the past generation extreme poverty declined hugely. This is one of the most important ways our world has changed over this time.

There are more than a billion fewer people living below the International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day today than in 1990. On average, the number declined by 47 million every year, or 130,000 people each day. 5

The scale of global poverty today, however, remains vast. The latest global estimates of extreme poverty are for 2019. In that year the World Bank estimates that around 650 million people – roughly one in twelve – were living on less than $2.15 a day.

Extreme poverty: how far have we come, how far do we still have to go?

• Extreme poverty here is defined according to the UN’s definition of living on less than $2.15 a day – an extremely low threshold needed to monitor and draw attention to the living conditions of the poorest around the world. Read more in our article, From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .
• Global poverty data relies on national household surveys that have differences affecting their comparability across countries or over time. 2
• Surveys are less frequently available in poorer countries and for earlier decades. To produce regional and global poverty estimates, the World Bank collates the closest survey for each country and projects the data forward or backwards to the year being estimated. 6
• Data is measured in 2017 international-$, which means that inflation and differences in the cost of living across countries are taken into account . 4

The pandemic pushed millions into extreme poverty

Official estimates for global poverty over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic are not yet available.

But it is clear that the global recession it brought about has had a terrible impact on the world’s poorest.

Preliminary estimates produced by researchers at the World Bank suggest that the number of people in extreme poverty rose by around 70 million in 2020 – the first substantial rise in a generation – and remains around 70-90 million higher than would have been expected in the pandemic’s absence. On these preliminary estimates, the global extreme poverty rate rose to around 9% in 2020. 7

• Figures for 2020-2022 are preliminary estimates and projections by World Bank researchers, based on economic growth forecasts. The pre-pandemic projection is based on growth forecasts prior to the pandemic. You can read more about this data and the methods behind it in the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022 report. 8

Hundreds of millions will remain in extreme poverty on current trends

Extreme poverty declined during the last generation because the majority of the poorest people on the planet lived in countries with strong economic growth – primarily in Asia.

The majority of the poorest now live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where weaker economic growth and high population growth in many countries has led to a rising number of people living in extreme poverty.

The chart here shows projections of global extreme poverty produced by World Bank researchers based on economic growth forecasts. 9

A very bleak future is ahead of us should such weak economic growth in the world’s poorest countries continue – a future in which extreme poverty is the reality for hundreds of millions for many years to come.

• The extreme poverty estimates and projections shown here relate to a previous release of the World Bank’s poverty and inequality data in which incomes are expressed in 2011 international-$. The World Bank has since updated its methods, and now measures incomes in 2017 international-$. As part of this change, the International Poverty Line used to measure extreme poverty has also been updated: from $1.90 (in 2011 prices) to $2.15 (in 2017 prices). This has had little effect on our overall understanding of poverty and inequality around the world. You can read more about this change and how it affected the World Bank estimates of poverty in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .
• Figures for 2018 and beyond are preliminary estimates and projections by Lakner et al. (2022), based on economic growth forecasts. You can read more about this data and the methods behind it in the related blog post. 10
• Data is measured in 2011 international-$, which means that inflation and differences in the cost of living across countries are taken into account. 4

The rapid progress seen in many countries shows an end to poverty is possible

Each of the countries shown in the chart achieved large declines in extreme poverty over the last generation. 11

The fact that rapid progress against poverty has been achieved in many places is one of the most important lessons we can learn from the available data on extreme poverty.

For those who are not aware of such progress – which is the majority of people – it would be easy to make the mistake of believing that poverty is inevitable and that action to tackle poverty is hence doomed to fail.

The huge progress seen in so many places shows that this view is incorrect.

After 200 years of progress the fight against global poverty is just beginning

Over the past two centuries the world made good progress against extreme poverty. But only very recently has poverty fallen at higher poverty lines.

Global poverty rates at these higher lines remain very high:

• 25% of the world lives on less than $3.65 per day – a poverty line broadly reflective of the lines adopted in lower-middle income countries.
• 47% of the world lives on less than $6.85 per day – a poverty line broadly reflective of the lines adopted in upper-middle income countries.
• 84% live on less than $30 per day – a poverty line broadly reflective of the lines adopted in high income countries. 12

Economic growth over the past two centuries has allowed the majority of the world to leave extreme poverty behind. But by the standards of today’s rich countries, the world remains very poor. If this should change, the world needs to achieve very substantial economic growth further still.

The history of the end of poverty has just begun

How much economic growth is necessary to reduce global poverty substantially?

• The data from 1981 onwards is based on household surveys collated by the World Bank. Earlier figures are from Moatsos (2021), who extends the series backwards based on historical reconstructions of GDP per capita and inequality data. 13
• All data is measured in international-$ which means that inflation and differences in purchasing power across countries are taken into account. 4
• The World Bank data for the higher poverty lines is measured in 2017 international-$. Recently, the World Bank updated its methodology having previously used 2011 international-$ to measure incomes and set poverty lines. The Moatsos (2021) historical series is based on the previously-used World Bank definition of extreme poverty – living on less than $1.90 a day when measured in 2011 international-$. This is broadly equivalent to the current World Bank definition of extreme poverty – living on less than $2.15 a day when measured in 2017 international-$. You can read more about this update to the World Bank’s methodology and how it has affected its estimates of poverty in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .
• The global poverty data shown from 1981 onwards relies on national household surveys that have differences affecting their comparability across countries or over time. 2
• Such surveys are less frequently available in poorer countries and for earlier decades. To produce regional and global poverty estimates, the World Bank collates the closest survey for each country and projects the data forward or backwards to the year being estimated. 6
• Non-market sources of income, including food grown by subsistence farmers for their own consumption, are taken into account. This is also true of the historical data – in producing historical estimates of GDP per capita on which these long-run estimates are based, economic historians take into account such non-market sources of income, as we discuss further in our article How do we know the history of extreme poverty?

Explore Data on Poverty

About this data.

All the data included in this explorer is available to download in GitHub , alongside a range of other poverty and inequality metrics.

Where is this data sourced from?

This data explorer is collated and adapted from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP).

The World Bank’s PIP data is a large collection of household surveys where steps have been taken by the World Bank to harmonize definitions and methods across countries and over time.

About the comparability of household surveys

There is no global survey of incomes. To understand how incomes across the world compare, researchers need to rely on available national surveys.

Such surveys are partly designed with cross-country comparability in mind, but because the surveys reflect the circumstances and priorities of individual countries at the time of the survey, there are some important differences.

Income vs expenditure surveys

One important issue is that the survey data included within the PIP database tends to measure people’s income in high-income countries, and people’s consumption expenditure in poorer countries.

The two concepts are closely related: the income of a household equals their consumption plus any saving, or minus any borrowing or spending out of savings.

One important difference is that, while zero consumption is not a feasible value – people with zero consumption would starve – a zero income is a feasible value. This means that, at the bottom end of the distribution, income and consumption can give quite different pictures about a person’s welfare. For instance, a person dissaving in retirement may have a very low, or even zero, income, but have a high level of consumption nevertheless.

The gap between income and consumption is higher at the top of this distribution too, richer households tend to save more, meaning that the gap between income and consumption is higher at the top of this distribution too. Taken together, one implication is that inequality measured in terms of consumption is generally somewhat lower than the inequality measured in terms of income.

In our Data Explorer of this data there is the option to view only income survey data or only consumption survey data, or instead to pool the data available from both types of survey – which yields greater coverage.

Other comparability issues

There are a number of other ways in which comparability across surveys can be limited. The PIP Methodology Handbook provides a good summary of the comparability and data quality issues affecting this data and how it tries to address them.

In collating this survey data the World Bank takes a range of steps to harmonize it where possible, but comparability issues remain. These affect comparisons both across countries and within individual countries over time.

To help communicate the latter, the World Bank produces a variable that groups surveys within each individual country into more comparable ‘spells’. Our Data Explorer provides the option of viewing the data with these breaks in comparability indicated, and these spells are also indicated in our data download .

Global and regional poverty estimates

Along with data for individual countries, the World Bank also provides global and regional poverty estimates which aggregate over the available country data.

Surveys are not conducted annually in every country however – coverage is generally poorer the further back in time you look, and remains particularly patchy within Sub-Saharan Africa. You can see that visualized in our chart of the number of surveys included in the World Bank data by decade.

In order to produce global and regional aggregate estimates for a given year, the World Bank takes the surveys falling closest to that year for each country and ‘lines-up’ the data to the year being estimated by projecting it forwards or backwards.

This lining-up is generally done on the assumption that household incomes or expenditure grow in line with the growth rates observed in national accounts data. You can read more about the interpolation methods used by the World Bank in Chapter 5 of the Poverty and Inequality Platform Methodology Handbook.

How does the data account for inflation and for differences in the cost of living across countries?

To account for inflation and price differences across countries, the World Bank’s data is measured in international dollars. This is a hypothetical currency that results from price adjustments across time and place. It is defined as having the same purchasing power as one US-$ would in the United States in a given base year. One int.-$ buys the same quantity of goods and services no matter where or when it is spent.

There are many challenges to making such adjustments and they are far from perfect. Angus Deaton ( Deaton, 2010 ) provides a good discussion of the difficulties involved in price adjustments and how this relates to global poverty measurement.

But in a world where price differences across countries and over time are large it is important to attempt to account for these differences as well as possible, and this is what these adjustments do.

In September 2022, the World Bank updated its methodology, and now uses international-$ expressed in 2017 prices – updated from 2011 prices. This has had little effect on our overall understanding of poverty and inequality around the world. But poverty estimates for particular countries vary somewhat between the old and updated methodology. You can read more about this update in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .

To allow for comparisons with the official data now expressed in 2017 international-$ data, the World Bank continues to release its poverty and inequality data expressed in 2011 international-$ as well. We have built a Data Explorer to allow you to compare these, and we make all figures available in terms of both sets of prices in our data download .

Absolute vs relative poverty lines

This dataset provides poverty estimates for a range of absolute and relative poverty lines.

An absolute poverty line represents a fixed standard of living; a threshold that is held constant across time. Within the World Bank’s poverty data, absolute poverty lines also aim to represent a standard of living that is fixed across countries (by converting local currencies to international-$). The International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day (in 2017 international-$) is the best known absolute poverty line and is used by the World Bank and the UN to measure extreme poverty around the world.

The value of relative poverty lines instead rises and falls as average incomes change within a given country. In most cases they are set at a certain fraction of the median income. Because of this, relative poverty can be considered a metric of inequality – it measures how spread out the bottom half of the income distribution is.

The idea behind measuring poverty in relative terms is that a person’s well-being depends not on their own absolute standard of living but on how that standard compares with some reference group, or whether it enables them to participate in the norms and customs of their society. For instance, joining a friend’s birthday celebration without shame might require more resources in a rich society if the norm is to go for an expensive meal out, or give costly presents.

Our dataset includes three commonly-used relative poverty lines: 40%, 50%, and 60% of the median.

Such lines are most commonly used in rich countries, and are the main way poverty is measured by the OECD and the European Union .More recently, relative poverty measures have come to be applied in a global context. The share of people living below 50 per cent of median income is, for instance, one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal indicators . And the World Bank now produces estimates of global poverty using a Societal Poverty Line that combines absolute and relative components.

When comparing relative poverty rates around the world, however, it is important to keep in mind that – since average incomes are so far apart – such relative poverty lines relate to very different standards of living in rich and poor countries.

Does the data account for non-market income, such as food grown by subsistence farmers?

Many poor people today, as in the past, rely on subsistence farming rather than a monetary income gained from selling goods or their labor on the market. To take this into account and make a fair comparison of their living standards, the statisticians that produce these figures estimate the monetary value of their home production and add it to their income/expenditure.

Research & Writing

Despite making immense progress against extreme poverty, it is still the reality for every tenth person in the world.

$2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line

What does the World Bank’s updated methods mean for our understanding of global poverty?

Global poverty over the long-run

How do we know the history of extreme poverty?

Joe Hasell and Max Roser

Breaking out of the Malthusian trap: How pandemics allow us to understand why our ancestors were stuck in poverty

The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it

Poverty & economic growth.

The economies that are home to the poorest billions of people need to grow if we want global poverty to decline substantially

Global poverty in an unequal world: Who is considered poor in a rich country? And what does this mean for our understanding of global poverty?

What do poor people think about poverty?

More articles on poverty.

Three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet

Hannah Ritchie

Homelessness and poverty in rich countries

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

OWID Data Collection: Inequality and Poverty

Joe Hasell and Pablo Arriagada

Interactive Charts on Poverty

Official definitions of poverty in different countries are often not directly comparable due to the different ways poverty is measured. For example, countries account for the size of households in different ways in their poverty measures.

The poverty lines shown here are an approximation of national definitions, harmonized to allow for comparisons across countries. For all countries apart from the US, we take the harmonized poverty line calculated by Jolliffe et al. (2022). These lines are calculated as the international dollar figure which, in the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) data, yields the same poverty rate as the officially reported rate using national definitions in a particular year (around 2017).

For the US, Jolliffe et al. (2022) use the OECD’s published poverty rate – which is measured against a relative poverty line of 50% of the median income. This yields a poverty line of $34.79 (measured using 2017 survey data). This however is not the official definition of poverty adopted in the US. We calculated an alternative harmonized figure for the US national poverty using the same method as Jolliffe et al. (2022), but based instead on the official 2019 poverty rate – as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.

You can see in detail how we calculated this poverty line in this Google Colabs notebook .

Jolliffe, Dean Mitchell, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, Christoph Lakner, Aziz Atamanov, and Samuel Kofi Tetteh Baah. 2022. Assessing the Impact of the 2017 PPPs on the International Poverty Line and Global Poverty. The World Bank. Available to read at the World Bank here .

