May 2021.

WORLD POVERTY

Dunja Pešić IV5

Anđa Delibašić IV5
INTRODUCTION

Despite a high and growing global average income, billions of human

beings are still forced to live life in severe poverty, which may cause low life expectancy,
social exclusion, health issues, illiteracy, dependency, homelessness and effective
enslavement. The annual death toll from poverty-related causes is around 18 million , which
is one-third of all human deaths
The poverty line is not the same in each country, in higher income countries the cost of living
is higher, making the poverty line higher as well. However, the international poverty line is
1.90USD
Surviving on less than $1.90 a day lives is considered extreme poverty, as defined by the
World Bank. (9.2%)
And according to a 2017 study, 43.6 percent on less than $5.50 a day
Economic fallout from the global pandemic could increase global poverty by as much as half
a billion people, or 8% of the total human population. This would be the first time that
poverty has increased globally in thirty years, since 1990.
The majority of people living extreme poverty live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Poorest countries:
1 Burundi
2 Central African Republic
3 Democratic Republic of the Congo
4 Eritrea
5 Niger
6 Malawi
7 Mozambique
8 Liberia
9 South Sudan
10 Sierra Leone

ENDING WORLD POVERTY

By 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals aim to end extreme poverty for all people
everywhere and at least cut in half the proportion of people living in poverty in all its forms.
The United Nations' member states adopted this goal to end poverty as one of 17 goals in
September 2015.
Since 1990, more than 1.2 billion people have risen out of extreme poverty. Now, 9.2% of the
world survives on $1.90 a day or less, compared to nearly 36% in 1990.

1. EQUALITY AND REPRESENTATION FOR ALL

One of the main causes of extreme poverty is marginalization, which is defined as the act of
relegating someone to an unimportant or powerless position—making them feel like they're

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the notes squeezed into the margins of society. In order for a community or country to work
its way out of poverty, all groups must be involved in the decision-making process — when it
comes to having a say in the things that determine your place in society
Women’s unpaid labor presents another big issue that often goes unnoticed. According to the
UN’s High-Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment, women’s unpaid labor adds
up to $10 trillion per year — 13% of the global GDP. In addition to that, according to the
Food and Agriculture Organization, women own less than 20% of agricultural land, yet make
up 60% of the agricultural workforce in parts of Africa and Asia.

2. CLIMATE CHANGE

Resilience against climate change also plays a huge role in bettering society. According to the
World Bank, climate change might force an additional 100 million people into extreme
poverty over the next decade if we do not take necessary action as soon as possible.
We can’t prevent many of the current disasters afflicting the world. But we can help the
communities most vulnerable to these types of crises become better prepared and protect their
farms, their homes, their loved ones. Eco-friendly farming techniques such as climate-smart
agriculture allow land to recover from degradation, and better adapt to extreme weather.

3. INCREASE ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Access to quality education which provides children with the knowledge and life skills they
need to realize their full potential. It’s also essential to creating change in a child’s life.
According to UNESCO, if all students in low-income countries had just basic reading skills
(nothing else), an estimated 171 million people could escape extreme poverty, and if all
adults completed secondary education, we could cut the global poverty rate by more than
half. Education develops and enhances children’s skills and abilities and corrects some of the
inequalities that are caused by marginalization.

4. IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY AND ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER

Eating three meals a day and getting a healthy amount of calories and nutrients is crucial to a
person’s well-being and is often unavailable to those afflicted by poverty and homelessness.
When a person doesn’t have enough to eat, they lack the strength and energy needed to work.
On the other side, by not working, they are not able to provide food and other necessities for
themselves, creating a vicious cycle. Contaminated water can lead to debilitating illnesses.
Current estimates suggest that women and girls living in underdeveloped countries
collectively spend 200 million hours every day walking long distances to fetch water.

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THE SINGER SOLUTION

Singer is sometimes described as the world's most controversial ethicist. He argues that we
could end world poverty if we wanted to. His theory goes like this: money that you're
spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away to overseas aid organizations
such as UNICEF or Oxfam America.

His famous thought experiment goes like this:

On your way to work, you pass a small pond. As you get closer, you see that it is a very
young child, just a toddler, who is flailing about, unable to stay upright or walk out of the
pond. You look for the parents or babysitter, but there is no one else around. The child is
unable to keep her head above the water for more than a few seconds at a time. If you don’t
wade in and pull him out, he seems likely to drown. Wading in is easy and safe, but you will
ruin the new shoes you bought only a few days ago, and get your suit wet and muddy. By the
time you hand the child over to someone responsible for him, and change your clothes, you’ll
be late for work. What should you do?

If we know that hundreds of children die every die due to poverty, and we do nothing to help
them, are we letting them die? Some children die because they don’t have enough to eat.
Some die from measles, malaria and diarrhea—conditions that either don’t exist in developed
nations or, if they do, are almost never fatal. Having no access to clean water, a satiable
amount of food, or hygienic products makes these children extremely vulnerable to disease,
and when they do fall ill, their parents often are not able to provide medical treatment to them
due to their financial limitations, or because they do not know that treatment is necessary. By
donating a relatively small amount of money, you could save a child’s life. We all spend
money on things we don’t really need, whether it’s drinks, meals out, clothing, movies,
concerts, vacations, new cars, etc. Is it possible that by choosing to spend your money on
personal pleasures such as previously named things rather than donating to an effective
charity, you are leaving a child to die? The question here is whether we should prioritise our
own pleasure and wellness over the ones less fortunate than us, or whether we should put our
moral values and beliefs before our will for hedonism. This represents a serious philosophical
question and if accepted, this method of living forces a person to significantly change their
way of living.

You may be thinking, why would you feel inclined to help complete strangers? But you
should also ask yourself, why would you feel obligated to help if someone was dying in front
of you while you wouldn’t if it were happening on the other side of the world? Why does it
matter if you see the person or not? This most likely has to do with the personal feeling of
responsibility and ability to make a change, as well as what’s known in psychology as
Diffusion of responsibility which is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is
less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when other bystanders or witnesses are
present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that others either are
responsible for taking action or have already done so.

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Evolutionary psychologists consider that people simply do not feel obliged to sacrifice much
for strangers, because our nature isn’t altruistic enough for that. Scientifically, they are right,
but we can not make a moral conclusion from that. Although it presents an interesting theory,
thinking in Peter Singer’s theory is not executable. Oskar Schindler was a German
industrialist who rescued more than 1100 jews during the Second World War, by employing
them. In the end, he felt guilty for not saving more than that. How will we know when we
have saved enough people and children? We can’t make it our responsibility to play
superhero, but we can definitely try to make a change, no matter how small it may seem. The
truth is, the average person simply cannot afford to donate significant amounts of money to
charity, and doesn’t have the time to worry about the issues of many people living far away,
as they are often preoccupied with their own worries. Donating large or at least significant
amounts of money should be expected from the very rich, but that doesn’t mean the average
person can’t make a contribution as well - donating money, food, clothes or hygienic products
to a local charity is always appreciated. We might not be able to change the world, but we can
start small. It will make someone's day as well as improve our mood and feeling of self
worth, knowing we did something good with our time, money and energy.

Sources:
https://www.concernusa.org/story/solutions-to-poverty/
https://plancanada.ca/5-ways-to-end-poverty
https://data.unicef.org/sdgs/goal-1-no-poverty/
http://schoolforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Singer-Solution-to-World-Poverty-Lif
eboat-Ethics.pdf