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Nigeria among 5 Countries with World's Largest Number of People Living in Extreme Poverty

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Situated on the Horn of Africa and plagued by a history of instability, Somalia has fallen victim to crisis after crisis. Clan warfare, droughts, famines, and the presence of terror group al-Shabab have left much of the country vulnerable and without food. Here are 10 facts about hunger in Somalia:

1. Most recently, hunger in Somalia has worsened due to a two-year drought. Of the country's 12.3 million people, 6.2 million are severely food insecure. In addition, almost three million cannot reach their daily food requirements.

2. This is not the first hunger crisis to occur in the country. In 2011, an estimated quarter million people died due to a severe famine.

3. Somalia is not the only country currently suffering from a hunger crisis. Hunger levels worldwide are at their highest in decades. Four countries, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, are at risk of famine.

4. Somalia has been attempting to gain stability since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. The country has been slowly rebuilding itself, with the establishment of a transitional government in 2012 and the election of a new president on February 8.

5. Somalia has an infant mortality rate of 13.7 percent, the third highest in the world. Malnutrition is largely to blame, according to UNICEF.

1. The situation is worse in rural areas, as poor rainfalls have resulted in failing crops and water shortage. As a result, nearly three-quarters of the country's livestock has died, which harms pastoralists' livelihoods.

2. The drought has reduced maize and sorghum harvests to about 25 percent of past averages. Food prices in Somalia have reached near record levels.

3. Hunger in Somalia is also high among internally displaced populations (IDPs). Approximately 638,000 of the 1,200,000 IDPs in Somalia are struggling to feed themselves. IDPs are on the move and suffer from loss of income and reduced access to social services.

4. Somalia has one of the world's lowest school enrollment rates. Just 42 percent of children and 36 percent are girls are in school. The U.N. World Food Program operates a program that provides free school meals as a way to both improve attendance and address hunger in Somalia.

5. "Humanitarian assistance has saved lives in the drought-affected north over the past year, but as the crisis spreads we have no time to lose," Laurent Bukera, country director of the U.N. World Food Program told the U.N. News Service. The U.N. issued an appeal for 2017 for $864 million to provide assistance to Somalis. The U.N. World Food Program has also put together a $26 million assistance plan.

Hunger in Somalia has a detrimental impact on communities and future generations. The conflict hinders the country's progress toward establishing stability. However, understanding the facts and conditions surrounding hunger in Somalia is an essential first step in becoming a part of the solution.

- Alexi Worley

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Ten Important Facts to Know About Hunger in Somalia

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Situated on the Horn of Africa and plagued by a history of instability, Somalia has fallen victim to crisis after crisis. Clan warfare, droughts, famines, and the presence of terror group al-Shabab have left much of the country vulnerable and without food.

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Ethiopia ― The Birthplace of Coffee Arabica

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Poverty in Ethiopia remains a major concern, but the country has also seen great progress. Ethiopia has the second largest population of all African countries and has only once, for a brief period of time, been colonized. One of Africa's oldest independent countries, Ethiopia has a rich culture and long history. However, it is currently considered one of Africa's poorest countries despite a rapid population boom in recent decades. Read how Ethiopia reduced poverty.

10 Key Facts on Poverty in Ethiopia

1. Ethiopia is located in East Africa and is historically a rich country.

2. Agriculture accounts for more than half of its economy, and employs 80% of its population.

3. With an estimated population of 86 million people, 78% of Ethiopians struggle with an income below US$2 a day.

4. The life expectancy of the average Ethiopian was 59 years old in 2011.

5. The State Health expenditure is approximately $3 per person in Ethiopia.

6. For every 1,000 children five years old and younger, there are 166 deaths.

7. Preventable diseases, including Malaria, account for at least 60% of health problems in the country.

8. Approximately 34% of the rural population in Ethiopia has access to an improved water source.

9. Ethiopia's main exports are coffee, hides, oilseeds, beeswax and sugarcane. Ethiopia's main source of income comes from its agricultural economy that is often affected by drought.

10. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate.

- Kira Maixner

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Poverty in Ethiopia | The Borgen Project

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Poverty in Ethiopia remains a major concern, but the country has also seen great progress. Ethiopia has the second largest population of all African countries and has only once, for a brief period of time, been colonized. One of Africa's oldest independent countries, Ethiopia has a rich culture and long history.

