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Hearts & Minds -
Information for ChangeSM
Methods to End Global
Poverty
What's good and bad about each strategy
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There is big debate on the best way to end extreme
global poverty. This explains what's good and bad about each of these plans.
I. Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs)
The MDGs are a widely accepted plan for cutting extreme poverty in half by
2015.
History
In 2001, recognizing the need to assist impoverished nations more
aggressively, UN member states adopted the 8 targets listed below.
The MDGs aim is to spur development by improving
social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. The plan is
to finance this by transferring of billions of dollars from wealthy nations’
governments directly to governments in developing nations.
Pros:
1. Calls on the world’s wealthy nations to increase their giving to 0.7
percent of their total national income (GNP). The UN Millennium Project
analysis of the MDGs indicates that 0.7 percent of rich nations’ total
national income (GDP) can provide enough resources to meet the Millennium
Development Goals.
2. Promotes eight worthy goals:
- Eradicate hunger and poverty
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender and equality and promote women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental stability
- Develop a global partnership for development
If these goals are achieved, world poverty would be cut by half, tens of
millions of lives would be saved, and more than a billion people would rise
above extreme poverty.
Cons:
1. Many nations are falling short of their promise to give 0.7 percent of
their GNP.
2. Giving billions of dollars to governments in the
developing nations can be wasteful. Much of the money is lost to bureaucracy
and corruption.
3. Uneven progress in overcoming poverty shows further
problems with the MDGs:
The Sub-Saharan Africa region has least benefit from economic development
independent of foreign aid. Therefore, it is the best place to look for how
effective the MDGs really are. This region still has the largest number of
people living below $1 a day. Based on the region’s slow progress towards
reducing poverty, UN agencies predict that it will not reach its MDGs
targets. The UN is concerned that poverty may rise from 314 million in 2001
to 366 million people by 2015 in Sub-Saharan Africa. This 16.5 percent
increase is quite a contrast from the MDGs goal of a 50 percent reduction.
Other regions including large parts of East Asia and
Latin America have made more rapid progress. This maybe due to economic
growth from private business, trade and investment, independent of the MDGs
contribution.
II. Direct Service
Direct service deals with directly assisting one person, village, or
particular group at a time. Some programs focus on women, young children,
low income entrepreneurs, one region, or prevention of a specific disease.
Pros:
1. The best programs successfully focus on those in greatest need. This can
help very poor people lift themselves from poverty.
2. Further, the best of these programs are models that
can be expanded on a larger scale.
Cons:
1. Direct service is often too small to reach most of the hundreds of
millions of the world’s poorest people, even though it might be of great
benefit to particular areas. Nonprofit organizations usually only have a
fraction of the funds that governments could spend.
2. Many non-profits organizations working in same
areas might overlap their delivery of services, or send the same item to all
different areas, whether needed by these groups or not.
3. The focus can be on delivering an item without the
follow up to make sure it’s used correctly. Sometimes, the items end in the
black market, never reaching those it’s intended for.
For example, when used correctly, insecticide-treated bed nets can lower
malaria infections and deaths. It was observed in a study in Western Kenya,
that 30 percent of those who got bed nets did not adhere to proper net use.
In parts of Zambia, these nets also ended up being used as fishing nets or
wedding veils.
III. Direct Service and support to the MDGs
There are organizations whose focus is on direct services but also support
the Millennium Development Goals.
Pros and Cons:
This combination has all the advantages and disadvantages of the two options
described above.
IV. Direct Service but questioning the MDGs
Some organizations focus on direct services but they either do not agree
with the MDGs or think that the MDGs are questionable.
Pros:
This has all the advantages of direct service, and the added advantage of
raising awareness of the need to find an alternative to the MDGs.
Cons:
Criticizing existing programs is not enough if it fails to provide a
comprehensive alternative. This can add to already widespread discouragement
in the face of the size of extreme global poverty.
V. The End Poverty Campaign alternative:
The End Poverty Campaign uses public education and activism to support a new
plan.
Pros:
This new idea avoids the bureaucracy and corruption of giving money to
developing nations’ governments. Instead, aid goes directly to those who
need it most, supervised by an expanded Peace Corps.
Cons:
Although this idea has great potential, it can seem abstract to many people.
It is harder to motivate people for large scale programs than it is to
attract support for help to specific individuals or groups, even if this
only helps a fraction of the people who need it most.
Conclusion
MDGs and direct service recognize the need to improve
human and economic development in many developing countries. They are both
challenged by inefficiencies, as summarized above. Some of these programs
are for emergency needs, and do not get to the root of how people can
permanently lift themselves from poverty.
The End Poverty Campaign supports a new, comprehensive
strategy, distributing aid on a large scale directly to those who need it
most.
If you are interested in getting to the root of the
problem and helping millions of the world’s poorest people lift themselves
from extreme poverty, please join the End Poverty Campaign!
What's wrong
with other global poverty programs? - how we can do much better
than the widely praised but seriously flawed Millennium Development Goals
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by Michele Dookie, Hearts & Minds volunteer
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2010 by Hearts and Minds Network, Inc., This web page - http://www.heartsandminds.org/poverty/methods.htm - online
July 1, 2010, latest changes
July 1, 2010 |