Because there is no global survey of incomes, researchers need to rely on available national surveys. Such surveys are designed with cross-country comparability in mind, but because the surveys reflect the circumstances and priorities of individual countries at the time of the survey, there are some important differences. In collating this survey data the World Bank takes steps to harmonize it where possible, but comparability issues remain.

One important issue is that, whilst in most high-income countries the surveys capture people’s incomes, in poorer countries these surveys tend to capture people’s consumption. The two concepts are closely related: the income of a household equals their consumption plus any saving, or minus any borrowing or spending out of savings.

To help communicate the latter, the World Bank produces a variable that groups surveys within each individual country into more comparable ‘spells’ (which we include in our data download ). Our Data Explorer provides the option of viewing the data with these breaks in comparability indicated.

The international-$ is a hypothetical currency that results from price adjustments across time and place. It is defined as having the same purchasing power as one US-$ in a given base year – in this case 2017. One int.-$ buys the same quantity of goods and services no matter where or when it is spent. There are many challenges to making such adjustments and they are far from perfect. But in a world where price differences across countries and over time are large it is important to attempt to account for these differences as well as possible, and this is what these adjustments do. Read more in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .

​​According to World Bank data, in 1990 there were 2.00 billion people living in poverty, and in 2019 that had fallen to 0.648 billion. The average fall over the 29 years in between is: (2.00 billion – 0.648 billion)/29 = 46.6 million. Dividing by the number of days (29 x 365) gives the average daily fall: (2.00 billion – 0.648 billion)/(29 x 365) = 128,000. (All figures rounded to 3 significant figures).

The projections are generally made on the assumption that incomes or expenditure grow in line with the growth rates observed in national accounts data. You can read more about the interpolation methods used by the World Bank in Chapter 5 of the Poverty and Inequality Platform Methodology Handbook.

We use the figures presented in the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022 report. Earlier estimates were also published in Lakner, C., Mahler, D.G., Negre, M. et al. How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty?. J Econ Inequal (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-021-09510-w . Available online here .

Earlier estimates were also published in Lakner, C., Mahler, D.G., Negre, M. et al. How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty?. J Econ Inequal (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-021-09510-w . Available online here .

The figures are taken from a World Bank blog post by Nishant Yonzan, Christoph Lakner and Daniel Gerszon Mahler. The post builds on and updates the estimates published by Lakner et al. (2022).In September 2022, the World Bank changed from using 2011 international-$ to 2017 international-$ in the measurement of global poverty. The International Poverty Line used by the World Bank and the UN to define extreme poverty was accordingly updated from $1.90 a day (in 2011 prices) to $2.15 (in 2017 prices).In order to match up to the projected figures, the extreme poverty estimates shown here relate to a previous release of the World Bank’s data using data expressed in 2011 prices, which vary slightly from the latest data in 2017 prices. You can read more about this change and how it affected the World Bank estimates of poverty in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line .Lakner, C., Mahler, D.G., Negre, M. et al. How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty?. J Econ Inequal (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-021-09510-w . Available online here .

We use the figures provided in the blog post, which extend the methods presented in Lakner et al. (2022).Lakner, C., Mahler, D.G., Negre, M. et al. How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty?. J Econ Inequal (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-021-09510-w . Available online here .

Shown are those countries with a decline of more than 30 percentage points over a period of 15 years or more.There are a number of ways in which comparability across the different household surveys on which this data is based can be limited. These affect comparisons both across countries and within individual countries over time.The World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform Methodology Handbook provides a good summary of the comparability and data quality issues affecting this data and how it tries to address them. In collating this survey data the World Bank takes a range of steps to harmonize it where possible, but comparability issues remain. To help communicate the latter, the World Bank produces a variable that groups surveys within each individual country into more comparable ‘spells’. Our Data Explorer provides the option of viewing the data with these breaks in comparability indicated.

You can read more about how the World Bank sets these higher poverty lines, as well as the International Poverty Line against which it measures extreme poverty, in our article From $1.90 to $2.15 a day: the updated International Poverty Line . To the three poverty lines adopted officially by the World Bank – $2.15, $3.65 and $6.85 – we add a higher line broadly consistent with definitions of poverty in high income countries. See our article Global poverty in an unequal world: Who is considered poor in a rich country? And what does this mean for our understanding of global poverty?

For details of the methods used to produce the long-run poverty data see, Moatsos, M. (2021). Global extreme poverty: Present and past since 1820. In van Zanden, Rijpma, Malinowski and Mira d’Ercole (eds.) How Was Life? Volume II: New Perspectives on Well-Being and Global Inequality since 1820. Available from the OECD here .

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The top eleven causes of poverty around the world

Aug 23, 2024

Approximately 700 million people around the world live below the international poverty line. But why? Updated for 2024, we look at 11 of the top causes of poverty around the world.

For most of us, living on less than $2.15 a day seems far removed from reality. But it is the reality for roughly 700 million people around the globe (according to the latest World Bank data). That’s roughly 8.5% of the world’s population currently living in poverty. 

We’ve made significant progress towards ending poverty in the last few decades — in 1990, the number of people living in poverty was 1.8 billion. However, in recent years we’ve also undone a lot of that progress. Climate change, conflict, and the continued impact of COVID-19 have led to an increase of nearly 100 million people experiencing poverty compared to 2019 figures. Let’s take a closer look at these, and eight other top causes of poverty. 

1. Inequality

At Concern, our core understanding of poverty is that it’s a combination of inequality and risk. Inequality is easy enough to understand as a concept: It’s what happens when one group has fewer rights and resources based on an aspect of their identity (such as gender, caste, ethnicity, social status, age, ability).

How inequality functions as a cause of poverty, however, is a bit more multifaceted. When people are given fewer rights or assets based on their ethnicity or tribal affiliation, that means they have fewer opportunities to move ahead in life. We see this often in gender inequalities that leave women with fewer economic and civic rights. In this case, it doesn't matter that someone has more rights than someone else. What matters is that there is someone else who doesn't have enough.

These inequalities become amplified when they’re combined with risk. For example: A widow raising a family of five may not have the same resources that would have been available to her husband based on her gender. If she also happens to be a refugee living in a camp, or in an area that’s especially vulnerable to climate change (or both), that puts even more pressure on the few resources she has. This is what fuels the cycle of poverty . 

Let’s take a closer look at some of these risks…

Learn more about the causes of poverty — and how we're solving them

2. conflict.

Conflict is at the top of the list of risks that can send a person or family into poverty. Large-scale, protracted crises can grind an otherwise functioning economy to a halt. Prior to the conflict (and resulting humanitarian crisis) that began in 2011, as few as 10% of Syrians lived below the poverty line. Today, that number has been inverted, with UNHCR estimating over 90% of Syrians living below the poverty line at the end of 2023. 

Conflict has become more localized over the last few decades, which has a huge impact on communities with fewer headlines in the international press. However, as we have also seen over the past two years with the escalated crisis in Ukraine , a major conflict in one part of the world can also have a ripple effect on economies in entirely different countries — and continents.

Poverty and conflict: How to break the cycle

Conflict is the single biggest driver of humanitarian needs today. Here, Dr. Caitriona Dowd looks at the links between poverty and conflict — and why we need to break the cycle.

3. Hunger and malnutrition

It’s a vicious cycle: poverty causes hunger , but hunger is also a key cause of poverty . If a person doesn’t get enough food, they’ll lack the strength and energy needed to work. Or their immune system will weaken from malnutrition and leave them more susceptible to illness that prevents them from getting to work. They may also go into further debt if they need to see a doctor or get ongoing care. 

This can lead to a vicious cycle, especially for children. From womb to world, the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical for a lifetime of health. However, malnourished mothers are more likely to have malnourished children, and the costs of malnutrition can be felt over a lifetime. Adults who were stunted as children earn, on average, 22% less than those who weren't stunted. In Ethiopia, stunting contributes to GDP losses as high as 16%.

Poverty and hunger: A vicious cycle

There’s no way around it: If we want to end poverty, we have to end hunger. Here's how the two are connected.

4. Poor healthcare systems — especially for mothers and children

As we saw above with the effects of hunger, extreme poverty and poor health go hand-in-hand. In countries with weakened health systems, easily-preventable and treatable illnesses like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections can be fatal. Especially for young children.

When people must travel far distances to clinics or pay for medicine, it drains already vulnerable households of money and assets. This can tip a family from poverty into extreme poverty. For women in particular, pregnancy and childbirth can be a death sentence.  Maternal health is often one of the most overlooked areas of healthcare in countries that are still built around patriarchal structures. New mothers and mothers-to-be are often barred from seeking care without their father's or husband's permission. Adolescent girls who are pregnant (especially out of wedlock) face even greater inequities and discrimination.

5. Public health crises and epidemics

Living in a country without basic healthcare access is one thing, but what happens if a major epidemic or pandemic breaks out? The World Bank estimates that, during the first year of the West African Ebola epidemic , Liberia and Sierra Leone saw GDP losses of 3.4% and 3.3%, respectively. These losses (combined with a 2.1% loss in Guinea) totaled nearly $1.6 billion. A study from Johns Hopkins University estimates that cholera (another ongoing epidemic in many countries) costs Bangladesh $122 million per year. 

In a community that’s experiencing an active outbreak, businesses, infrastructure, and governments can grind to a halt in order to manage current cases and prevent future spread. Shelter-in-place measures often prevent low-income people from getting to work as many jobs don’t have remote options. If a patient dies, especially if they were a parent or caregiver, other members of a family (including children) may need to step in to find work and make up for the lost income, which can mean a lifetime of working low-paying jobs.

As we saw with COVID-19, a public health crisis can also have an effect on countries that aren’t at the epicenter of contagion. Many countries in Africa experienced relatively low numbers of covid cases, however border closures and interruptions to trade and other key services mean that many families are still, four years later, recovering from the economic loss. 

6. Little or no access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)

More than 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water at home. This presents another health issue that’s linked to poverty: Poor sanitation and hygiene means higher rates of disease transmission and even fatalities. 

Beyond that, the global water crisis exacerbates many existing inequalities, broadening the poverty gap. When water points are far away, it’s usually the task of women and girls to collect it. UNICEF estimates that women and girls spend 200 million hours collecting water every day — time that could be better spent in school or working on other projects that can generate income for a family. 

Investing in water can also be a key solution to poverty: The UN notes that every $1 invested in WASH initiatives brings a $4 return in costs (and then some). 

7. Climate change

There’s no doubt in 2024 that climate change causes poverty and disproportionately affects low-income families and communities. And the problem is getting worse: In 2015, the World Bank estimated that the climate crisis would push more than 100 million people into poverty by 2030. In 2024, that estimate has gone up to more than 130 million people. 

Many low-income countries are both on the frontlines of the climate crisis and rely heavily on agriculture and pastoralism for their economies. Malawi , as an example, is 80% agrarian. Farming families often have only just enough food and assets to last through the next season, and not enough reserves to fall back on in the event of a poor harvest. So when climate change or natural disasters (including the widespread droughts caused by El Niño ) leave millions of people without food, it pushes them further into poverty, and can make recovery even more difficult.

How climate change keeps people in poverty

By 2030, climate change could force over 130 million into extreme poverty. Here's how five effects of climate change keep communities trapped in poverty.

8. Lack of education

Not every person without an education is living in extreme poverty. But most adults living in extreme poverty did not receive a quality education . And, if they have children, they're likely passing that on to them. 

But education is also called the great equalizer for a reason. It can open the door to jobs and other resources and skills that a family needs to not just survive, but thrive. UNESCO estimates that 171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty if they left school with basic reading skills. Poverty threatens education, but education can also help end poverty .

9. Poor public works and infrastructure

What if you have to go to work, but there are no roads to get you there? Or what if heavy rains have flooded your route and made it impossible to travel? We’re used to similar roadblocks (so to speak) in the United States. But usually we can rely on our local governments to step in.

A lack of infrastructure — from roads, bridges, and wells, to cables for light, cell phones, and internet — can isolate communities living in rural areas. Living off the grid often means living without the ability to go to school, work, or the market to buy and sell goods. Traveling further distances to access basic services not only takes time, it costs money, keeping families in poverty.

10. Lack of social support systems

In the United States, we’re familiar with social welfare programs that people can access if they need healthcare or food assistance. Many of us pay directly into unemployment insurance and our future retirement funds through our paychecks. These systems ensure that we have a safety net to fall back on if we lose our job or retire.

But not every government can provide this type of help to its citizens. Without that safety net, there’s nothing to stop vulnerable families from backsliding further into extreme poverty. This is especially true for countries facing conflict or other long-term crises that have also left people more vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters and less likely to receive the support they need when they need it. 

11. Lack of personal safety nets

If a family or community has reserves in place, they can weather some risk. They can fall back on savings accounts or even a low-interest loan in the case of a health scare or an unexpected layoff. Proper food storage systems can help stretch a previous harvest if a drought or natural disaster ruins the next one.

But people living in extreme poverty can’t rely on these safety nets. At its core, poverty is a lack of basic assets or a lack of return from what assets a person has. This leads to negative coping mechanisms, including pulling children out of school so that they can help support the family, and selling off assets to buy food. That can help them make it through one bad season, but not another. For communities constantly facing climate extremes or prolonged conflict, the repeated shocks can send a family reeling into extreme poverty and prevent them from ever recovering, let alone setting aside some funds for the next emergency.

Concern’s work to end poverty

At Concern, we work to sustainably end poverty by addressing inequality and risk, tailoring solutions that support the specific forms of inequality and vulnerabilities faced within each community. 