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Alongside his depiction as a "brutal dictator", negative reflections on Fidel Castro since his death on November 25 have focused on his " mismanagement" of the Cuban economy and the consequent " extremes of poverty " suffered by ordinary Cubans.

This caricature is problematic - not only because it ignores the devastating economic impact of the United States embargo over 55 years, but also because it is premised on neoclassical economic assumptions. This means that by stressing economic policy over economic restraints, critics can shift responsibility for Cuba's alleged poverty on to Castro without implicating successive US administrations that have imposed the suffocating embargo.

This approach also ignores key questions about Cuba after the revolution. Where can medium and low-income countries get the capital to invest in infrastructure and welfare provision? How can foreign capital be obtained under conditions which do not obstruct such development, and how can a late-developing country such as Cuba use international trade to produce a surplus in a global economy which - many claim - tends to " unequal terms of trade "?

It was the search for solutions to the challenge of development that led Cuba's revolutionary government to adopt a socialist system. They adopted a centrally planned economy in which state ownership predominated because they perceived this system as offering the best answer to those historical challenges.

But the commitment to operate within a socialist framework implied additional restraints and complications, particularly in the context of a bipolar world. My book, Che Guevara: the economics of revolution, examines the contradictions and challenges faced by the nascent revolutionary government from the perspective of Guevara's role as president of the National Bank and minister of industries.

Literature on Cuba is dominated by " Cubanology ", an academic school central to the political and ideological opposition to Cuban socialism. Its emergence and links to the US government are well documented. Its arguments are that the revolution changed everything in Cuba - and Fidel (and then Raul) Castro have personally dominated domestic and foreign policy since, denying Cuban democracy and repressing civil society. Thanks to their mismanagement of the economy, growth since 1959 has been negligible. They simply replaced dependency on the US with dependency on the USSR until its collapse in 1990.

These ideas have also shaped political and media discourse on Cuba. But the problem with this analysis is that it obstructs our ability to see clearly what goes on in Cuba or explain the revolution's endurance and Cuban society's vitality.

What did Castro inherit?

Arguments about the success or failure of the post-1959 economy often hang on the state of the Cuban economy in the 1950s. The post-1959 government inherited a sugar-dominated economy with the deep socio-economic and racial scars of slavery. Cubanologist Jaime Suchlicki argues that Batista's Cuba was "well into what Walter Rostow has characterised as the take-off stage", while Fred Judson points to structural weaknesses in the Cuban economy: "Long-term crises characterised the economy, which had a surface and transient prosperity." So while one side insists that the revolution interrupted healthy capitalist growth, the other believes it was a precondition to resolving the contradictions obstructing development by ending Cuba's subjugation to the needs of US capitalism.

Following the revolution, Castro set out to bring social welfare and land reform to the Cuban people and to confiscate the ill-gotten gains of the Cuban elite. But when the defeated Fulgencio Batista and his associates fled Cuba, they stole millions of pesos from the National Bank and the Treasury. The country was decapitalised, severely limiting the capacity for public spending and private investments. Wealthy Cubans were leaving the island, taking their deposits and taxes with them. How was the new government going to carry out the ambitious socio-economic reforms without financial resources?

We have to consider these real circumstances at every juncture. For example, when the US embargo was first implemented, 95% of Cuba's capital goods and 100% of its spare parts were imported from the US - and the US was overwhelmingly the main recipient of Cuban exports. When the Soviet bloc disintegrated, Cuba lost 85% of its trade and investment, leading GDP to plummet 35%. These events produced serious economic constraints on Cuba's room for manoeuvre.

Putting a price on poverty

Moving on, we should also ask: how are we to measure Cuba's poverty? Is it GDP per capita? Is it money-income per day? Should we apply the yardsticks of capitalist economics, focusing on growth and productivity statistics to measure "success" or "failure", while paying little attention to social and political priorities?

EPA/Alejandro Ernesto

Even factoring in its low GDP per capita, the Human Development Index (HDI) lists Cuba in the "high human development" category; it excels not just in health and education, but also in women's participation and political inclusion. Cuba has eliminated child malnutrition. No children sleep on the streets. In fact, there is no homelessness. Even during the hungry years of economic crisis of the 1990s, Cubans did not starve. Cuba stuck with the planned economy and it enabled them to ration their scarce resources.

