The African country of Ethiopia has made strides towards alleviating poverty since 2000 when it was assessed that their poverty rate was one of the greatest among all other countries. [1] The country has made great strides in different areas of the Millennium Development Goals including eradicating various diseases and decreasing the rate of child mortality. [1] Despite these improvements, poverty is still extremely high within the country. [1] Based on the most recent data from 2019, 68.7% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty and an additional 18.4% vulnerable to it. [2] One of the leading factors in driving down poverty was the expansion of the agricultural sector. [1] Poor farmers have been able to set higher food prices to increase their sales and revenue, but this expansion has come at a cost to the poorest citizens of the country, as they could not afford the higher priced food. [1] One of the biggest challenges to alleviating this issue is changing the structure of Ethiopia's economy from an agricultural-based economy to a more industry-based economy. [1] The current strategy for addressing poverty in Ethiopia is by building on existing government systems and development programs that are already in place within the country. [3]
Due to the lack of progress in reducing the rate of poverty in Ethiopia, a map of marginality was created for the region to survey the state of poverty. [4] In Marginality as a Root Cause of Poverty: Identifying Marginality Hotspots in Ethiopia, Gatzweiler defines marginality as "an involuntary position and condition of an individual or group at the margins of social, political, economic, ecological, and biophysical systems, that prevent them from access to resources, assets, services, restraining freedom of choice, preventing the development of capabilities, and eventually causing extreme poverty". [4] Marginality does not operate as a means to analyze the causes of poverty, rather it serves as a main cause of poverty itself and calls for a deeper analysis of the position of individuals within their society. [4] Marginality directly deals with social webs and systems and how individuals have a sociological effects on the essential functions of everyday society. [4] There are hotspots of marginality in the South-West and North regions of the country. [4] Some strong indications of high marginality among poor agro-ecological conditions and ethnically homogeneous areas. The agro-ecological zones with the highest levels of marginality were found among the Kolla and Bertha zones, both of which have extremely arid temperatures. [4] The study also found that areas of high marginality had one ethnicity that made "up more than 95% of the population". [4] The study estimates that almost 6 million people live in marginal hotspot areas. [4]
The famine in Ethiopia in 1984 served as the beginning of a country-wide famine that lasted for at least 20 years after the crisis itself. [5] According to the study Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia: local perceptions of famine and famine response, "In 2003, up to 15 million people were considered food insecure." [5] 2002 served as a key year where food security was extremely low, and that food production since the initial famine was on a continual decline throughout various political regimes. [5] The strategy was to improve their agricultural sector and attempt to improve livestock and working conditions, though more negative practices were adopted such as begging, stealing, as well as having a smaller diet. [5] Food aid and food for work programs were effective methods of intervention at the time though they were not sustainable practices. [5] A recent study analyzed the relationship between crop choice and household poverty in Ethiopia. [6] The study showed that households who practice crop diversification are more likely to be alleviated out of poverty than households who specialize crop production. [6] The key conclusion stated that increased crop diversity reduces the probability of being in poverty, and that agricultural diversification is associated with poverty reduction. [6] Researchers believe that these findings should be implemented in developing effective policies for household risk management. [6]
Despite great strides in development efforts within Ethiopia, the outcome of these efforts is still not sufficient to meet the demands the country needs. [3] Ethiopia serves as a strong example of the effects of natural disasters on poor environments, as the Indian Ocean Dipole-induced Horn of Africa drought and floods disrupted the lives of 10.5 million Ethiopians. [3] Many problems arose such as malnutrition and outbreaks in multiple types of diseases. [3] Ethiopia was in a State of Emergency from October 2016 until August 2017. [3] According to the UNICEF Annual Report 2017 on the status of Poverty in Ethiopia, "A total of 1.3 million people were internally displaced as a result of conflict and drought by the end of 2017." [3] Due to their current obstacles with natural disasters and widespread displacements of citizens, leaders in development are working especially hard to create lasting infrastructure and sustainable resources. [3] The biggest goal within development efforts is to provide a holistic childhood educational program to improve the quality of education in the country, as well as make great efforts to end the practice of child marriage. [3]
Ethiopia has been successful in implementing many Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, in which progress among different sectors has resulted in a lower poverty rate. [3] The country has been able to achieve many MDGs through the implementation of the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) from the year 2005 until 2010, then the implementation of the First Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP I) from the years 2010–2015. [3] Ethiopia is currently implementing the Second Growth and transformation Plan (GTP II) "whose major objectives include maintaining the strong growth averaged 11 percent achieved in the past, deepening economic transformation, and aiming to become a lower middle income and carbon neutral status by 2025." [3] Despite this, based on the most recent data from 2019, 68.7% of the population continues to be affected by multidimensional poverty and an additional 18.4% vulnerable to it. [7]
The economy of Ethiopia is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector. The government of Ethiopia is in the process of privatizing many of the state-owned businesses and moving toward a market economy. The banking, telecommunication and transportation sectors of the economy are dominated by government-owned companies.
The economy of Guatemala is a considered a developing economy, highly dependent on agriculture, particularly on traditional crops such as coffee, sugar, and bananas. Guatemala's GDP per capita is roughly one-third of Brazil's. The Guatemalan economy is the largest in Central America. It grew 3.3 percent on average from 2015 to 2018. However, Guatemala remains one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, having highly unequal incomes and chronically malnourished children. The country is beset by political insecurity, and lacks skilled workers and infrastructure. It depends on remittances for nearly one-tenth of the GDP.
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe, suffered the greatest number of fatalities due to famine. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world by famine.
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occur principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and only secondarily toward market prices. Tony Waters, a professor of sociology, defines "subsistence peasants" as "people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace".