Equality, particularly gender equality, is a pivotal part of all of our programs, and we work with community members and leaders to question and challenge the underlying assumptions that perpetuate equality gaps while designing solutions that accommodate people of all genders, levels of ability, ages, races, social status, and more. We aim for equality of outcomes, not equality of inputs. 

From there, we look at the specific risks and conditions that cause poverty in a specific country, region, or community. Often our solutions to poverty work with families to build livelihoods that include more than one source of income. We mentor program participants and train them on business management, marketing, bookkeeping, and other essential skills. We also provide cash grants and help to establish local Village Savings and Loans Associations (and other similar committees) to help create community safety nets. 

What we have found through more than 55 years of work is that the communities and individuals we work with already know what they want to do, they just need a few resources to make it happen. We provide those resources, along with some sustainable means of keeping them up long after we’re needed.

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Ending Global Poverty: Why Money Isn’t Enough

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Ending Poverty

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in the number of people living in extreme poverty, for the first time in a generation. Progress in important areas, such as childhood vaccination and income equality between countries has been reversed, which has not happened in the past three decades. If the current trend continues, it is projected that by 2030, a shocking 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty, and 84 million children will not be able to attend school. It is estimated that it will take almost 300 years to eliminate discriminatory laws, end child marriage and close gender gaps in legal protection. In 2020, with 71 million more people living in extreme poverty than the year before, the COVID-19 crisis caused the biggest setback in global poverty reduction in decades.

In 2020, with 71 million more people living in extreme poverty than the year before, the COVID-19 crisis caused the biggest setback in global poverty reduction in decades. In April 2020, the United Nations issued a framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19  and created the Secretary-General's UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund .

From 1990 to 2014, the world made remarkable progress in reducing extreme poverty, with over one billion people moving out of that condition. The global poverty rate decreased by an average of 1.1 percentage points each year, from 37.8 percent to 11.2 percent in 2014. However, between 2014 and 2019, the pace of poverty reduction slowed to 0.6 percentage points per year, which is the slowest rate seen in the past three decades. Within the 24-year period, most of the poverty reduction was observed in East Asia and the Pacific, as well as South Asia.

What is Poverty?

Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision-making. In 2015, more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line. Around 10 per cent of the world population (pre-pandemic) was living in extreme poverty and struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few. There were 122 women aged 25 to 34 living in poverty for every 100 men of the same age group, and more than 160 million children were at risk of continuing to live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Poverty facts and figures

• According to the most recent estimates, in 2023 almost 700 million people around the world were subsisting on less than $2.15.
• The share of the world’s workers living in extreme poverty fell by half over the last decade: from 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 7.1 per cent in 2019. However, in 2020 it rose for the first time in two decades after the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is projected that the global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 will not be achieved , with almost 600 million people still living in extreme poverty.
• One out of six children lives in extreme poverty . Between 2013 and 2022, the number of children living on less than US$2.15 a day decreased from 383 million to 333 million, but the economic impact of COVID-19 led to three lost years of progress. 
• In 2021, 53 per cent of the world’s population – 4.1 billion people – did not benefit from any form of social protection .

Poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals

Ending poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the  2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development .

The SDGs’ main reference to combatting poverty is made in  target 1.A : “Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.”

The SDGs also aim to create sound policy frameworks at national and regional levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies to ensure that by 2030 all men and women have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.

Measuring Poverty

There has been marked progress in reducing poverty over the past decades. In 2015, 10 per cent of the world’s population lived at or below $1.90 a day -down from 16 per cent in 2010 and 36 per cent in 1990- while in 2023 almost 700 million people around the world were subsisting on less than $2.15.

At current rates of progress, the world will likely not meet the global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 , with estimates indicating that nearly 600 million people will still be struggling with extreme poverty then.

Extreme poverty is concentrated in places where it will be hardest to eradicate— among the least developed countries, in conflict-affected areas, and in remote, rural areas. The outlook is also grim for the nearly 50 percent of the world’s population who live on less than $6.85 a day – the measure used for upper-middle-income countries.

Global Action

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promises to leave no one behind and to reach those furthest behind first. Meeting this ambitious development agenda requires visionary policies for sustainable, inclusive, sustained and equitable economic growth, supported by full employment and decent work for all, social integration, declining inequality, rising productivity and a favorable environment. In the 2030 Agenda, Goal 1 recognizes that ending poverty in all its forms everywhere is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.

While progress in eradicating extreme poverty has been incremental and widespread, the persistence of poverty, including extreme poverty remains a major concern in Africa, the least developed countries, small island developing States, in some middle-income countries, and countries in situations of conflict and post-conflict countries. In light of these concerns, the General Assembly, at its seventy-second session, decided to proclaim the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty  (2018–2027). The objective of the Third Decade is to maintain the momentum generated by the implementation of the  Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty  (2008-2017) towards poverty eradication. Further, the 3rd Decade is also expected to support, in an efficient and coordinated manner, the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

In 1995, the  World Summit for Social Development  held in Copenhagen, identified three core issues: poverty eradication, employment generation and social integration, in contributing to the creation of an international community that enables the building of secure, just, free and harmonious societies offering opportunities and higher standards of living for all.

Within the  United Nations system , the  Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD)  of the  Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)  acts as Focal Point for the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty and undertakes activities that assist and facilitate governments in more effective implementation of the commitments and policies adopted in the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the further initiatives on Social Development adopted at the 24th Special session of the General Assembly.

A potential game-changer in accelerating SDG progress

At the 2023 SDG Summit held at the UN’s headquarters in New York, the General Assembly adopted a political declaration to accelerate action to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The document aims to drive economic prosperity and well-being for all people while protecting the environment. In addition, it includes a commitment to financing for developing countries and supports the proposal of an SDG Stimulus of at least $500 billion annually, as well as an effective debt-relief mechanism.

• International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Through  resolution 47/196  adopted on 22 December 1992, the General Assembly declared 17 October as the  International Day for the Eradication of Poverty .

The observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can be traced back to 17 October 1987. On that day, over a hundred thousand people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. They proclaimed that poverty is a violation of human rights and affirmed the need to come together to ensure that these rights are respected. These convictions are inscribed on a commemorative stone unveiled that day. Since then, people of all backgrounds, beliefs and social origins have gathered every year on October 17th to renew their commitment and show their solidarity with the poor.

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5 Essays About Poverty Everyone Should Know

Poverty is one of the driving forces of inequality in the world. Between 1990-2015, much progress was made. The number of people living on less than $1.90 went from 36% to 10%. However, according to the World Bank , the COVID-19 pandemic represents a serious problem that disproportionately impacts the poor. Research released in February of 2020 shows that by 2030, up to ⅔ of the “global extreme poor” will be living in conflict-affected and fragile economies. Poverty will remain a major human rights issue for decades to come. Here are five essays about the issue that everyone should know:

“We need an economic bill of rights” –  Martin Luther King Jr.

The Guardian published an abridged version of this essay in 2018, which was originally released in Look magazine just after Dr. King was killed. In this piece, Dr. King explains why an economic bill of rights is necessary. He points out that while mass unemployment within the black community is a “social problem,” it’s a “depression” in the white community. An economic bill of rights would give a job to everyone who wants one and who can work. It would also give an income to those who can’t work. Dr. King affirms his commitment to non-violence. He’s fully aware that tensions are high. He quotes a spiritual, writing “timing is winding up.” Even while the nation progresses, poverty is getting worse.

This essay was reprinted and abridged in The Guardian in an arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King. Jr. The most visible representative of the Civil Rights Movement beginning in 1955, Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. His essays and speeches remain timely.

“How Poverty Can Follow Children Into Adulthood” – Priyanka Boghani

This article is from 2017, but it’s more relevant than ever because it was written when 2012 was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. That’s no longer the case. In 2012, around ¼ American children were in poverty. Five years later, children were still more likely than adults to be poor. This is especially true for children of colour. Consequences of poverty include anxiety, hunger, and homelessness. This essay also looks at the long-term consequences that come from growing up in poverty. A child can develop health problems that affect them in adulthood. Poverty can also harm a child’s brain development. Being aware of how poverty affects children and follows them into adulthood is essential as the world deals with the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Priyanka Boghani is a journalist at PBS Frontline. She focuses on U.S. foreign policy, humanitarian crises, and conflicts in the Middle East. She also assists in managing Frontline’s social accounts.

“5 Reasons COVID-19 Will Impact the Fight to End Extreme Poverty” – Leah Rodriguez

For decades, the UN has attempted to end extreme poverty. In the face of the novel coronavirus outbreak, new challenges threaten the fight against poverty. In this essay, Dr. Natalie Linos, a Harvard social epidemiologist, urges the world to have a “social conversation” about how the disease impacts poverty and inequality. If nothing is done, it’s unlikely that the UN will meet its Global Goals by 2030. Poverty and COVID-19 intersect in five key ways. For one, low-income people are more vulnerable to disease. They also don’t have equal access to healthcare or job stability. This piece provides a clear, concise summary of why this outbreak is especially concerning for the global poor.

Leah Rodriguez’s writing at Global Citizen focuses on women, girls, water, and sanitation. She’s also worked as a web producer and homepage editor for New York Magazine’s The Cut.

“Climate apartheid”: World’s poor to suffer most from disasters” – Al Jazeera and news Agencies

The consequences of climate change are well-known to experts like Philip Alston, the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. In 2019, he submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council sounding the alarm on how climate change will devastate the poor. While the wealthy will be able to pay their way out of devastation, the poor will not. This will end up creating a “climate apartheid.” Alston states that if climate change isn’t addressed, it will undo the last five decades of progress in poverty education, as well as global health and development .

“Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America” – Barbara Ehrenreich

In this excerpt from her book Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich describes her experience choosing to live undercover as an “unskilled worker” in the US. She wanted to investigate the impact the 1996 welfare reform act had on the working poor. Released in 2001, the events take place between the spring of 1998 and the summer of 2000. Ehrenreich decided to live in a town close to her “real life” and finds a place to live and a job. She has her eyes opened to the challenges and “special costs” of being poor. In 2019, The Guardian ranked the book 13th on their list of 100 best books of the 21st century.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of 21 books and an activist. She’s worked as an award-winning columnist and essayist.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Poverty Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on poverty essay.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence”. – Mahatma Gandhi.

How Poverty is Measured?

For measuring poverty United nations have devised two measures of poverty – Absolute & relative poverty.  Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developing countries like India. Relative poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries like the USA. In absolute poverty, a line based on the minimum level of income has been created & is called a poverty line.  If per day income of a family is below this level, then it is poor or below the poverty line. If per day income of a family is above this level, then it is non-poor or above the poverty line. In India, the new poverty line is  Rs 32 in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban areas.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Causes of Poverty

According to the Noble prize winner South African leader, Nelson Mandela – “Poverty is not natural, it is manmade”. The above statement is true as the causes of poverty are generally man-made. There are various causes of poverty but the most important is population. Rising population is putting the burden on the resources & budget of countries. Governments are finding difficult to provide food, shelter & employment to the rising population.

The other causes are- lack of education, war, natural disaster, lack of employment, lack of infrastructure, political instability, etc. For instance- lack of employment opportunities makes a person jobless & he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basic necessities of his family & becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs & it makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks, etc. in a country resulting in lack of employment opportunities. Natural disasters like flood, earthquake also contribute to poverty.

In some countries, especially African countries like Somalia, a long period of civil war has made poverty widespread. This is because all the resources & money is being spent in war instead of public welfare. Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. are prone to natural disasters like cyclone, etc. These disasters occur every year causing poverty to rise.

Ill Effects of Poverty

Poverty affects the life of a poor family. A poor person is not able to take proper food & nutrition &his capacity to work reduces. Reduced capacity to work further reduces his income, making him poorer. Children from poor family never get proper schooling & proper nutrition. They have to work to support their family & this destroys their childhood. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc. A poor person remains uneducated & is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There are no proper sanitation & drinking water facility in slums & he falls ill often &  his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. So, all social evils are related to poverty.

Government Schemes to Remove Poverty

The government of India also took several measures to eradicate poverty from India. Some of them are – creating employment opportunities , controlling population, etc. In India, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in India. The government constructed certain dams & canals in our country to provide easy availability of water for irrigation. Government has also taken steps for the cheap availability of seeds & farming equipment to promote agriculture. Government is also promoting farming of cash crops like cotton, instead of food crops. In cities, the government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs. Government has also opened  ‘Ration shops’. Other measures include providing free & compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age, scholarship to deserving students from a poor background, providing subsidized houses to poor people, etc.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example- we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.

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Poverty eradication

Related sdgs, end poverty in all its forms everywhere ....

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Publications.

The 2030 Agenda acknowledges that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.

The first Sustainable Development Goal aims to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. Its seven associated targets aims, among others, to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty, and implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

As recalled by the foreword of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, 189 countries unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, pledging to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”. This commitment was translated into an inspiring framework of eight goals and, then, into wide-ranging practical steps that have enabled people across the world to improve their lives and their future prospects. The MDGs helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the remarkable gains, inequalities have persisted and progress has been uneven. Therefore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its set of Sustainable Development Goals have been committed, as stated in the Declaration of the Agenda, “to build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business”.

The theme of the 2017 High-Level Political Forum was "Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing worl” ", and it included SDG 1 as one of the focus SDGs

From Agenda 21 to Future We Want In "The Future We Want", the outcome document of Rio+20, Member States emphasized the need to accord the highest priority to poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda, addressing the root causes and challenges of poverty through integrated, coordinated and coherent strategies at all level.

In the context of the multi-year programme of work adopted by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), poverty eradication appears as an "overriding issue" on the agenda of the CSD each year.

