eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

The Millennium Development Goal that we think has the greatest cascading impact on development is to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. When a country is facing extreme poverty and hunger it will generally have inadequate food and money, no availability of clean water, poor sanitation facilities and high death rate and birth rate amongst the people due to the lack of education and the lack of medical facilities in the country or area.

When they have inadequate food in the country, the people will starve and die of hunger or malnutrition leading to lower population growth and thus affecting the development of a country as not many people will be able to contribute to the economy and work force. Also, with inadequate money, the people are unable to pay for food, sanitation facilities and medical treatment and therefore will also cause them to contract diseases caused by bacteria found in waste materials or contaminated water if they do not dispose of their waste properly or drink contaminated water which will again lead to affecting the development of a country as the people will not be able to contribute to the workforce of a country even if the industry they work in is primary as even though it does not contribute greatly to the economy it contributes to the amount of money the country earns through export and will also affect other countries as they will not get as much products from these areas to support them and therefore will eventually affect development all over the world. Having inadequate amounts of money will also mean the people will not be able to afford an education which will lead to them not being able to get jobs which require them to have had a formal education. Having no education will also mean that the birth rate will increase due to the lack of family planning. The lack of clean water in a country and poor sanitation facilities will lead to the people contracting diseases like cholera which can and will cause deaths among the people.

The aim of the Millennium Development Goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger is to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day and also the people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

UNDP has helped numerous Bangladesh women get their life back on track by letting them get out of poverty by giving them chances to gain work experience and let them earn more money. With the money earned, the women who get a chance will be able to save up and will be able to support themselves and their family. They not only help women  in poverty stricken Bangladesh but also help those around the globe. Graduates are given a chance to learn despite not having an educational institute in their area. They are given a chance to be successful in life and get an education, this is important as in poverty stricken areas, education is a factor that brings about poverty among the people. There are many stories on undp about how they have positively changed the lives of the people who have been hit by poverty. Undp helps those who are in need by sending out help in terms of financial help and by  also providing opportunities for the people to get an education and also a job. The efforts made by undp has reached many in poverty stricken countries such as Bangladesh.  Committees are also set up to help raise money for the poor. Most  of these efforts are mainly targeted at the women as the women are mainly affected. Women are usually the ones at home and education is usually not given to them.  The men are the ones who work and the women are left at home. This means that the women are less active and are unable to get a job once they leave the family. Therefore women are given more priority.

However, UNDP’s efforts to alleviate poverty is limited because those who are chosen are picked via  a lottery. This means that it will be unfair and those who may need the help will not be able to get  help. 

“And then, the day before she was to join her new workplace, Parveen’s name came up in a lottery for participation in a UNDP cash-for-work programme for destitute rural women. She was one of 24,000 women selected to repair roads in villages across Bangladesh in exchange for daily wages and job training.”

“The latest Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress Report indicates that less than a third of people in Bangladesh now live below the national poverty line, a reduction attained in as little as a decade. New research has shown that women have been the centerpiece of this impressive human development turnaround. As women emerge from endemic poverty, they prioritise their children’s education and nutrition over most other spending.”

“Poverty reduction initiatives have the best effects when they target women,” explains programme manager Richard Geier, “because [women] are the most affected, under-employed, and they are the ones caring for children.

Some countries have made progress meeting this Goal, but success is varied.  India and China are on track to meet the income target at least, however some 221 million people in India and 142 million in China are still chronically or acutely malnourished. Most sub-Saharan African countries will likely miss both targets. The region has 204 million hungry and is the only region of the world where hunger is increasing. More than 40 per cent of Africans can not even get sufficient food on a day-to-day basis.