Poverty

Question 1

How many people live below the international poverty line according to the UN

Answer 1

783 million

Question 2

How many children die each day because of poverty, according to UNICEF

Answer 2

22,000

Question 3

How much has poverty declined between 1990 - 2012

Answer 3

43% to 22%

• mainly due to China as they pulled 600 million people out of poverty
• disregarding China the rate poverty fell is only 10%

Question 4

Orthodox/mainstream view of poverty

Answer 4

• poverty is about not having money/seen as an economic condition dependent on cash transactions in the market place
• embraced by the most powerful states

Question 5

Alternative view of poverty

Answer 5

• Poverty is “a situation suffered by people who are not able to meet their material and non-material needs through their own efforts” (Evans and Thomas)
• considers the well being of a person and not just wealth accumulation
• views the orthodox view as destructive of natural resources and communities

Question 6

Liberal’s theory of poverty

Answer 6

• causes: absence of free-market capitalism/competitiveness between states
• development: more free market capitalism/if everyone grows economically through such a market then it is a ‘win-win’ situation (worked it China and South Asian countries)

Question 7

Critical theories of poverty

Answer 7

• causes: colonialism/economic exploitation (diamond mining shows us taking away from small communities and giving very little back)
• development: democratisation of the economy/end of capitalism (eg: protection of environmental goods, allowing everyone to have access to water)

Question 8

Institutional/political theories of poverty

Answer 8

• causes: corrupt/weak/ineffective political institutions that are not strong enough to manage the economic growth that they need
• development: good governance/a strong state (enlightened authoritarian argument)

Question 9

How much aid resources were given between 1960s-2008

Answer 9

$4.7 trillion

Question 10

Arguments for why aid is inefficient

Answer 10

• unaccountable aid sector (not going to publish what doesn’t work otherwise people won’t donate)
• the ‘politics’ of aid (eg: large amounts of US aid is given to Afghanistan, which is a huge area of interests for them

Question 11

Arguments for why aid is apart of the problem

Answer 11

• neo-colonial practices
• ‘Washington Consensus’ benefits the Western industrialised states and damages the poor
• aid can be seen as a way to govern and manage the poor rather than solving structural practices
• Modern ‘White Man’s Burden’ (celebrating the brilliancy of the giver and forget that we are actually celebrating the rich, white individual)