Poverty eradication is addressed in Chapter II of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002), which stressed that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly for developing countries.

Priority actions on poverty eradication include:

• improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities and productive resources;
• providing universal access to basic social services;
• progressively developing social protection systems to support those who cannot support themselves;
• empowering people living in poverty and their organizations;
• addressing the disproportionate impact of poverty on women;
• working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
• intensifying international cooperation for poverty eradication.

The General Assembly, in its 1997 Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (paragraph 27) decided that poverty eradication should be an overriding theme of sustainable development for the coming years. It is one of the fundamental goals of the international community and of the entire United Nations system.

"Combating poverty" is the topic of Chapter 3 of Agenda 21. It is also in commitment 2 of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development.

Agenda 21 emphasized that poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international domains. No uniform solution can be found for global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment, are crucial for a solution to this problem.

The years following the 1992 Rio Conference have witnessed an increase in the number of people living in absolute poverty, particularly in developing countries. The enormity and complexity of the poverty issue could endanger the social fabric, undermine economic development and the environment, and threaten political stability in many countries.

For more information and documents on this topic,  please visit this link

Sustainable Development Outlook 2020

Economic growth has slowed down dramatically and poverty is on the rise everywhere. Questions therefore have arisen whether these setbacks will have a permanent effect, jeopardizing progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)....

A Free World from Child Poverty

While there is great diversity in the almost 200 countries in which children live, there is much about children and their childhoods that are universal: in almost every country in the world – richer countries and poorer – children are more likely to be living in poverty than adults, and everywhere t...

Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom, We recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for su...

Human Development Report 2014

As successive Human Development Reports have shown, most people in most countries have been doing steadily better in human development. Advances in technology, education and incomes hold ever-greater promise for longer, healthier, more secure lives. Globalization has on balance produced major human ...

A Measured Approach to Ending Poverty and Boosting Shared Prosperity

This Policy Research Report is structured in three parts, mirroring the three broad aims of the report. The first part provides a general overview of the conceptual underpinnings of the two goals and their assessment. Chapter 1 describes the World Bank’s approach to poverty measurement and assesses ...

Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries Innocenti Report Card 12

Twenty-five years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child became international law, many of its commitments remain unrealized, and the developed countries most capable of delivering on them are losing ground. The Great Recession, which was triggered by a financial meltdown that started in th...

A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development

The Panel came together with a sense of optimism and a deep respect for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The 13 years since the millennium have seen the fastest reduction in poverty in human history: there are half a billion fewer people living below an international poverty line of $1.25 a ...

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South africa: the challenge of sustainable development, iran: energy and sustainable development in iran.

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• January 2015 SDG 1 Goal 1 aims to "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" and its targets aim to: 1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day 1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions 1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable 1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance 1.5 By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters 1.a Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions 1.b Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication action
• January 2012 Future We Want (Para 105- 107) Future We Want recognizes that, while there has been progress in reducing poverty in some regions, this progress has been uneven and the number of people living in poverty in some countries continues to increase, with women and children constituting the majority of the most affected groups, especially in the least developed countries and particularly in Africa. Sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth in developing countries is identified as a key requirement for eradicating poverty and hunger and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, Future We Want highlights the importance to complement national efforts of developing countries by an enabling environment aimed at expanding the development opportunities of developing countries. In paragraph 107, Member States recognize the important contribution that promoting universal access to social services can make to consolidating and achieving development gains. Social protection systems that address and reduce inequality and social exclusion are essential for eradicating poverty and advancing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
• January 2008 2nd UN Decade for Eradication of Poverty The General Assembly declared the Second UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017) in December 2007 and selected as theme “Full Employment and Decent Work for All”. This Second Decade was proclaimed to support the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Millennium Development Goals. It has stressed the importance of reinforcing the positive trends in poverty reduction, experienced by some countries as well as the need of extending such trends to benefit people worldwide. This Second Decade recognizes as well the importance of mobilizing financial resources for development at national and international levels and acknowledges that sustained economic growth, supported by rising productivity and a favourable environment, including private investment and entrepreneurship is vital for rising living standards
• January 2002 JPOI (Chap. 2) Chapter 2 identifies eradication of poverty as the greatest global challenge facing the world today and as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly for developing countries. JPOI recognizes the primary responsibility and role national governments and policies have for ensuring their own sustainable development and poverty eradication strategies. The JPOI at the same time highlights the importance of concerted and concrete measures at all levels to enable developing countries to achieve their sustainable development goals as related to the internationally agreed poverty-related targets and goals, including those contained in Agenda 21, the relevant outcomes of other United Nations conferences and the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
• January 2000 Social Summit +5 As recommended by the World Summit for Social Development, the General Assembly convened a special session in 2000 to revise and assess the implementation of the outcome of the Social Summit and to identify new and further initiatives for social development. The GA held its twenty-fourth special session, entitled “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”, in Geneva from 26 to 30 June 2000. Agreement was reached on a wide array of initiatives to reduce poverty and spur job growth in the global economy. Reducing poverty, promoting job growth, and ensuring the participation of all people in the decision-making process were the main objectives of the agreement. To achieve these goals, countries endorsed actions to ensure improved education and health, including in times of financial crisis. The General Assembly adopted an outcome document entitled “Further initiatives for social development” consisting of a political declaration reaffirming the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development; a review and assessment of the implementation of the outcome of the Summit; and proposals for further initiatives for social development.
• January 2000 MDG 1 MDG 1 aims at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Its three targets respectively read: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day (1.A), achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people (1.B), halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (1.C).
• January 1997 GA 19th Special Session A GA Special Session (UNGASS-19) was held in June 1997 in order to review and assess progress undergone on Agenda 21. With Resolution A/RES/S-19/2 delegates agreed on the adoption of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21. The Programme appraised progress since the UNCED, examined implementation and defined the CSD’s work programme for the period 1998-2002. For the CSD’s subsequent four sessions, poverty and consumption and production patterns were identified as dominant issues for each year by the work programme. Delegates also agreed on the sectoral, cross-sectoral and economic sector/major group themes, endorsed the IPF’s outcome and recommended a continuation of the intergovernmental policy dialogue on forests. Subsequently, the Intergovernmental Forum on Forest (IFF) was established by ECOSOC under the CSD.
• January 1997 1st UN Decade for Eradication of Poverty The First United Nations Decade for Eradication of Poverty was declared for the period 1997-2006 by the UN General Assembly at the end of 1995. As theme for the Decade, the GA established at the end of 1996 the following: "Eradicating poverty is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind."
• January 1995 Copenhagen Declaration (Social Summit) The Copenhagen Declaration was adopted at the end of the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD), held in March 1995 in Copenhagen. Being the largest gathering of world leaders at that time, this event represented a crucial milestone and pledged to make the conquest of poverty, the goal of full employment and the fostering of stable, safe and just societies overriding objectives of development. Chapter 2 is entirely devoted to eradication of poverty with a particular attention to the strategies to be adopted to achieve concrete results in this matter, to improve access to productive resources and infrastructure, meet the basic human needs of all and to enhance social protection and reduce vulnerability.
• January 1992 Agenda 21 (Chap.3) Chapter 3 of the Agenda describes poverty as "a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international domains". The Agenda notes that no uniform solution can be found for global application and identifies country-specific programmes to tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment as crucial tools for a solution to this problem.

Mental health effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and teens

Rising inflation and an uncertain economy are deeply affecting the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those living in low-income communities. It may seem impossible for a family of four to survive on just over $27,000 per year or a single person on just over $15,000, but that’s what millions of people do everyday in the United States. Approximately 37.9 million Americans, or just under 12%, now live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

Additional data from the Bureau show that children are more likely to experience poverty than people over the age of 18. Approximately one in six kids, 16% of all children, live in families with incomes below the official poverty line.

Those who are poor face challenges beyond a lack of resources. They also experience mental and physical issues at a much higher rate than those living above the poverty line. Read on for a summary of the myriad effects of poverty, homelessness, and hunger on children and youth. And for more information on APA’s work on issues surrounding socioeconomic status, please see the Office of Socioeconomic Status .

Who is most affected?

Poverty rates are disproportionately higher among most non-White populations. Compared to 8.2% of White Americans living in poverty, 26.8% of American Indian and Alaska Natives, 19.5% of Blacks, 17% of Hispanics and 8.1% of Asians are currently living in poverty.

Similarly, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children are overrepresented among children living below the poverty line. More specifically, 35.5% of Black people living in poverty in the U.S. are below the age of 18. In addition, 40.7% of Hispanic people living below the poverty line in the U.S. are younger than age 18, and 29.1% of American Indian and Native American children lived in poverty in 2018. In contrast, approximately 21% of White people living in poverty in the U.S. are less than 18 years old.

Furthermore, families with a female head of household are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with a male head of household. Twenty-three percent of female-headed households live in poverty compared to 11.4% of male-headed households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

What are the effects of poverty on children and teens?

The impact of poverty on young children is significant and long lasting. Poverty is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools. In addition, low-income children are at greater risk than higher-income children for a range of cognitive, emotional, and health-related problems, including detrimental effects on executive functioning, below average academic achievement, poor social emotional functioning, developmental delays, behavioral problems, asthma, inadequate nutrition, low birth weight, and higher rates of pneumonia.

Psychological research also shows that living in poverty is associated with differences in structural and functional brain development in children and adolescents in areas related to cognitive processes that are critical for learning, communication, and academic achievement, including social emotional processing, memory, language, and executive functioning.

Children and families living in poverty often attend under-resourced, overcrowded schools that lack educational opportunities, books, supplies, and appropriate technology due to local funding policies. In addition, families living below the poverty line often live in school districts without adequate equal learning experiences for both gifted and special needs students with learning differences and where high school dropout rates are high .

What are the effects of hunger on children and teens?

One in eight U.S. households with children, approximately 12.5%, could not buy enough food for their families in 2021 , considerably higher than the rate for households without children (9.4%). Black (19.8%) and Latinx (16.25%) households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, with food insecurity rates in 2021 triple and double the rate of White households (7%), respectively.

Research has found that hunger and undernutrition can have a host of negative effects on child development. For example, maternal undernutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of negative birth outcomes, including premature birth, low birth weight, smaller head size, and lower brain weight. In addition, children experiencing hunger are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 1.4 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food-secure children.

The first three years of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain development. Too little energy, protein and nutrients during this sensitive period can lead to lasting deficits in cognitive, social and emotional development . School-age children who experience severe hunger are at increased risk for poor mental health and lower academic performance , and often lag behind their peers in social and emotional skills .

What are the effects of homelessness on children and teens?

Approximately 1.2 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the National Center for Homeless Education (PDF, 1.4MB) . The report also found that students of color experienced homelessness at higher proportions than expected based on the overall number of students. Hispanic and Latino students accounted for 28% of the overall student body but 38% of students experiencing homelessness, while Black students accounted for 15% of the overall student body but 27% of students experiencing homelessness. While White students accounted for 46% of all students enrolled in public schools, they represented 26% of students experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness can have a tremendous impact on children, from their education, physical and mental health, sense of safety, and overall development. Children experiencing homelessness frequently need to worry about where they will live, their pets, their belongings, and other family members. In addition, homeless children are less likely to have adequate access to medical and dental care, and may be affected by a variety of health challenges due to inadequate nutrition and access to food, education interruptions, trauma, and disruption in family dynamics.

In terms of academic achievement, students experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent than non-homeless students , with greater rates among Black and Native American or Alaska Native students. They are also more likely to change schools multiple times and to be suspended—especially students of color.

Further, research shows that students reporting homelessness have higher rates of victimization, including increased odds of being sexually and physically victimized, and bullied. Student homelessness correlates with other problems, even when controlling for other risks. They experienced significantly greater odds of suicidality, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, risky sexual behavior, and poor grades in school.

What can you do to help children and families experiencing poverty, hunger, and homelessness?

There are many ways that you can help fight poverty in America. You can:

• Volunteer your time with charities and organizations that provide assistance to low-income and homeless children and families.
• Donate money, food, and clothing to homeless shelters and other charities in your community.
• Donate school supplies and books to underresourced schools in your area.
• Improve access to physical, mental, and behavioral health care for low-income Americans by eliminating barriers such as limitations in health care coverage.
• Create a “safety net” for children and families that provides real protection against the harmful effects of economic insecurity.
• Increase the minimum wage, affordable housing and job skills training for low-income and homeless Americans.
• Intervene in early childhood to support the health and educational development of low-income children.
• Provide support for low-income and food insecure children such as Head Start , the National School Lunch Program , and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) .
• Increase resources for public education and access to higher education.
• Support research on poverty and its relationship to health, education, and well-being.
• Resolution on Poverty and SES
• Pathways for addressing deep poverty
• APA Deep Poverty Initiative

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Essay on Poverty: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 14, 2023

Poverty is a deep-rooted problem that continues to affect a large portion of the world’s population today. It touches on several aspects of human life including but not limited to political, economic, and social elements. Even though there are several methods to escape poverty, still issues arise due to a lack of adequate unity among the country’s citizens. Here are some essays on poverty which will give you insights about this topic.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Poverty in 100 words
• 2 Essay on Poverty in 200 words
• 3.1 Reasons Behind Poverty
• 3.2 World Poverty Conditions
• 3.3 Role of NGOs to Eradicate Poverty
• 3.4 What Can be Done by Us?

Essay on Poverty in 100 words

Poverty is defined as a state of scarcity, and the lack of material possessions to such an extreme extent that people have difficulties in fulfilling their basic needs. Robert McNamara, a former World Bank President, states that extreme poverty is limited by illiteracy, malnutrition, disease, high infant mortality rate, squalid conditions of living, and low life expectancy.

