POVERTY AS A WICKED PROBLEM

Wicked problems are problems with many interdependent factors making them seem
impossible to solve. Because the factors are often incomplete and difficult to define,
solving wicked problems requires a deep understanding of the stakeholders involved,
and an innovative approach provided by design thinking. And one of the wicked
problems today in Nigeria is POVERTY.

Essentially, poverty refers to lacking enough resources to provide the necessities of life
like food, clean water, shelter, and clothing. Poverty to me is not as simple as we think it
is, it is not just about money, but also includes issues of access to other services such
as education and health care. For so long society has defined poverty as a problem and
yet has failed to get grips with the problems of poverty. And whatever we think we might
know bout poverty, there is more to it. Most analyses may/might start with income but
poverty is much about social relationships as it's about the economic ones. It is said that
if we know what causes the problems, we know how to stop them but it is all wrong and
that is why I think poverty is so far a huge wicked problem in our society today. What we
thought about poverty 20years ago is not what and how we think of it today.

Why do I think poverty is a wicked problem? that is mostly because it is unique as a

problem in our community. And poverty possesses most of the characteristics of a
wicked problem. We have to accept that poverty is a wicked problem and that it is
complex, multidimensional, unclear, and changeable. Which makes it difficult to see
what is an improvement, and what is not. It is often the case in development studies that
while some people are passionate advocates of some particular types of responses like
aid, trade, and so on others are equally passionate in rejecting them. The arguments
are stronger, on both sides, because they are based on a wealth of experience in
different countries. Poverty is connected to other social problems of the society like lack
of education, lack of development, and so on. Other characteristics are that it's been a
problem that has existed for centuries yet with a non-reliable solution. And the solution
in existence is neither right nor wrong. Responding to poverty is not a matter of solving
problems: it is about trying to make things better than they were before. We do not
necessarily know, and cannot even be confident, that we have identified the right
problems. This could be seen as a counsel of despair, but it does not have to be.
Tackling complex problems has to start somewhere which means that poverty can
never be completely solved in our society which is why it can be said that in our world
today, POVERTY IS A WICKED PROBLEM.