Global Poverty

Global Poverty

Introduction

Of the various problems faced by the world today such as terrorism, economic downfall, regime changes in several countries, wars, Trade agreements, reforms, political issues, Epidemics and others, global poverty is one issue that is faced not only at the macro level but also at the micro level. It is something that affects the common man and not just the system in which the person lives. In addition, it is a very important topic when it comes to international relations as it is one of the world's most pressing contemporary problems (Waldron, 1992, p. 4).

According to United Nation, poverty may be defined as the lack or denial of opportunities and choices, and a serious violation of human rights. As per this definition who lacks the ability to become a contributing member of the society is poor.

Discussion

International poverty threshold

The major reason why the problem of poverty has been looming till date is that the world still is focused on counting the statistics of poor in the world when the plight of the many people is visible in every nook and corner of the world. The numbers on poverty are misrepresented. It is not possible to make cross country comparisons as the numbers do not reflect reality. The international poverty threshold also called the povery line was given by the World Bank in the year 1990. At the time, it was decided to be $1 a day. However, considering the level of inflation in the world and the changing economic dynamics, this was later revised to $2 a day. This means that any person who earns below this line will be categorized as poor. This assessment is based through the money-metric approach. Under this approach, the concept of human requirements is not used to define the poverty line (Blake, 2001, p. 257).

The allocation of resources is prioritized on the basis of the results gained on the poverty line. This is also a major part of the millennium development goals. The first and foremost goal in the list of many Millennium Development goals was to take measure to relieve the world of the hunger and extreme poverty.

Another major reason why the international poverty threshold has been criticized in the past is that the level of inflation in different countries is different. Hence, a person earning less than $1 a day will be another level of deprivation than a person earning $1 in Somalia since the level of inflation in the developed country. In the realm of a situation where 25,000 people in the world die only because they were not fed or die out of hunger, the world should not be focusing on numbers only. Rather they should take an active approach in creating policies that will address the issue (Acosta & Calderon, 2008, p. 89).

Global policies

Poverty as a general characterization obscures the different realities: the "always poor", the "new poor", the "working poor", the "poor unemployed "the vulnerable", “the excluded" among ...