In order to eradicate poverty in a country, strict measures need to be taken on all levels. The political system needs to address this issue with utmost sincerity and strategic implementation in such a way that it improves the lives of people, especially the ones living below the poverty line. 

Also Read: Speech on Made in India

Essay on Poverty in 200 words

Poverty is like a parasite that degrades its host and eventually causes a lot of damage to the host. It is basically the scarcity of basic needs that leads to an extremely degraded life and even low life expectancy. It includes a lack of food, shelter, medication, education, and other basic necessities. Poverty is a more serious circumstance where people are forced to starve. It can be caused by a variety of factors depending upon the country. 

Every country that is hit with pandemic diseases, experiences an increase in poverty rates. This is because of the fact that poor people are unable to receive adequate medical care and hence are unable to maintain their health. This renders the people powerless and even puts their liberty in jeopardy. This is because of the fact that poor people can become trapped in a vicious cycle of servitude. The condition of poverty is a distressing one that causes pain, despair, and grief in the lives of the ones it affects. 

This is also a negative scenario that prevents a child from attending basic education. It’s the lack of money that prevents people from living sufficiently. Also, it is the cause of more serious social concerns such as slavery, child labour, etc. Hence action is needed on the same with utmost sincerity. 

Essay on Poverty in 300 words

Poverty is a multifaceted concept that includes several aspects such as social aspects, political elements, economic aspects, etc. It is basically associated with undermining a variety of essential human attributes such as health, education, etc. Despite the growth and development of the economies of countries, poverty still exists in almost every one of them. 

Reasons Behind Poverty

There are several contributing reasons behind poverty in a nation. Some of them are mentioned below:-

• Lack of literacy among citizens
• Lack of Capital in the country
• Large families and a rapidly growing population
• Limited employment opportunities

There are even urban areas where the slum population is increasing. These are deprived of many basic amenities such as sanitation, drainage systems, and low-cost water supply, etc. 

World Poverty Conditions

According to UNICEF , around 22000 children lose their lives each day due to poverty. There are approximately 1.9 billion children in developing countries in the world and India is also among them. Out of these, approximately 640 million don’t have a proper shelter, 270 million are living without medical facilities, and approximately 400 million don’t have access to safe water. This worldwide situation is growing at a fast pace. 

Role of NGOs to Eradicate Poverty

The approaches by NGOs basically include helping the poor by providing various public services such as medical services etc.

They also play a major role in mobilizing the services recommended by the government. They have various approaches and strategies that directly help the poor in various ways.

What Can be Done by Us?

We help in eradicating poverty by increasing employment opportunities.

Ensuring financial services and providing the same is another such measure that can be taken.

Recognizing social entrepreneurs as people of influence, conveying to them the seriousness of this situation, and then eventually making people aware of the same is another thing that can be done. 

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Writing an essay on poverty in 200 words requires you to describe various aspects of this topic such as what causes poverty, how it affects individuals and society as a whole, etc. The condition of poverty is a distressing one that causes pain, despair, and grief in the lives of the ones it affects.

An essay on poverty may be started as follows:- Poverty is a deep-rooted problem that continues to affect a large portion of the world’s population today. It touches on several aspects of human life including but not limited to political, economic, and social elements. Even though there are several methods to escape poverty, still issues arise due to a lack of adequate unity among the country’s citizens.

Poverty in 100 words: Poverty is defined as a state of scarcity, and the lack of material possessions to such an extreme extent that people have difficulties in fulfilling their basic needs. Robert McNamara, a former World Bank President, states that extreme poverty is limited by illiteracy, malnutrition, disease, high infant mortality rate, squalid conditions of living, and low life expectancy. In order to eradicate poverty in a country, strict measures need to be taken on all levels. The political system needs to address this issue with utmost sincerity and strategic implementation in such a way that it improves the lives of people, especially the ones living below the poverty line.

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Deepansh Gautam

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Poverty Anywhere is a Threat to Prosperity Everywhere

• 24 Apr 2024
• 12 min read

Poverty is the Parent of Revolution and Crime.  

 —Aristotle.  

In our interconnected world shaped by technology, trade, and communication, the assertion   

that "Poverty in any corner poses a danger to prosperity everywhere" carries significant resonance. Despite poverty often appearing as a localized concern, its impact extends far beyond borders, influencing economies, social frameworks, and the overall welfare of humanity on a global scale.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) even has this principle enshrined in their Declaration of Philadelphia. While prosperity might evoke images of flourishing economies and a comfortable standard of living, it cannot exist in isolation from the realities of global poverty.  

One of the most direct threats poverty poses is to global economic stability. Impoverished regions often lack the resources to invest in infrastructure, education, and healthcare. This creates a cycle of limited economic opportunities, hindering their ability to participate effectively in the global market. Furthermore, widespread poverty translates to a diminished consumer base, impacting the profitability of businesses in prosperous nations that rely on exports.  

Poverty encompasses more than just a lack of material resources; it encompasses inadequate access to education, healthcare, sanitation, and opportunities for economic advancement. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than USD 2.15 USD/day , but poverty's dimensions extend beyond income thresholds to encompass multidimensional factors like education, health, and social exclusion. According to the NITI Aayog, the poverty line is set at 1,286 rupees per month for urban areas and 1,059.42 rupees per month for rural areas.  

At the local level, poverty manifests in various forms, including hunger, inadequate housing, and limited access to education and healthcare. In impoverished communities, individuals face heightened vulnerability to diseases, malnutrition, and exploitation. Children from poor households often lack access to quality education , perpetuating cycles of poverty across generations. Moreover, poverty can breed social unrest and crime, further destabilizing communities and hindering economic growth.  

Poverty takes a significant toll on economic development , both domestically and globally. In economically disadvantaged regions, productivity losses due to illness, malnutrition , and lack of education diminish human capital, hindering economic growth potential .   

Moreover, poverty restricts market opportunities and consumer spending, stifling demand and hindering economic expansion. In the global context, poverty undermines international trade and investment, contributing to economic disparities between nations and impeding efforts toward global economic integration.  

In a local slum , families may be forced to live in overcrowded, unsanitary housing with limited access to clean water and proper sanitation. This can lead to the spread of diseases and exacerbate existing health problems.  The high cost of rent might force multiple families to share a single unit, limiting privacy and hindering hygiene. For example, Dharavi serves as a stark reminder of the living conditions faced by many families in slums worldwide. Overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, and limited resources continue to be pressing issues that need attention and solutions. Efforts to improve living conditions and provide better opportunities for slum dwellers are crucial for creating a more equitable society.   

The social consequences of poverty are profound and far-reaching. Poverty exacerbates social inequalities, marginalizing vulnerable groups and perpetuating cycles of deprivation. Moreover, poverty undermines social cohesion and stability , fueling resentment and discord within communities. In extreme cases, poverty can give rise to social unrest, conflict, and mass migration, with implications for regional stability and global security. For example, Afghanistan faces a severe humanitarian crisis and poverty, with nearly 28.8 million people in urgent need of support. The economic collapse, exacerbated by decades, has left millions of Afghans struggling against poverty and to meet their basic needs. Food insecurity is a critical issue, with 17.2 million people facing crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.  

A 2019 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) found a strong correlation between poverty, inequality, and violent conflict. This instability disrupts economies, hinders investment, and forces people to flee their homes, creating a refugee crisis that further burdens developed nations. For example, the Syrian Civil War, fueled in part by poverty and social inequality, led to a mass exodus of refugees to Europe, placing a strain on social services and security forces in host countries.  

Access to healthcare is a fundamental human right, yet poverty often deprives individuals of this essential service. In impoverished communities, limited access to healthcare facilities, medications, and trained healthcare professionals exacerbates health disparities and increases the prevalence of preventable diseases. Furthermore, poverty undermines public health interventions, hindering efforts to combat infectious diseases and promote maternal and child health. In many rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa , poverty limits access to healthcare facilities. These regions often lack well-equipped clinics, hospitals, and trained medical professionals.  

Rural communities in India face a severe shortage of access to healthcare services. Public spending on healthcare is limited, and private healthcare primarily serves urban areas. Those in rural areas often travel long distances (up to 100 km) to access healthcare services. India suffers from a significant lack of qualified medical personnel in rural areas. The absence of efficient public health systems exacerbates the problem. High rates of poverty hinder access to healthcare. Nearly 90% of the population is not covered by insurance, and most costs are paid out of pocket or through loans. Rural areas experience disparities in health indicators due to poverty, including high rates of infant mortality, malnutrition, maternal mortality, low vaccination rates, and low life expectancy.   

Poverty creates a ripple effect that impacts many aspects of life, including education. Children from low-income families may not be able to afford good school, uniforms, or transportation, expenditure even if public education is free. This can prevent them from enrolling or fully participating in school.  

This lack of resources can hinder a child's ability to learn and keep them from achieving their full potential. It can also perpetuate the cycle of poverty, as children who don't receive a quality education may have fewer job opportunities later in life.  

Poverty and environmental degradation are closely intertwined, forming a vicious cycle of deprivation and ecological decline. Impoverished communities often rely on natural resources for their livelihoods, leading to overexploitation and environmental degradation. Moreover, inadequate infrastructure and sanitation facilities contribute to pollution and environmental health hazards, further exacerbating the burden on vulnerable populations.   

India's forests are under immense pressure due to deforestation driven by various factors, including agricultural expansion, logging, and infrastructure development. Tribal communities, often among the poorest in India, rely heavily on forests for their livelihoods, including for fuelwood, food, and medicinal plants. As forests shrink, these communities face increased poverty and loss of traditional knowledge , leading to a vicious cycle of deprivation and ecological decline. The struggle for survival can sometimes force them into unsustainable practices like illegal logging or encroachment on protected areas, further exacerbating environmental degradation.  

In an increasingly interconnected world, the impacts of poverty transcend national borders, reverberating across continents through trade, migration, and communication networks. Globalization has intensified economic interdependence, making prosperity contingent on the well-being of nations at all levels of development. Economic downturns in one region can have cascading effects on global markets, highlighting the interconnected nature of modern economies.  

Addressing poverty requires concerted efforts at the local, national, and international levels. International cooperation is essential for mobilizing resources, sharing expertise, and implementing effective poverty alleviation strategies . Initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for collective action, aiming to eradicate poverty and promote shared prosperity by 2030. Moreover, international aid and development assistance play a crucial role in supporting impoverished communities and building resilient societies.  

Effective poverty alleviation strategies empower communities to become agents of change in their own development. Empowering marginalized groups, including women, indigenous peoples, and rural populations, is crucial for fostering inclusive growth and sustainable development. By investing in education, healthcare, and livelihood opportunities, communities can break free from the cycle of poverty and contribute to broader economic and social progress.  

"Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere" encapsulates the profound interconnectedness of global societies and economies. Poverty undermines human dignity, economic progress, and social cohesion, posing a threat to prosperity at both local and global levels. Addressing poverty requires holistic approaches that tackle its multidimensional manifestations, from economic deprivation to social exclusion and environmental degradation. By prioritizing poverty alleviation and fostering international cooperation, we can build a more equitable and prosperous world for all. As global citizens, we must recognize our shared responsibility in combating poverty and promoting sustainable development for future generations.   

Poverty is the Worst form of Violence.  

 —Mahatma Gandhi  

Poverty in the World Report

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• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The situation of poverty in the world, causes of poverty, efforts to fight poverty.

Poverty is described as a condition where an individual or individuals are not access to basic needs. When the term poverty runs into the minds of many people, they picture lack of food. Food is one of the main basic necessities that make people toil day and night. Poverty may differ from one person to the other and especially if it is measured in terms of what people consider as basic needs.

As much as people who are having some sought of shelter and food for their day many consider themselves poor, there are others who live a day at a time. They do not have a shelter and mainly live in the streets hoping that someone will drop something their way. They care less about their clothing and shelter and only wish they could get some food for their stomachs. Food being the main reference to the extremes of poverty, it comes with it many other situations that that are related to their conditions.

One of such issues is health which has a lot to do with what someone is eating and where they are staying. Places that are hard hit with poverty will also report a lot of cases of ill health due to poor leaving conditions. Other issues that are related to poverty include overpopulation, immorality and other criminal offences. In this paper, we will be looking at the situation of poverty in the world, its causes and the efforts of the international organizations to manage the same (Seabrook, p. 78).

The rate and extreme of poverty differs from one nation to the other. All this has a lot to do with the growth domestic product of the nation. Poverty in developing nations is different from that in developed nations. Despite this difference, it can not be denied that every nation and society has a group of people who can not manage their daily basic needs. The causes of such poverty vary from individual to individual. Extreme poverty was being experienced before industrial revolution due to high levels of illiteracy. It was hoped that after industrialization, the problem will be solved greatly.

Even though a lot has happened since then, poverty remains to be a crisis that takes a different shape even with modernization. Improvements in the field of technology are also making some people that would have otherwise been considered to be well off to be lacking in a way. The world is growing at a very faster rate and requires people to have something extra that will enable them manage the changes. For instance, in the past, being without shoes was considered to be poverty, but as shoes flood the market, it is now illiteracy that is considered as poverty. This is the main reason why poverty shall remain to be a permanent crisis that is likely to increase with improvements in technology.

Poverty has hindered especially many developing nations from achieving their goals and targets. There is so much exploitation especially by the leaders who take advantage of the situations that their people are into. Most African nations that have records of extreme poverty are also having poor leaders who are doing little to deliver their nations from the pain of poverty. What happens is that they get so much exited about their leadership positions that they forget what they promised their people. All over a sudden they find that they have so much at their disposal and feel that it is their time to make themselves rich.