Malawi is one of the world's undeveloped countries and is ranked 170 out of 187 countries according to the 2010 Human Development Index. It has about 16 million people, 53% of whom live under the national poverty line and 90% of whom live on less than $2 per day.
Poverty in India remains a major challenge despite overall reductions in the last several decades as its economy grows. According to an International Monetary Fund paper, extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on US$1.9 or less in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, in India was as low as 0.8% in 2019, and the country managed to keep it at that level in 2020 despite the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak. According to the World Bank, India experienced a significant decline in the prevalence of extreme poverty from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019. A working paper of the bank said rural poverty declined from 26.3% in 2011 to 11.6% in 2019. The decline in urban areas was from 14.2% to 6.3% in the same period. The poverty level in rural and urban areas went down by 14.7 and 7.9 percentage points, respectively. According to United Nations Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner, India lifted 271 million people out of extreme poverty in a 10-year time period from 2005–2006 to 2015–2016. A 2020 study from the World Economic Forum found "Some 220 million Indians sustained on an expenditure level of less than Rs 32 / day—the poverty line for rural India—by the last headcount of the poor in India in 2013."
Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural poverty, poverty greater than urban or suburban economic regions due to lack of access to economic activities, and lack of investments in key infrastructure such as education.
Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country's economy, accounting for half of gross domestic product (GDP), 0
Rural poverty refers to situations where people living in non-urban regions are in a state or condition of lacking the financial resources and essentials for living. It takes account of factors of rural society, rural economy, and political systems that give rise to the marginalization and economic disadvantage found there. Rural areas, because of their small, spread-out populations, typically have less well maintained infrastructure and a harder time accessing markets, which tend to be concentrated in population centers.
Nigeria had one of the world's highest economic growth rates, averaging 7.4% according to the Nigeria economic report that was released in July 2019 by the World Bank. Following the oil price collapse in 2014–2016, combined with negative production shocks, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate dropped to 2.7% in 2015. In 2016 during its first recession in 25 years, the economy contracted by 1.6%. Nationally, 43 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line, while another 25 percent are vulnerable. For a country with massive wealth and a huge population to support commerce, a well-developed economy, and plenty of natural resources such as oil, the level of poverty remains unacceptable. However, poverty may have been overestimated due to the lack of information on the extremely huge informal sector of the economy, estimated at around 60% more, of the current GDP figures. As of 2018, the population growth rate is higher than the economic growth rate, leading to a slow rise in poverty. According to a 2018 report by the World Bank, almost half the population is living below the international poverty line, and unemployment peaked at 23.1%.
Women's property rights are property and inheritance rights enjoyed by women as a category within a society.
It is estimated that 64 percent of Mozambique's population is food insecure. The prevalence is higher in the southern region. Mozambique is a net importer of food. Total annual cereal import requirements average 0.89 million tons. Mozambique must also import substantial quantities of meat and livestock products.
The Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) was a national five-year plan created by the Ethiopian government to improve the country's economy by achieving a projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 11-15% per year from 2010 to 2015. The plan included details of the cost and specific targets the government expects to hit by pursuing the following objectives.
Female empowerment in Nigeria is an economic process that involves empowering Nigerian women as a poverty reduction measure. Empowerment is the development of women in terms of politics, social and economic strength in nation development. It is also a way of reducing women's vulnerability and dependency in all spheres of life. It can be noted that the aggregate of educational, political, health and legal empowerment are key to women's empowerment in Nigeria. Like many African women, Nigerian women have a subordinate role to their male counterparts. There are twice as many women below the poverty line than men and up to 19 times as many men in executive positions than women.
In Afghanistan, poverty is widespread in rural and urban areas. However, it has been estimated that poverty in Afghanistan is mainly concentrated in rural areas. It has been estimated that four out of five poor people live in rural areas. In these rural areas, families without enough access to adequate nutrition see many infants and children become stunted, malnourished, and die each year. The regions in Afghanistan where almost half of the inhabitants are poor are the eastern, northeastern, and west-central regions. According to the Afghan government's estimates, 42 percent of the Afghanistan's total population lives below the poverty line. Also, 20 percent of people living just above the poverty line are highly vulnerable to falling into poverty.
Kenya is a lower middle income economy, with Kenya's GDP hitting $150 billion as of 2024. This is due to increasing technology innovation services. Although Kenya's economy is the largest and most developed in eastern and Central Africa, 63% (2023/2024) of its population lives below the international poverty line. This severe poverty is caused by economic inequality, government corruption and health problems. In turn, poverty also worsens these factors. The Kenyan government's efforts to address poverty have received help from international institutions as well. The incident rate of poverty has steadily decreased, as shown by a recent MPI index.
Hunger in Bangladesh is one of the major issues that affects the citizens of Bangladesh. The nation state of Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and home for more than 160 million people. It progresses immensely in the Human Development Index, particularly in the areas of literacy and life expectancy, but economic inequality has increased and about 32% of the population, that is 50 million people, still live in extreme poverty.
Villagization was a land reform and resettlement program in Ethiopia implemented by the Derg in 1985 that aimed to systematize and regulate village life and rural agriculture. Villagization typically involved the relocation of rural communities or nomadic groups to planned villages with communal farmland.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity intensified in many places. In the second quarter of 2020, there were multiple warnings of famine later in the year. In an early report, the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Oxfam-International talks about "economic devastation" while the lead-author of the UNU-WIDER report compared COVID-19 to a "poverty tsunami". Others talk about "complete destitution", "unprecedented crisis", "natural disaster", "threat of catastrophic global famine". The decision of the WHO on 11 March 2020, to qualify COVID as a pandemic, that is "an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people" also contributed to building this global-scale disaster narrative.
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