Yes, salaries are extremely low (as both Fidel and Raul have lamented) - but Cubans' salaries do not determine their standard of living. About 85% of Cubans own their own homes and rent cannot exceed 4% of a tenant's income. The state provides a (very) basic food basket while utility bills, transport and medicine costs are kept low. The opera, cinema, ballet and so on are cheap for all. High-quality education and healthcare are free. They are part of the material wealth of Cuba and should not be dismissed - as if individual consumption of consumer goods were the only measure of economic success.

Operation miracle

The specific and real challenges Cuban development has faced has generated unique contradictions. In a planned economy, with an extremely tight budget, they have had to prioritise: the infrastructure is crumbling and yet they have first-world human development indicators. Infant mortality rates reveal a lot about the standard of living, being influenced by multiple socioeconomic and medical factors. Cuba's infant mortality rate is 4.5 per 1,000 live births, which sits it among first-world countries - and above the US on the CIA's own ranking.

It is not just Cubans who have benefited from these investments. Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors, educators and other development aid workers have served around the world. At present some 37,000 Cuban doctors and nurses work in 77 countries. They generate foreign exchange of some US$8 billion a year - Cuba's biggest export.

In addition, Cuba provides both free medical treatment and free medical training to thousands of foreigners every year. As a direct initiative of Fidel, in 1999, the Latin American School of Medicine was inaugurated in Havana to provide foreign students from poor countries with six years of training and accommodation completely free. In 2004, Cuba teamed up with Venezuela to provide free eye surgery to people in three dozen countries under Operation Miracle. In the first ten years more than 3m people had their sight restored.

Prohibiting even trade in medicines, the US embargo led Castro to prioritise investments in medical sciences. Cuba now owns around 900 patents and markets pharmaceutical products and vaccines in 40 countries, generating yearly revenues of US$300m, with the potential for massive expansion. The sector produces more than 70% of the medicines consumed by its 11m people. The entire industry is state owned, research programmes respond to the needs of the population, and all surpluses are reinvested into the sector. Without state planning and investment it is unlikely that this could have been achieved in a poor country.

EPA/Alejandro Ernesto

In the mid-1980s Cuba developed the world's first Meningitis B vaccine. Today, it leads in oncology drugs. In 2012 Cuba patented the first therapeutic cancer vaccine. The US embargo forces Cuba to source medicines, medical devices and radiology products outside the United States, incurring additional transportation costs.

Sharing economy

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, told me in 2009:

A great example provided by Cuba is that in its poverty it has known how to share, with all its international programmes. Cuba is the country with the greatest cooperation in relation to its gross domestic product and it is an example for all of us. This doesn't mean that Cuba doesn't have big problems, but it is also certain that it is impossible to judge the success or failure of the Cuban model without considering the US blockade, a blockade that has lasted for 50 years. Ecuador wouldn't survive for five months with that blockade.

Let's consider the embargo: the Cuban government estimates that it has cost the island US$753.69 billion. Their annual report to the United Nations provides a detailed account of that calculation. That's a lot for a country whose average GDP between 1970 and 2014 has been calculated at US$31.7 billion.

Yes, Castro presided over mistakes and errors in Cuba's planned economy. Yes, there is bureaucracy, low productivity, liquidity crisis, debt and numerous other problems - but where aren't there? Castro pointed to these weaknesses in his own speeches to the Cuban people. But President Correa is right - to objectively judge Castro's legacy, Cuban development and contemporary reforms today, we cannot pretend that the US blockade - which remains today despite rapprochement - has not shaped the Cuban economy.

Castro almost saw out 11 US presidents since 1959, but he never lived to see the end of the US embargo. New challenges face Cuba, with economic reforms underway and the restoration of relations with the United States. Next week, I will begin new research in Cuba to assess the revolution's resilience in this post-Castro, Donald Trump era.

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Cuba is poor, but who is to blame - Castro or 50 years of US blockade?

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Alongside his depiction as a "brutal dictator", negative reflections on Fidel Castro since his death on November 25 have focused on his " mismanagement" of the Cuban economy and the consequent " extremes of poverty " suffered by ordinary Cubans.

