3 approaches to tackling extreme poverty

1. An issue with this however is that some 3rd world countries will be ruled by very corrupt governments, meaning that outside help would be refused as is the case with countries in the middle east, governed mainly by pro-islam groups, favoring religious ideologies over progressive help and reject offers by the west as resentment for intervention in the past, meaning that help and offers will often be ignored

2. Issues with charities donating to places such as Africa face the issue with corrupt governments. These corrupt governments use the donations for their own personal gain, and often leave the public on their own. I believe that action such as house building schemes and work schemes in Africa will be done best by direct intervention, instead of donating resources. Africa is not the only place politics is used to help or hinder poverty, but is a prime example of extreme poverty in the world. It has often been ignored as to how it can be used to reduce poverty. I believe that foreign intervention from large countries such as Britain, China, America and Sweden. They could hold conferences on how governments could reduce poverty, and how to run welfare schemes. Politics is obviously a very powerful tool for helping to reduce poverty, because it can introduce schemes and reforms to help tax the wealthy more to help distribute the wealth to the working class more. They can also introduce laws that help govern the market of trade. The idea of the left side of politics can be taken into account, using liberal ideas

2.1. One way politics Europe has tried to be successful in helping poverty is the United Nations Development program. It works within 170 countries and territories. It does this by giving the poorer parts of the public a voice, allowing them to have more of a voice and allows them to have input on the political sphere.

3. One way we could improve education is by improve teaching standards, by giving more opportunities for people to go on teachers courses, enabling them to teach future generations and at the same time providing them with a job

3.1. This would be paid for by reducing the funding for defence budgets, as America is currently spending 3x the amount on defence than the country behind it

3.2. Another way it could be paid for would be to tax the richer parts of society, imposing higher percentages of various taxes such as income tax. As there are many loopholes for the rich to abuse, meaning the rich get richer whilst the poor stay poor

4. Education is a very powerful tool that could be used to help reduce poverty. Various schemes such as teaching people how to work in 3rd world countries helping teach people, such as Oxfam whereby they provide services such as providing students with school supplies to ensure that the reason why they leave school is not due to the fact they cannot pay. With people becoming educated, they can then go into fully paid jobs that provide a steady salary. With this salary, they are able to pay taxes, which goes to government meaning that the money could be used to provide new school services and universities, allowing more people to be educated and more job sector's to be open to people allowing a countries GDP to flourish, and allow the people to prosper. With real jobs obtained, this would allow people to also receive the benefits of a official workplace meaning they can obtain health insurance, sick pay and maternity leave.

5. Political

6. Education

7. Another issue is that many people will view other ethnic groups in the same light as their own. Some people still hold very racist views of people in our society, such as Islamic extremists believing that we are not worthy of their respect and neo-nazi's believing the white race is superior. With this large social divide and fear of terrorist attacks, people are more likely to view each other in a negative light and treat them with the same respect as everyone else. This social change can be seen with blacks being charged with 67% of gun crime but only making 3.5% of the population in England. This casts black British in a negative light, meaning racism and hatred grows. With this comes along certain society's branding ethnic minorites from birth as lesser or more likely to be trouble makers, making them less inclined to help them when in need.

8. An issue with today's society is how some communities view the poor. the idea that people are poor just because they are lazy and uneducated is often very misinformed. Sometimes, issues arise such as a child is born into a family that is riddled with addiction, such as drug addiction or alcohol abuse. The child would be raised in an environment that is viewed as normal, meaning the child could become a habitual drug user as early as 11, and the stigmata attached to drug users can extend to people applying for jobs and getting rejected due to their criminal past. I think one way to tackle this issue would be to extend a helping hand to these families raising their child in a destructive environment because often the family is criticised and hated for raising the child in that state, but little help is offered by the community so if help and support is offered in a non-patronising way would benefit the family immensely. This combined with economic help would help guarantee not only the child is raised correctly but the family would also benefit from the intervention, meaning they would change their ways and help be a benefit to society.

9. Another issue would be that countries suffering from war often suspend the peoples needs in favor of war, and the government is intent on winning. This creates problems such as rationing and damage to the public, as economic cuts must be made to help support the military. Differing political ideologies that might help different parts of society are also put on hold because in the time of crisis, all focus must be put into making a strong government so no changes or reforms are made or it is difficult to get other parties voices heard.

10. Another issue would the geographical location of some towns and villages. In 3rd world countries where travel is mainly done on foot, it might become and issue for people to actually reach schools, meaning that education will still not be available to all.

11. An issue with education however is that it is not guaranteed to work, in the sense that if a teaching quality is not maintained to a good standard, people will be not in a prime position to receive education. Also, education is a rather long term investment meaning that people in extreme poverty will not be getting immediate relief, so it may take sometime for that family to rise to a normal level of income.

12. Another social issue with poverty is that we only tend to think it occurs in third world countries, which is not true at all. Over 1/5th (21%) of the population in the U.K. is classed as poor. A issue with people not recognizing that poverty is also a large issue in 1st world countries. It has also been deemed that houses that lack 3 essential items or activities that are essential for life have increased by 14% in 1983 to 33% in 2012. A way this can be countered could be government funding to charities. Normally charities rely on public donations, but with government funding these charities could do so much more in terms of reaching the impoverished. These charities could also raise more awareness for the poor, meaning donations could be increased from the public, and with the improved view of the poor as the hard workers, people would be less inclined to judge and reduce prejudice and make people realize poverty is a large issue here

12.1. Some issues with this however is the funding. The government is already struggling to keep payments for various benefits already with reforms and cuts reducing how much money people receive, meaning that in the long term this might not be sustainable because choices would have to be made as to which should receive funding, which will result in many not being happy

13. Actions have been put in place to help people with these issues. Benefits have been put in place called "Hardship payments", used to help provide the poorest families that need money. It is given to people on job seeker's allowance, and aims to help around 10,000 people in the U.K. that suffer from mental disabilities as well as the homeless. Means testing is also put into place, whereby families are tested on their income and personal wealth, meaning that families that are poor recieve the help they need

14. Social services in Britain offer similar types of services, intervening in homes that have conflicts. Children can contact social services about issues. Drug use is a big problem and social services have the power to remove children from toxic environments. If the situation is deemed as bad as that, they will be put into a foster family until they are of age and can sustain themselves. With this in mind, the child is not exposed to a bad way of life, meaning that they can function as productive members of society and are less likely to commit crime.

15. Governments using the tactic of the provision of basic needs was also seen not to work, because there was no economic grasp of the situation so it was seen as more of a handout by the government rather than essentials given to improve life. Another issue with this was that it was hard to keep up the demands of the poor, and often people would go without. Also, supplies would be misallocation of supplies leading to the wrong people collecting these essential goods.

16. The political situation of the poor has been ignored for quite sometime, and social, economic and improving human rights have not always worked. For example, after world war 2 poverty was seen as not having enough food and a small monetary income, and that trickle down economics through the market would sustain the poor but that has not been enough. Social help has not always been the best way forward because many people will stay prejudiced and unwilling to help due to the extra effort they would have to put in.

17. Social

18. Britain has clearing programs put in place for people who do not preform well in school. If people fail almost all forms of education in secondary school, clearing courses are put in place to give get them into some sort of college or university. This would benefit many other 3rd world countries because many people do not get a proper education.

18.1. An issue with this for 3rd world countries would be that this type of clearing may not be available as countries may not be able to cope with regular schools due to funding, so clearing may not be appropriate