There is a general fear especially among political leaders that they may go back to their former status if they don’t make good use of their political positions. They will hence ensure that they pump a lot of wealth into their accounts and make investments with the hope that even if they are not considered back, they will have enough for the coming years. Their remunerations may not always be enough for them to make such investments and will hence steal into the government coffers. The generated income that is usually supposed to improve the status of the people ends up in the pockets of greedy and selfish leaders (Kerbo, p. 97).

Poverty may be caused by a number of situations which differ with the environment and society. Poverty may be an unpredictable situation that may happen to a person unexpectedly. There may hence be two major cause of poverty, one that may be predictable and the other unpredictable. Some of the predictable causes of poverty may be illiteracy where by an individuals lacks the knowledge of earning a living and hence subjecting themselves to a lifetime of need. There are also cultural and religious believes that make certain categories of people to be poor.

For instance, some religious groups of people believe that lack of certain basic needs is a way of pledging allegiance to their gods. They will live a poor life by choice as a sign of showing, commitment to their faith. Other cultural beliefs subject people to poverty due to how they are looked at and their ways of living. For instance in some Asian communities, they believe in caste system where by some people are not supposed to own wealth. They can not be given some official duties to do despite their academic qualifications. They are also not allowed to venture into investments even if they manage to save enough (Myrdal, p. 86).

People may also find themselves into poverty due to other unpredictable situations such as accidents, wars or lose of their dependant. Accidents may render certain productive people of the society unproductive. That may either be paralyzed, have brain and spinal injuries, loose their limbs and legs and hence not being able to do what they used to do. A loss in any vital section of the body can affect an individually psychologically and mentally and hence leaving them at the mercies of other people. Such people, unless they get the support of their relatives, may end up borrowing to meet their daily needs.

Outbreak of war and violence may also make a dependent person to be poor. This is due to some of the situations that may come with such wars. Apart from destruction of property, other people may be displaced from their areas of locations. They will hence have to begin their lives a fresh which may not be easy to adjust. The pains of their situation many persist as long as there is still turmoil around them. This may be the most devastating time of their lives considering the means through which they found themselves poor (Bacci & Santis, p. 43).

Another cause of poverty especially in the modern world is the changes in the field of information technology. The world has mainly become a place of the swift and those who can adjust to the changes faster. People are adapting more sophisticated means of living which is leaving those with average facilities to feel out of place. Everything has become too technological that no one can live without it. There are no options for average facilities as business organizations adjust to manage competition. For most of the poor people that intensified their efforts to make their lives better still find themselves in similar situations as developments are made.

What they are now having which they can be proud of as a development, is what was being used by the rich probably five years ago. They may hence look at their own capacity and feel that they have advanced, but when a comparison is made with their richer counterparts, they realize that they still have along way to go. Due to such improvements, poverty may hence not be considered as an improvement in the living standards but rather the gap that distinguishes the rich from the rest. As long as such a strategy continuous to be used, poverty shall remain to be a lifetime battle (Kaul & Moschovitis, p. 98).

Poverty is not only a national issue but has been considered to affect the world economy. This is the basic reason why the international community is employing a lot of efforts to ensure that the situation is solved. Poverty is being fought at all levels of society that includes the community, district, national and international level. It is hoped that despite the challenges that people are going through, poverty will be minimized. Some of the tireless efforts that are considered to have an impact if they succeed are to educate communities about creating wealth and managing it.

This is especially in societies and people that believe that they were born to be poor. It is however very difficult to convince an individual or society that is inclined to religious and cultural beliefs to change their ways. It takes a lot of effort to empower such individuals and let them know that they can still pay allegiance to their beliefs. There is a need for the communities to wake up from past beliefs and brace up for the changes happening around. As inevitable as change is, some communities and individuals have resisted it and hence making them to wallow in more poverty.

Education is playing a vital role in informing the masses on the various options available for them to create wealth. This has seen people improve from their traditional and cultural inclination which was the main cause of poverty and adapting modern means of survival. Education has been made compulsory in most nations as support is granted especially to children to adapt basic education. Most countries have initiated free primary education, especially to the parents of children that can not afford it. This is one of the practical strategies that have recorded a lot of improvements in developing nations.

Parents are also being encouraged to take their children to school despite the contributions that have to earn a living. The implementation of free primary education in most developing nations was hindered by the fact that parents make their children to work and not allow them to go to school. Such a challenge has been fought by making child labour to be a criminal offence that is punishable under law (Townsend & Gordon, p. 67).

Another effort that is being implemented by the international community to minimize on poverty is finding alternative measures to utilize available resources. Overpopulation which has led to environmental degradation has been one of the serious causes of poverty in the world. Most organic resources are becoming extinguished making a large mass of people to fight for the little that are available. This has also made such resources to be too expensive for the average man to afford. Science and technology is launching into inventions that will ensure that people adapt lesser costly measures to carry out their activities. Reuse and the development of recycling industries are some of the efforts that are being utilized to the maximum to ensure that there is no unnecessary loss (Pogge, p. 123).

Poverty is mostly considered to be an individual issue whose pain can only be understood by them that are living or have lived in it. Anybody who has been there will not want to go back and those that are there are trying their best to come out of it. As personal as it may seem to be, it affects a larger community and will hence require the efforts of a larger community to fight.

One of the things that have hindered such progress is that fact that those that have the ability to deliver those in poverty from their situations can not understand their pleas. For those that were once in such situations and considered to be the best instruments of deliverance, forget everything as they concentrate on developing themselves. The paper has looked at the situation of poverty in the world, what causes it and the efforts of the international community to fight it.

• Bacci, Massim & Santis Gustavo. Population and poverty in the developing world. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Kaul, Chandrika & Moschovitis, Valerie. Statistical handbook on poverty in the developing world. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999
• Kerbo, Harold. World poverty: global inequality and the modern world system. Michigan: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
• Myrdal, Gunnar. The challenge of world poverty: a world anti-poverty program in outline . Michigan: Pantheon Books, 1970.
• Pogge, Thoma. World poverty and human rights: cosmopolitan responsibilities and reforms . London: Polity, 2008.
• Seabrook, Jeremy. The no-nonsense guide to world poverty . New York: Verso, 2003.
• Townsend, Peter & Gordon, David. World poverty: new policies to defeat an old enemy. California: The Policy Press, 2002.
• Urban Relationship Between Poverty and Crime
• Social Security Strategies Reform Plan
• Concept of Poverty
• What Causes Poverty in the World
• Poverty in the US: Causes and Measures
• Mumbai Great Problem: Homelessness Problem in Cities
• South Africa and Kenya Development Project
• Social and Economic Policy Program: Globalization, Growth, and Poverty
• World Hunger: Cause and Effect
• Is Poverty From Developing Countries Imagined?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Bibliography

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The pressing problem of child poverty and poor health

September 10, 2024— Throughout the fall, Harvard Chan faculty will share evidence-based recommendations on urgent public health issues facing the next U.S. administration. Rita Hamad , associate professor of social and behavioral sciences and director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research (SPHERE) Center , offered her thoughts on how child poverty drives poor health, recent policies that have showed significant promise in alleviating the challenge, and opportunities to lift more children out of poverty.

Q: Why is child poverty such a pressing public health issue?

A: We have decades of research, both in public health and economics, that show how poverty is associated with poor health throughout children’s lives. The strength of the evidence is just overwhelming.

For example, pregnant women living in poverty have less access to health care, healthy food, and other key health influences. Research tells us that when their children are born, those kids end up less healthy.

After birth, kids who are living in poverty are more likely to endure less safe, less clean neighborhoods, and lack access to high quality health care and nutrition. These deficits make it harder to do well in school, to get good jobs, and on it goes. The hardships suffered by these children are due in part to the intergenerational transmission of poverty—and as a result the cycle is likely to continue for their own kids.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing the next administration on child poverty?

A: The biggest problem is how disturbingly common child poverty is. One in eight U.S. children live in poverty, roughly 12% of all kids. The next administration will have to tackle that, because it’s a real outlier when compared to our peers, other high-income countries. These child poverty figures aren’t just a challenge for today, but they also create future challenges for society as a whole. Children growing up in poverty are less likely to participate in the workforce, more likely to need governmental assistance, more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system. So reducing child poverty is not only the fair thing to do to support these children, but also essential to having a well-educated and informed public to contribute to society.

Importantly, in 2021 the child poverty rate went down to 5%, the lowest ever, in large part due to pandemic-era safety net programs. But then these programs expired, and that rate more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. The silver lining is that we have tools at our disposal that can make a real difference on child poverty if we can muster the political will.

Q: What are your top policy recommendations to address child poverty? 

A: One of the single best tools in our toolbox to fight child poverty is the Child Tax Credit (CTC). This tax credit has been around for more than twenty years as a benefit for primarily middle- and high-income families, but during the pandemic it was expanded significantly and offered benefits to poorer families, even those making zero income. That meant unemployed parents got benefits, and the benefit size was largest specifically for the lowest-income families. The CTC’s delivery mechanism also changed—rather than one lump sum disbursed after filing taxes, the IRS actually distributed the payments monthly to people who had recently filed taxes.

These were significant policy innovations, and they really worked! As I mentioned above, child poverty rates were nearly halved in 2021. Unfortunately, Congress only authorized short-term funding, and the expansion expired at the end of that year. When the benefits ended, we saw a reversal of the significant progress.

Another tool at our disposal is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is the largest U.S. poverty alleviation program for families with kids. The EITC lifts millions of families out of poverty every year, but like the original CTC offers no benefit to people who have zero income. This means that families who are struggling the most and the children who are potentially most in need are left behind.

Beyond expanding these tax credits, we also should increase the minimum wage. America’s minimum wage is $7.25, and it has remained flat since 2009 despite increased costs of living and inflation. That means that some Americans are trying to get by and raise kids on $7.25 an hour, which comes out to about $15,000 a year. Try to imagine a household, particularly a single-parent household, raising children on that amount of money. It’s simply not feasible.

Finally, it’s important to acknowledge one fundamental challenge with our safety net system, which is that it consists of many different programs each with slightly different complex eligibility requirements and confusing applications. Asking families who are already struggling with poverty to navigate this fractured system is too much. Millions of families miss out on critical benefits—and their children remain in poverty—simply because they can’t figure out these complicated bureaucratic hurdles. The new administration needs to take on a major overhaul to simplify the system for these families.

Q: What’s the evidence supporting those recommendations? 

A: In terms of the CTC, the first piece of evidence was the sharp drop in child poverty during the credit’s expansion. Given the extensive studies that show how exposure to poverty in childhood can drive long-term health problems and even hinder brain development , reducing poverty will improve health. For example, a study by my team found that the CTC expansion reduced anxiety and depression among low-income parents, which can create mental health benefits for children as well.

My team has also found evidence that the EITC is linked with positive health benefits, including in birth outcomes , child development , and closing racial health disparities. These are benefits that last across the lifespan and are well worth pursuing.

In terms of the minimum wage, health economist George Wehby and his team at the University of Iowa have compared states that have instituted a higher minimum wage to those that have stuck with the lower federal standard. Their studies and others have found that increasing the minimum wage is beneficial for children’s health .

My team has also shown how the most marginalized families—like those with the lowest incomes or non-English speakers—are the least likely to receive the poverty relief for which they are eligible. New policy approaches are needed to remedy this unfair and inefficient policy failure.

Q: What do you hope could be accomplished to address child poverty in the next four years? 

A: In the middle of a global pandemic, we were able to pass legislation that significantly alleviated child poverty across our country. We did it then and we can do it again. If the next administration could get some of these policies passed, it would lead to drastic improvements in child poverty.

That would set up all children with the opportunity to live healthy lives and be productive members of society. Beyond that, supporting children who didn’t choose what households they’d be born into is the right thing morally. In four years, I’d love to say that our country has finally tackled child poverty in ways that other countries figured out decades ago.

—Jeff Sobotko

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• Poverty Essay for Students in English

Essay on Poverty

Poverty is a disease that has no cure. The deeper this disease is, the deeper its wound. By the way, man lives under compulsion. But usually one wants to avoid it. Poverty is a condition of extreme poverty for any person or human being. This is a situation when a person starts to lack important things in his life such as the roof, necessary food, clothes, medicines, etc. to continue his life.

The causes of poverty are excessive population, fatal and contagious diseases, natural disasters, low agricultural yields, unemployment, casteism, illiteracy, gender inequality, environmental problems, changing trends in the economy of the country, untouchability, little or limited access to people's rights, Problems such as political violence, sponsored crime, corruption, lack of encouragement, inaction, ancient social beliefs, etc. have to be faced.

Poverty has become a big problem of the world, efforts are being made across the world today to remove poverty, but the problem is that it does not take the name of ending. This problem affects a human's economic and daily life. Poverty teaches man to live like a slave in which he has to change the place over time, in this situation due to the lack of education of the poor, his nature and speech also make a difference. Living in a world of poor people has become a curse. Getting enough money to get food is like getting relief from a curse for the poor, that's why they do not have access to education.

Reasons of Poverty

There are many reasons that have continued with carrying it for a long time. Because of this,  freedom, mental and physical fitness, and lack of security in a person remains. It is very important that in order to live a normal life, the country and the whole world will have to work together to bring proper physical and mental health, complete education, a home for everyone, and other important things.

In today's time, there is the problem of poverty which gives all the pain, pain, and despair to the poor. Due to the lack of money from poverty, I show the lack of many things. Poverty makes children spend life in compulsion. If forced to make bread, sometimes in bringing children's books. At that time he is also unable to raise children.

We can tell poverty in many ways like it has become a common thing in India. Most of the people here are unable to get the things they need. Here a vast section of the population is illiterate, hungry, and forced to live without clothes and a home. About half of India's population suffers from this epidemic of poverty.