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A Cuban family's struggle against poverty and inequality in Cuba

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Some Cuban families are immersed in extreme poverty. Esterlina Costa Lora, 60, lives without shoes or even a bed to sleep on since the State took her checkbook. Ana Victoria Matos Tabera, who barely manages to feed her three children, receives no help--despite her desire for assistance.

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Visiting the Poor in Havana, Cuba- portraits and photojournalism using one lens and one camera

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Mexico has one of the most stagnant economies in the world. This predicament is largely due to the prominence of corruption in the country. According to calculations by Mexican think tank IMCO (El Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad), corruption could be costing the country roughly five percent of its gross domestic product. This is almost eight times the amount spent by Mexico's poverty reduction agency. Corruption funnels money away from programs that are needed to boost the economy, leaving a large number of people in poverty in Mexico.

Mexico was found to be the most corrupt member nation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) by Transparency International. Corruption is a major obstacle to services that promote economic development - including health, education and security services. Corruption also creates extreme inequality and prevents successful economic growth. Owners of fair businesses say that they typically lose out to competitors who use bribes or influence to gain unfair business opportunities.

Mexico would be facing a slowing economy even without corruption, but the influence of corruption makes the country considerably less competitive in the global economy. Corruption works alongside other issues including poor infrastructure, inadequate institutions, lack of education and stagnant innovation. Most workers in Mexico work in the black market under exploitative conditions without social security. They are unable to find other job prospects, leaving them in situations of underemployment that leads to poverty.

Mexico is a rich country, but it lacks a reliable system of wealth redistribution. There is almost no social assistance and extremely few economic opportunities, causing wealth to concentrate in the hands of very few people. Just 15 millionaires dominate Mexico's economic landscape, owning almost 13 percent of the Mexican economy's total value. On the other hand, there are over 55 million people living in poverty in Mexico.

The Mexican government has introduced social assistance programs for those in poverty to limit the impact of economic crises. However, the government has failed to invest in programs to boost economic competitiveness, educational opportunities and technological advancement. Therefore, these were simply short-term solutions that did not fix the root problem of poverty in Mexico by providing economic opportunities.

The Mexican government needs to promote a balance of social and economic programs to reduce poverty. The path to successful infrastructure and institutions has a long way to go. However, an emphasis on education and health will allow all individuals to participate in the economy. Until these programs are implemented, corruption will continue to prevent the redistribution of wealth that is essential to mitigating widespread poverty in Mexico.

- Lindsay Harris

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The Link Between Corruption and Poverty in Mexico

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Mexico has one of the most stagnant economies in the world. This predicament is largely due to the prominence of corruption in the country. According to calculations by Mexican think tank IMCO (El Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad), corruption could be costing the country roughly five percent of its gross domestic product.

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Uploaded by daniela lozano on 2015-02-05.

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Millions return to poverty in Brazil, eroding 'boom' decade

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Poverty is a serious problem in Brazil - and it's in plain sight in the biggest cities. According to the latest figures, tens-of-millions are living below the poverty line. CGTN's Paulo Cabral reports from Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest and richest city, has a population of 12 million and generates more than 10 percent of the country's GDP.

Despite the wealth, millions there still live below minimum standards - according to a recent official survey.

For those living in the Sao Paulo Garden neighborhood, the infrastructure is poor, and homes are precarious. Last year, one family managed to turn its wooden shack into a brick house, but it was not enough to keep summer rain from getting into Romero Sebastian da Silva's home.

"When the water comes in, it brings garbage, stones, even a snake I found here! It's a desperate situation," da Silva said.

Suzete Vieira is fortunate to have walls and a roof over her head, even if the house remains poorly-equipped and only half-finished.

"My family wants to move from here, but where can we go," she asked. "This is the only place we have to live, and we need to stay here."

Geraldo de Sa of the Jardim Sao Paulo Community Association explained that, "Working all day and then returning home and not having decent housing has severe effects on people's lives. There are health issues, problems for family life, and people don't get proper rest to go back to work the next day."

About one quarter of Sao Paulo's population is living in poverty, according to the country's statistics bureau.

That's significantly better than other parts of Brazil. Numbers show that almost 40 percent of the urban population is subject to low living standards. Roughly the same amount (37.9%) are considered to be in an 'average' situation, and fewer than 24 percent (23.9%) were considered to be in good or very good condition.

