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PULL QUOTE: ‘World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim released a video in multiple languages during the recent UN General Assembly to start a new conversation on ‘What will it take to end poverty?’ Taxicabs in New York City were among the first to have this video, which could reach diplomats, activists, visitors, and the people living in New York City’
ABOUT 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1.25 per day. Poverty may be declining worldwide, but these statistics tell us that we have to do more to end poverty. World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim released a video in multiple languages during the recent UN General Assembly to start a new conversation on “What will it take to end poverty?” Taxicabs in New York City were among the first to have this video, which could reach diplomats, activists, visitors, and the people living in New York City.
The video already is producing a lot of responses from people globally on how to end poverty. Kim mentioned one such response on his blog as: “Countries need to put in place the critical infrastructure in the rural areas like roads, market stores etc and then work direct with the rural poor” and “make secondary education free for all children & increase access 2 domestic water.”
People all over the world want decent housing, good education, and a job. For me, the most important thing you could do for a person mired in poverty is to make a job available and, indeed, a job that meets more than the basic needs.
We find excuses easily for not doing anything to end poverty when the economic climate and prospects are poor, as they are now in some parts of the globe. Nevertheless, Dr. Kim demolishes these excuses.
He feels that more can be done and gave a few examples of promising developments already taking place to bring an end to poverty. Here are a few of Kim’s examples:
In the last 10 years, some 50 developing countries with a combined population of 4 billion chalked up a GDP of about 5% per year. Their poverty fell. And the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015 was already achieved around 2000, five years before the deadline;
then there were those who advanced the view that land-locked countries would be unable to sustain their growth. Well, Rwanda proved them wrong. Over the last 10 years, Rwanda had an average economic growth rate of 8% per year;
and we come to Brazil with deep, structural inequalities. Many people thought that this intolerable situation would remain forever. Well, Brazil recently reduced its Gini coefficient by 5 percentage points.
Clearly, then, all is not lost in the fight to end poverty. But what will it take to end poverty? Scanning the response to Kim’s new conversation on poverty shows that people are committed to ending poverty. Of course, at this point, it is all talk. But I suspect we have to start with some ideas. And we need timelines to move talk into action.
Some responses talk about education as the key, since it can expose people to the knowledge vital to securing jobs. But in my judgment, it has to be an education that is available and accessible, and an education that provides high-quality schools for all;
a responder explained that while global inequality and poverty may be falling across countries, inequality and poverty within countries are not declining; and how could we fight world poverty when there is not much being done to poverty and inequality in one’s own developed world? The responder pointed to the rising Gini coefficients in India, China, and South Africa. I would say too, that it is a good sign that many developing countries are walking the yards toward good governance. Nonetheless, we must encourage the pace, as real good governance will bring forth zero corruption;
and special funds do not eradicate poverty, one responder noted. Poverty is a symptom of people’s sufferings, not the cause of those sufferings; therefore, those special funds only penetrate the symptom not the cause of poverty.
There are other responses to World Bank President Kim’s efforts to create zero poverty globally. Perhaps, we can return periodically to these responses as we all work together to end poverty. Let me me see what my readers think about this question in relation to Guyana: ‘What will it take to end poverty?”
ABOUT 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1.25 per day. Poverty may be declining worldwide, but these statistics tell us that we have to do more to end poverty. World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim released a video in multiple languages during the recent UN General Assembly to start a new conversation on “What will it take to end poverty?” Taxicabs in New York City were among the first to have this video, which could reach diplomats, activists, visitors, and the people living in New York City.
The video already is producing a lot of responses from people globally on how to end poverty. Kim mentioned one such response on his blog as: “Countries need to put in place the critical infrastructure in the rural areas like roads, market stores etc and then work direct with the rural poor” and “make secondary education free for all children & increase access 2 domestic water.”
People all over the world want decent housing, good education, and a job. For me, the most important thing you could do for a person mired in poverty is to make a job available and, indeed, a job that meets more than the basic needs.
We find excuses easily for not doing anything to end poverty when the economic climate and prospects are poor, as they are now in some parts of the globe. Nevertheless, Dr. Kim demolishes these excuses.
He feels that more can be done and gave a few examples of promising developments already taking place to bring an end to poverty. Here are a few of Kim’s examples:
In the last 10 years, some 50 developing countries with a combined population of 4 billion chalked up a GDP of about 5% per year. Their poverty fell. And the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015 was already achieved around 2000, five years before the deadline;
then there were those who advanced the view that land-locked countries would be unable to sustain their growth. Well, Rwanda proved them wrong. Over the last 10 years, Rwanda had an average economic growth rate of 8% per year;
and we come to Brazil with deep, structural inequalities. Many people thought that this intolerable situation would remain forever. Well, Brazil recently reduced its Gini coefficient by 5 percentage points.
Clearly, then, all is not lost in the fight to end poverty. But what will it take to end poverty? Scanning the response to Kim’s new conversation on poverty shows that people are committed to ending poverty. Of course, at this point, it is all talk. But I suspect we have to start with some ideas. And we need timelines to move talk into action.
Some responses talk about education as the key, since it can expose people to the knowledge vital to securing jobs. But in my judgment, it has to be an education that is available and accessible, and an education that provides high-quality schools for all;
a responder explained that while global inequality and poverty may be falling across countries, inequality and poverty within countries are not declining; and how could we fight world poverty when there is not much being done to poverty and inequality in one’s own developed world? The responder pointed to the rising Gini coefficients in India, China, and South Africa. I would say too, that it is a good sign that many developing countries are walking the yards toward good governance. Nonetheless, we must encourage the pace, as real good governance will bring forth zero corruption;
and special funds do not eradicate poverty, one responder noted. Poverty is a symptom of people’s sufferings, not the cause of those sufferings; therefore, those special funds only penetrate the symptom not the cause of poverty.
There are other responses to World Bank President Kim’s efforts to create zero poverty globally. Perhaps, we can return periodically to these responses as we all work together to end poverty. Let me me see what my readers think about this question in relation to Guyana: ‘What will it take to end poverty?”