A poor person lives his life without possession of basic things like food for two times, clean water, house, clothes, proper education, etc. There are many reasons for poverty in India. Incorrect distribution of national income is also a reason. People in the low-income group are much poorer than those in the high-income group. Children of poor families never get proper education, nutrition, and a happy childhood environment. The main cause of poverty is illiteracy, corruption, growing population, weak agriculture, the growing gap between rich and poverty, etc.

Measures to Control Poverty

Corruption has to be erased.

Unemployed will have to give proper employment

A growing population will have to be stopped

Farmers have to be given proper facilities for farming

Education should be provided to children for proper education

Poverty is not just a human problem but it is a national problem. It should be solved by implementing some effective methods on a quick basis. Every person should be united by ending corruption. A problem has been created in which he does not get even the basics. That is why at present, many measures are being taken to prevent poverty so that the standard of living of people around the world can be improved.

Short Essays on Poverty

Poverty is akin to being a slave, as a person cannot achieve anything he desires. It has various faces that alter depending on who you are, where you are, and when. It can be defined in various ways depending on how a person feels or experiences it.

Poverty is a state that no one wants to be in, but it must be removed owing to cultural norms, natural disasters, or a lack of adequate education. The individual who is experiencing it frequently wishes to flee. Poverty is a call for poor people to earn enough money to eat, have access to education, have adequate shelter, dress appropriately, and take steps to protect themselves from social and political violence.

It's a problem that goes unnoticed yet significantly impacts a person's social life. Poverty is an entirely avoidable problem, but there are various reasons why it has persisted in the past.

Poverty robs people of their freedom, mental health, physical well-being, and security. Everyone must strive to eradicate poverty from the country and the world, ensuring appropriate physical and mental health, full literacy, a home for all, and other necessities for living a simple life.

When a person cannot do anything according to his will, he is said to be in poverty. Many different faces alter depending on who you are, where you are, and time. It can be characterized in a variety of ways, depending on how the person feels or what they have achieved. Poverty is a circumstance that no one wants to be in, even if it is forced upon them due to a lack of experience, nature, natural disasters, or a lack of suitable education. Humans have won it, but they prefer to stay away from it. Poverty is a call for needed clothing and protection against social and political violence for the poor to earn enough money to buy food, receive an education, and find a suitable place to live.

This is an unseen problem that harms a person's social life. Even though numerous factors have contributed to its long-term persistence, poverty is a perfectly preventable problem. As a result, a person's freedom, mental and physical well-being, and sense of security are all compromised. It is critical to bring poverty and poverty from worldwide to work together to live everyday life, provide adequate physical and mental health, complete education, a home for everyone, and other essential things.

FAQs on Poverty Essay for Students in English

1. What are the Effects of Poverty?

When people are not able to afford their basic necessities. For example medications and hospital fees are impossible to afford for that means they choose crook ways of obtaining money i.e. stealing, robbery, etc.  

2. What are the Possible Ways to Remove Poverty?

Since India is a developing country, eliminating poverty here is much tougher than in other countries but still some measures can be taken and government assistance would be much helpful in this step which requires some relevant planning and policies for those who fall under the poverty line. Another major factor of poverty is illiteracy and unemployment. Therefore education is the most efficient tool to confine the poverty line in the country. 

3. What is the Poverty Line?

The Below Poverty Line (BPL) signifies the state of people who fall under poverty status. It also symbolizes an economic drawback. In addition, it is used for people who are in need of help and assistance from the government.

4. What are the causes of poverty?

Poverty has several causes, including a lack of access to essentials such as water, food, shelter, education, and healthcare. Poverty is also caused by inequities such as gender or ethnic discrimination, bad governance, conflict, exploitation, and domestic violence. These disparities not only cause a person or a society to fall into poverty, but they can also prevent people from receiving social assistance that could help them get out of it. Due to political upheaval, past or present conflict, corrupt authorities, and lousy infrastructure that restricts access to education, clean water, healthcare, and other essentials, children and communities in fragile states confront greater poverty rates.

5. What can we do to put an end to extreme poverty?

We can aid in the eradication of extreme poverty by determining what causes it in a particular community and then determining what needs to change. Because poverty manifests itself differently in different regions and is caused by different circumstances, the work to end extreme poverty differs depending on the situation. More economic resources are needed to assist people in increasing their income and better providing for themselves and their families. To ensure that poverty does not return, the work must be sustainable, regardless of the solution. As a result, the community must be involved at every stage.

6. What criteria are used to assess poverty?

Each country's government determines poverty levels by conducting home surveys of its citizens. The World Bank, for example, assists and may conduct their surveys, although data collecting is time-consuming and slow. New high-frequency surveys are being created and tested, leveraging estimations and mobile phone technologies. If you want to learn more about these topics, download the Vedantu App that has been specifically designed and curated for students by experts.

7. What is the poverty cycle?

Poverty can be a catch-22 situation. To escape poverty, a person requires access to possibilities such as education, clean water, local medical services, and financial means. Poverty creates a generational cycle if these critical factors are not there. If parents cannot afford to take their children to school, they will struggle to find work when they grow up. Even natural disasters and conflicts can exacerbate the poverty cycle by bringing more people.

8. What are the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of goals for countries worldwide to work together in a global partnership for the benefit of people, the environment, and prosperity. The Sustainable Development Goals aim to abolish extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030 and to reduce the proportion of people living in poverty in all forms by at least half. In September 2015, the United Nations member states accepted this objective as one of 17 to end extreme poverty.

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A New Trilemma Haunts the World Economy

It may be impossible simultaneously to combat climate change, boost the middle class in advanced economies, and reduce global poverty. Under current policy trajectories, any combination of two goals appears to come at the expense of the third.

CAMBRIDGE – I wrote a speculative article in 2000 on what I called “the political trilemma of the world economy.” My claim was that advanced forms of globalization, the nation-state, and mass politics could not coexist. Societies would eventually settle on (at most) two out of three.

I suggested that it would be the nation-state that would give way in the long run. But not without a struggle. In the short term, the more likely consequence was that governments would seek to reassert national sovereignty, to address the distributive and governance challenges posed by globalization.

To my surprise, the trilemma proved to have long legs. My book The Globalization Paradox , published a decade later, developed the idea further. The concept of the trilemma has become a handy way to understand the backlash against hyper-globalization , Britain’s exit from the European Union, the rise of the far right , and the future of democracy in the EU , among other issues.

Lately, another trilemma has preoccupied me. This one is the disturbing possibility that it may be impossible simultaneously to combat climate change, boost the middle class in advanced economies, and reduce global poverty. Under current policy trajectories, any combination of two goals appears to come at the expense of the third.

During the early postwar decades, policies in the developed and developing world alike emphasized economic growth and domestic social stability. The advanced economies built extensive welfare states but also progressively opened their markets to poorer countries’ exports, so long as the distributional and social consequences were manageable. The result was inclusive growth in the rich countries, as well as significant poverty reduction in those developing countries that were pursuing the right policies.

Successful as this strategy was, it sidestepped the risks of climate change. Over time, the consequences of economic growth powered by fossil fuels have become increasingly difficult to ignore.

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The postwar Keynesian-social democratic bargain in the advanced economies was further undone by the internal contradictions generated by my original trilemma. As hyper-globalization replaced the earlier Bretton Woods model, labor markets in the advanced economies experienced greater disruption, undermining the middle class and democracy itself. Both of these developments required new strategies.

In the United States, President Joe Biden ’s administration has tackled these new realities head-on. It has broken new ground by promoting substantial investment in renewables and green industries to combat climate change. And it deliberately aims to restore the middle class by promoting labor’s bargaining power, reshoring manufacturing, and creating jobs in regions that were badly hit by imports from China.

This new focus on climate and the middle class is long overdue. But what US and European policymakers see as a necessary response to neoliberalism’s failures looks, to poor countries, like an assault on their development prospects. The recent crop of industrial policies and other regulations are often discriminatory and threaten to keep out manufactured goods from developing countries.

Green subsidies in the US incentivize the use of domestic over imported inputs. The EU’s carbon-pricing mechanism will soon require “dirty” exporters from developing countries to pay additional tariffs. Governments in poor countries believe that such measures will sabotage their efforts to replicate East Asian nations’ export-oriented industrialization.

We can imagine an alternative combination of policies that focus on poor countries and the climate. This would entail a large transfer of resources – financial and technological – from the North to the South, to ensure the requisite investments in climate adaptation and mitigation in the latter.

It would also require significantly greater access in the North’s markets to goods, services, and workers from the poor countries of the South, to enhance these workers’ economic opportunities. This policy configuration is morally appealing; it would effectively apply the philosopher John Rawls’ principles of justice on a global scale.

But here, too, the trilemma rears its ugly head. Such an approach would work at cross purposes with the imperative of rebuilding the middle class in advanced economies. It would create much greater competition for workers without college or professional degrees, driving down their wages. It would also reduce the fiscal resources available for investment in their human capital and physical infrastructure.

Fortunately, some of these conflicts are more apparent than real. In particular, policymakers in advanced economies and poor countries alike need to understand that the vast majority of the good, middle-class jobs of the future will have to come from services , not manufacturing. And economic growth and poverty reduction in developing economies will be fueled mainly by the creation of more productive jobs in their service sectors .

Labor-absorbing sectors such as care, retail, education, and other personal services are non-traded for the most part. Promoting them does not create trade tensions in the same way as in manufacturing industries. This means that the conflict between the middle-class imperative in rich economies and poor countries’ growth imperative is less severe than meets the eye. 

Similarly, it will be virtually impossible to address climate change without significant cooperation from developing countries. While emissions from the US and Europe have been declining, developing-country emissions are still rising, in some cases rapidly, and their contribution to global emissions (excluding China) will soon exceed 50%. Hence it is in rich countries’ self-interest to promote green-transition policies that poor countries regard as part of their own growth strategies , not just as pure cost.

Climate change is an existential threat. A large and stable middle class is the foundation of liberal democracies. And reducing global poverty is a moral imperative. It would be alarming if we had to abandon any of these three goals. Yet our current policy framework imposes, implicitly but forcefully, a trilemma that appears difficult to overcome. A successful post-neoliberal transition requires us to formulate new policies that put these trade-offs behind us.

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Kamala Harris’s Liberal Patriotism

The US presidential candidate's appeal to love of country is the right thing at the right time. Disregard the surfeit of flags and overwrought rhetoric: a healthy dose of patriotism is required to win an election, in the US or anywhere else, and it is – and should be – an essential component of liberal and progressive politics.

Confronting Africa’s Cost-of-Living Crisis

While inflation and price growth have fallen in advanced economies, they remain stubbornly high in Africa, owing to rising food prices, the lack of formal employment opportunities, and austerity measures. The resulting protests in Nigeria and Kenya should encourage governments to rethink constraints on public spending.

Why Rome Still Matters

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Asia’s Consumer Tipping Point

Kishore Mahbubani on the US-China rivalry, Asian security risks, and more

Tracking Air Quality the Right Way

Countries That March Together Should Trade Together

Resetting US-China Economic Relations

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Wynston Farrington

The World Bank’s Poverty Reports and Infographics Elevator Pitch

For my artifact, I expect to analyze the World Bank’s Poverty Reports and Infographics. Its data shows global efforts to combat poverty and gives conceptual solutions. The infographics it uses give a visual representation of some of poverty’s root causes such as COVID-19, its impact on human development (understood through living standards), and the definition of poverty. From graphs, charts, data visualizations, and reports, the World Bank represents the extent of poverty while also emphasizing the importance of education, job availabilty, economic policies, and healthcare access in reducing poverty across the world.

I plan on using the rhetorical lens of logos to analyze how the World Bank uses statistics, current examples, and data-based explanations to promote specific sustainable economic development. In addition, ethos can be used to consider how credible and what authority the World Bank  has that contributes to the artifact’s strength to the public and leaders. By focusing on ethos and logos, I can represent how the World Bank reports and infographics work to inform policy makers and engage the public in the objective to achieve the U.N.’s first SDG of ending poverty.

My analysis will describe focus on the specific methods (word choice, data source, etc.) that World Bank uses to argue in favor of poverty reduction, and how its approach influences both public perception and international action toward sustainable development objectives.

Two specific artifacts of World Bank action referenced:

March 2024 global poverty update from the World Bank: first estimates of global poverty until 2022 from survey data

Ending poverty and ensuring dignity for all (worldbank.org)

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9/11's long legacy: How the attack on the World Trade Center is still claiming lives

Diseases related to the dust and smoke produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers have claimed twice as many lives than the attacks themselves 23 years ago – and new health problems are still emerging.

It was after a month of working at Ground Zero that Elizabeth Cascio developed a cough that she couldn't shift. Soon after that, she began to suffer sinus issues and headaches.

"We all knew the air quality was not safe – it was very toxic in terms of how it felt," says Cascio, a former New York Fire Department (FDNY) emergency medical technician. She was one of thousands of first responders who attended the shattered site of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City during the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks . "Initially, when I came off the bus and arrived at the Trade Center, you felt like you had to hold your breath. But there's only so long you can hold your breath. I could feel the particles coming into my nose and mouth and thought: 'This can't be good' ."

Cascio would ultimately spend nearly two months looking for human remains in what became known as " The Pile " among first responders. She had initially been there to set up a triage centre, assuming there would be more survivors.What Cascio didn't know at the time was the effect it would have on her own health two decades later. In 2019, she underwent treatment for invasive cervical cancer, that has been attributed to her time at Ground Zero.