Almost 85 percent of Brazil's population live in cities. These urban areas grew exponentially during the 20th century, keeping pace with the rise of industrialism in Brazil. The problem is that most of this growth took place with little urban planning.

"First, people come and they build their homes that are improved over time, over 30 years, and then afterwards, the focus is on infrastructure," said Raquel Rolnik, a former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing.

"So, we're talking about post urbanization, urbanization that comes decades after people are there."

The problems facing Brazilians cities have grown over the years, so there's no expectation of a quick solution - no matter how urgent the issue.

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Even in Brazil's richest cities, millions live in poverty

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Poverty is a serious problem in Brazil - and it's in plain sight in the biggest cities. According to the latest figures, tens-of-millions are living below the poverty line. CGTN's Paulo Cabral reports from Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest and richest city, has a population of 12 million and generates more than 10 percent of the country's GDP.

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Brazil's persistent problems of poverty and inequality

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INDIA's Poverty, will it ever end? MUST WATCH

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Extreme Poverty in Bangladesh: Rebuilding Homes for Slum Residents (Documentary / Real Stories)

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Extreme Poverty - Bangladesh - Short Documentary

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What do these images show

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Read this brief overview and take notes.

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The amount of people suffering from hunger in North Korea has been on a steady incline since the 1990s. North Korea is home to about 25 million people and 10.5 million of these people are undernourished. While 70 percent of the population relies on food aid, the country's military ambitions have invited harsh sanctions that severely hamper its people.

Roughly a quarter of North Korea's GDP is funneled into helping Kim Jong-Un present a façade of power via nuclear weapons development. The continued missile launches have caused a lessening of support from charities and world leaders, making it even harder for North Koreans to find food.

Because of this, the vulnerable citizens of North Korea are desperately in need of aid. According to a United Nations report, "More predictable funding is urgently required to ensure the immediate needs of the most vulnerable are addressed."

In November 2017, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. The heightened tensions that resulted instigated the United Nations to respond with new sanctions on the regime's energy supplies.

But while sanctions grip the country in an attempt to incentivize halting nuclear weapons development, the sanctions have also impacted hunger in North Korea. About 60,000 children are at risk of dying due to a lack of food, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. On Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, UNICEF launched a $16.5 million emergency relief for North Korea.

President Donald Trump announced new sanctions against North Korea on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, and called them "the strongest sanctions on Korea that we have ever put on a country." The move puts pressure on North Korea's shipping and trade.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in January that the international sanctions are "really starting to hurt" North Korea and was confident it would lead the regime to negotiate. The sanctions, combined with drought, corruption and a decline in crop production, add to hunger in North Korea more than they prevent weapon development.

The poor farmers of North Korea have, in some instances, resorted to using human waste as fertilizer for their crops, according to the BBC. This practice leads to the contamination of food grown in the soil. Furthermore, in January, a soldier was shot as he defected from North Korea and attempted to run across the demilitarized zone. An autopsy revealed his severe undernourishment, as well as the presence of many parasites in his stomach.

Kim Jong-Un has leveraged the threat of nuclear weapons and military to attain the opportunity to sit down with the President of the United States. All the while, the North Korean people suffer starvation in exchange. Hunger in North Korea will only continue to worsen if other charitable organizations, such as UNICEF, are unable to provide assistance to the nation.
- Sam Bramlett

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Sanctioning Hunger in North Korea Worsens Quality of Life

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The sanctions, combined with drought, corruption and a decline in crop production, add to hunger in North Korea more than they prevent weapon development. The poor farmers of North Korea have, in some instances, resorted to using human waste as fertilizer for its crops, according to the BBC.

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Read the article and add to your notes.

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Poverty in Bangladesh: Innovations Against Exploitation

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Fighting an entire social system to tackle poverty in Bangladesh proves harder than thought. But innovations from within the country may change the game

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Poverty in Pakistan: Population Pressure & Inequalities

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Poverty in Pakistan has been greatly reduced in recent years, but fast-growing population raises new concerns: child labor, inequalities and unemployment

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Such high-speed, colossal growth, as impressive as it may be, poses several problems if not threats: pollution (air, soil, water), and a disproportionate concentration of poverty, among others. Those two issues stem directly from the fact that by growing that fast it makes it hard to plan for everything all at once: housing (for a while some cities grew by a million inhabitant per year) and the gigantic urban planning mish-mash that it presupposes.