She would go on to become the FDNY Chief of Staff before retiring in 2023. Now aged 61, Cascio is still monitored by the US government's World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment to those directly affected by the 9/11 attacks in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The programme also funds medical research into physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11 exposures.

It has been 23 years since Cascio worked amid the dust, smoke and debris of the World Trade Center, and she is keen to speak about the legacy it has left on people like her.

"It's a duty to speak about 9/11 because of the EMS workers who are underrepresented, and the women who are underrepresented," she says.

In the hours that followed the attack on the Twin Towers, an enormous plume of smoke and dust billowed out across Lower Manhattan , over the East River and into Brooklyn. As rescue workers rushed to help at the World Trade Center site, and later as the clean-up of the vast tangle of twisted metal, glass and concrete disturbed the debris, more dust from the buildings filled the air.

In places, the dust and soot would reach more than four inches (10cm) thick on the surfaces where it settled. It got inside buildings, and although heavy rains would wash much of the outdoor dust away, the air quality was still affected for months afterwards .

Authorities including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York Mayor at the time, Rudy Guiliani , tried to reassure New Yorkers that despite this, the air was relatively safe to breathe. Although Guiliani and the New York Fire Department would also urge rescue workers to wear protective clothing and masks , many workers and volunteers went without breathing apparatus or protective clothing , while some wore simple disposable masks. Those living and working in the area tried to get on with their lives amid the polluted air.

It later transpired that those attempts to reassure the public about the dust laden air were misguided. Research shows the dust thrown out by the collapse of the twin towers contained asbestos, heavy metals, lead and toxic chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The fine dust contained huge volumes of gypsum and calcite – minerals commonly used in building materials including cement and plasterboard – that are known to irritate the eyes and lungs. Smoke billowing from the burning site for weeks afterwards also carried ultrafine soot particles, unburned jet fuel, along with fumes from burning plastic and wood.

The long-term effects of this on the people caught up in the catastrophe and those who tried to help are still becoming clear. Twenty three years later there are 127,567 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program , according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 82,000 of those are, like Cascio, workers and volunteers who rushed to take part in the rescue efforts or helped to clean up the wreckage at the World Trade Center in the months after 9/11. Another 44,000 were people who were working, at school or in care within the New York City Disaster Area , when the towers fell and the dust cloud enveloped the city.

As of December 2023, 6,781 of those who were registered with the programme have died from an illness or cancer linked to their time near or at Ground Zero after 9/11. It is more than twice the number of people who died on 9/11 . In September 2024, the FDNY announced more than 360 firefighters , EMT and department members have died from World Trade Center-related illness – more than the 343 people it lost on 9/11 itself .

"Some people got sick in two years, some people got sick in eight years, some people got sick in 12 years," says John Feal, a demolition expert and first responder who arrived at Ground Zero on the night of the attack. "There are people who worked there for the entire eight-month cleanup and never got sick. But we were all exposed to a toxic soup no one has ever seen before."

Feal was seriously injured six days after his arrival at Ground Zero when a piece of steel crushed his foot. Despite undergoing multiple surgeries, he remains permanently. Feal now dedicates much of his time advocating for health benefits for first responders.

Among the health conditions affecting those who were exposed to the dust and smoke on 9/11 are cancers, autoimmune diseases, asthma , respiratory illnesses and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rare diseases such as sarcoidosis – lumps formed by inflammatory cells – have also been discovered to occur at an abnormally high rates in firefighters who were exposed to the dust and smoke on 9/11.

Within days, people returned to their homes and work, and Wall Street reopened (though most schools remained shut through the end of the year). Within months – and for first responders, within hours – respiratory symptoms appeared . It wasn't long before school children being reported as new asthma cases and other respiratory illnesses . The post-traumatic stress in New York City was unmissable and rampant .

The CDC estimates up to 400,000 people could have been exposed to toxic contaminants, risk of injury and levels of stress that could lead to later health problems. The reported conditions include a range of breathing problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic respiratory disorder and painful chronic rhinosinusitis. The dust breathed in by people in New York in the days after the attacks has been found to trigger an intense inflammatory response that may have contributed to many of these long-term respiratory illnesses.

Others are suffering from gastric problems, anxiety disorders and depression. A wide range of cancers have also been reported in 37,500 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program, with non-melanoma skin cancer and prostate cancer being particularly common. A range of other cancers including breast cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer and thyroid cancer are also prevalent. The incidence of leukemia, thyroid and prostate cancer have been found to be particularly elevated.

The time it can take for cancers to develop may mean that the full scale of the health problems have yet to be realised.

"Cancer diagnoses are an ongoing scenario," says Iris Udasin, a professor of environmental and occupational health and justice at Rutgers School of Public Health in New Jersey, who studies WTC-associated health conditions. "Solid tumours have latency periods of 20 and 25 years – so now is the time to make sure people are getting the appropriate screenings."

Statistically, women make up a small pool of first responders and just 23% of the people monitored in the WTC health program me. But in 2023, r esearch by Udasin and her colleagues played a big role in getting uterine cancer certified as a covered condition in the WTC Health Program .

"Because the patient population is overwhelmingly male, we were able to show the studies pointing to endocrine disruptors in the area around Ground Zero," she says. She also helped to push for mammograms to be part of regular screening the programme.

The intense monitoring and research of 9/11-related health conditions is also bringing some benefits to those affected. Cancer survival rates, for example, are higher among first responders than the general population due to the free medical care and additional monitoring they receive for 9/11-related conditions.

"We found that if you're diagnosed in the WTC Health Program in New York, you have a high survival rate," says Marc Wilkenfeld, who was one of the first physicians to see survivors and first responders with health problems after 9/11. "If you're being monitored, you have a higher rate of survival."

Wilkenfeld witnessed the terror attacks in 2001 and immediately began studying the toxicity of the dust produced in the days that followed and the effect it was having on the first responders working at Ground Zero. He is still trying to unravel the long-term impact it is having and has become a vocal advocate for the healthcare of those affected.

" People ask me, 'you're still doing this 23 years later?'," he says. "But we're still seeing sick people."

Recently, Wilkenfeld was part of a team of doctors and public health researchers who found that people exposed to dust from the World Trade Center are also showing signs of nerve damage. They noticed that numbness, along with pins and needles, was a common symptom among responders and survivors, and they found it appeared to relate to high levels of neuropathy than in the general population. They argue it should be added to the growing list of health conditions related to 9/11.

Heart conditions should also be recognised as associated diseases to ensure those affected get the health cover they need, say campaigners. Cardiovascular disease is substantially higher in 9/11 responders than the general population, especially among women.

The health problems caused by 9/11 are also not restricted to people in New York, Wilkenfeld adds. First responders came to the city to help with the clean-up process from across the United States and around the world .

"People don't realise there are first responders in all 50 states – and abroad," Wilkenfeld says. "It's been 23 years [since 9/11] – people are retired now and live all over the world."

This makes measuring the scale of the problem difficult, but also means some people with 9/11-related conditions are also missing out on support being offered in the US.

"Not everyone connects their time at Ground Zero to their conditions, so getting the word out is important," says Bridget Gormley, whose father Billy Gormley was a FDNY firefighter who died of 9/11 related cancer in 2017 . She now advocates for improved healthcare for the 9/11 community. "There are people from all over the world –international rescuers – who came to help and may be living with conditions."

For some of those caught up in the events of that day, the toll it has taken on their mental health may mean some cases are being missed.

"People disconnect themselves from 9/11 – especially if they didn't have direct correlation to the day," says retired FDNY first responder Michael O'Connell, who was 25 years-old on 9/11 and is now aged 48. O'Connell worked in 24-hour shifts at Ground Zero in the days immediately after the attacks. He didn't have any physical symptoms until six years later when he was diagnosed with rare autoimmune disease called sarcoidosis in 2007 , when he was in his early 30s. He was one of the first 9/11 firefighters to be diagnosed with the condition, which causes abnormal lumps of inflammatory cells to form in his organs. He describes it as feeling like he has been beaten up with a baseball bat. He now does advocacy work with John Feal and the Feal Good Foundation.

"It takes time for [diseases] to develop," he says. "For eight months we were breathing in toxic air. We're still getting sick, and people are dying from their exposure [23 years later]."

O'Connell's physician, David Prezant, chief medical officer for FDNY , studied sarcoidosis in first responders and concluded the disease was more prevalent in those with exposure to WTC toxins. Close to 100 firefighters have been identified as suffering from sarcoidosis since O'Connell's own diagnosis.

"It's a sad reality we're met with – and there's no waiting. Tomorrow can be too late for one person," says O'Connell.

More like this:

•  How air pollution changes your body and your mind

•  The split-second decision that saved my life on 9/11

•  The heroes of the forgotten 9/11 maritime rescue mission

Although much of the attention has been on the first responders who worked at Ground Zero, there are also a growing number of members of the public in New York who are also starting to develop conditions related to the dust and smoke generated on that day.

Lila Nordstrom was a 17-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan's East Village in 2001. She was in a lesson when the planes hit the Twin Towers, and when they collapsed dust rushed into her school just three blocks from the World Trade Center.

Today, at 40 years-old, Nordstrom believes the dust she breathed in that day has worsened her asthma. She is the founder of advocacy group Stuy Health and joined in the fight for the Victim Compensation Fund, arguing that her survivor community also deserves recognition and mental and physical health care.

She wrote a book called Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor's Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11  about her and her classmates' experience going back to school in the aftermath of the attacks, after their school was used as a staging area in the immediate months that followed.

"We all deserve to be monitored," Nordstrom says, noting that survivors like herself – people in the area who did not participate in rescue and recovery efforts – have conditions comparable to first responders. "9/11 health effects affected people beyond first responders. It's hard for people to admit they're part of this pool. But they are part of this pool and they deserve these resources that the federal government set aside to the 9/11 community."

It's important she says for people to recognise they may have been affected – particularly because it can qualify them for no-cost healthcare.

Often, the conditions are harder to see – but are no less deserving of treatment. Large numbers of WTC Health Program members have developed mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, panic disorders and PTSD.

Udasin's own research has demonstrated that there is a prevalence of mental health conditions and says she still sees patients who are suffering from them. She notes that as first responders and survivors are getting older and addressing their health in a more serious way, mental health is a part of that. 

"After people are retired, they're more likely to seek out mental health treatment," Udasin says. "And at this time of year, as we approach the 9/11 anniversary, every year in September we have an uptick in people with a mental health diagnosis."

Conditions such as PTSD can also take a physical toll. One study published this year showed there was accelerated biological ageing among veterans who were deployed to war-zones in the aftermath of 9/11.

" PTSD is a physical injury too," Feal says. "I've learned to accept my PTSD diagnosis. It means you've been through something and came out the other side with scars that make you stronger."

Another recent study revealed other issues may still be emerging. It found evidence of cognitive impairments in people exposed to dust and smoke from the World Trade Center, perhaps due to organic neurotoxins that became airborne.

As more time passes, the community of 9/11 responders and survivors is dwindling.

"There's a premature death rate," Cascio says. "As a community, we view it as we'll probably all die of 9/11 illness at some point. Everyone feels that way – whether we talk about it or not. From time to time, we will admit to each other – not necessarily to family and loved ones – that even if we wind up dying in old age, it will be from 9/11 illnesses."

For the first responders who bravely entered Ground Zero 23 years ago, and the survivors caught up fallout from the attacks, there is an important aspect to continuing to talk about their ongoing struggles.

 "'Never Forget' means making sure their story doesn't die with them," says Cascio.

If you liked this story,  sign up for The Essential List newsletter  – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Food Shortage — Poverty: the Major World Problem

Poverty: The Major World Problem

• Categories: Food Shortage Hunger

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Words: 2015 |

11 min read

Published: Oct 31, 2018

Words: 2015 | Pages: 4 | 11 min read

• What is poverty from an expert point of view?
• What is SDG point number 1 ‘No Poverty’?
• How is poverty related to SDG’s point number 1 and Pancasila?
• Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular, least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
• Proportion of resources allocated by the government directly to poverty reduction programmes
• Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health, and social protection)
• Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions
• Proportion of government recurrent and capital spending to sectors that disproportionately benefit women, the poor and vulnerable groups.

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Conference: TSI Support to Improve Poverty Diagnostic and Social Policies Monitoring in Croatia

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The Government of Croatia is committed to reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. To this end, the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family, and Social Policy (MLPSFSP) initiated an important project to build a modern comprehensive policy framework for the fight against poverty and social exclusion, founded on an evidence-based diagnostic of poverty and social exclusion at sub-national level. 

The results of the technical assistance Project - Support to Improve Poverty Diagnostic and Social Policies Monitoring, were presented during a two-day conference. The project focused on supporting the MLPSFSP in developing a practical methodology to effectively use subnational administrative data on poverty and social exclusion in Croatia. This will assist policymakers to make better informed decisions leading to improved policies and programs, how to allocate financial resources strategically, and how to improve the design of interventions that address the root causes of poverty and social exclusion. The project was funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument ( TSI ) and implemented by the World Bank, in cooperation with the Directorate General for Structural Reforms of the European Commission ( DG REFORM ).

The event provided a platform to present and discuss the knowledge gains from this project, and to highlight the importance of these findings in the context of strategic planning and the use of EU funds. Participants, comprising representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, State Geodetic Administration, Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, the European Commission, the World Bank, academia and civil society organizations, exchanged ideas on how to jointly enhance the implementation and sustainability of policy solutions identified as part of the project. 

• Presentation: Register-Based Measurements of Poverty and Social Exclusion (pdf) Presentation: Register-Based Measurements of Poverty and Social Exclusion (pdf)
• Date:  September 11-12, 2024
• Venue:  Hilton Garden Inn, Zagreb

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