Chaotic growth

The case of urban poverty in India has been exemplary in terms of mismanaging (or not managing at all) urban growth. Cities have become the best place to foster poverty and destitution at a scale and extent unseen before. Rural poverty is one thing, but urban areas added a whole new breed of revolting aspects to it: diseases, violence (more than at the countryside), disintegration of communities and the social fabric.

But building and increasing the size of cities obviously costs billions and India was somewhat short of cash at the time. Consequently, it has decided to radically reduce the public services it offers as well as its investment in infrastructure. You might think "Okay, but they were broke", but this is where strong political will makes a difference, considering that other countries in the same situation managed very well their transition despite a few controversies (e.g. China).

The birth of Indian slums

As cities grew, so did the slums, "welcoming" more rural migrants and aggravating urban poverty. Even though people keep on flowing from the countryside, the government has persisted in not creating enough housing for everyone. Let's not even speak about affordable housing for the poor.

However things are getting better as proportionally speaking poverty has been waning over the past decade or so. Employment generation schemes have been working quite well. The apparition of micro-finance has allowed many Indians to start small businesses and the trend is growing as flows of credit arrive.

A tricky poverty line

This has helped only part of the poor, those not too far below the Indian poverty line. For the rest, the poorest of the poor, no government policy, no pro-poor local organization has managed to reach them and help them. The reasons range from social discrimination (some organizations help only people from their community or social class/caste), to the difficulty to locate the poorest as they often migrate throughout the city in quest of a temporary job.

Finally urban poverty is convenient to many local authorities as the higher cost of living makes more people fall above the poverty line (which is the same for the whole country, urban and rural areas alike). As the poor need to survive in more expensive big cities, they technically have more money than rural residents but they also spend it all very quickly to feed themselves.

The Indian poverty line thus shows no consideration of the other aspects of poverty: homelessness or living in the slums, access to water, electricity, public transportation, job, etc... Surprisingly, and what makes many say that Indian officials don't give a damn about the poor, social housing is still not a very high priority nationwide (do correct me if you find anything new).

What's more, there is no standard definition of slums and the massive lack of research provides no account of the lives of the poor. This way no one knows the real extent of urban poverty.

The demise of the state and public services

‍What are the causes of urban poverty in India?

Private and public sectors together

What a lot of research points out is that, while there's no doubt that the private sector is crucial to alleviate poverty, this doesn't mean that the state should disappear. In a country like India, on the contrary, the private sector has to be spurred. And the state would have been of great help if it had invested in very basic infrastructure from the beginning... As usual, poverty and state efficiency are context-based and in the case of developing countries, the government plays a crucial part.

From the US to the UK, France and Germany, from Japan to South Korea and China, what the neoliberal doctrine of free markets didn't mention is that all of them have actively used government intervention and protectionism to develop their economies (yes, even the US, for more details see the economist Chang Hajoon's famous book " Kicking Away the Ladder" )

Social corruption and rivalries

In India as in many other nations, specific social groups lobby for influence and favors from the government. This is even more intense in India because of the rivalries inherent to the Indian society (i.e. the caste system). And when politics eventually meddle in this, it becomes ugly by forming sort of an institutional segregation in terms of who or which community will receive public and social services and which one will not.

Typically things get worse at the local level with huge differences between cities. So for example Mumbai (Bombay) fares 4 times worse than the capital and Calcutta over twice worse than Delhi in terms of providing public services, in particular basic health care and education. Funnily enough, the rich enjoy much better services and infrastructure in Mumbai than in the two other cities. Now where did that money come from?

Local corruption and embezzlement

Another issue is that technically speaking it's the central government that finances the local public services and its infrastructures (from street lights to sewers) and if you just consider that these are completely nonexistent in certain parts of town (i.e. the slums), you realize that the government needs to work more directly with local authorities and make sure that the money gets where it's supposed to go.

The catastrophic growth of slums

‍Indian slums, corruption and discrimination

Waste pickers vs. collectors

Let's have a look at a typical class of workers in the slums that make up one reality of urban poverty in India: waste pickers and collectors, for recycling use. Both pickers (who pick up waste from the streets) and collectors (who collect from households) are at the very bottom of the social order - even while their role is crucial for recycling and the environment - with the pickers at the lowest position, by far.

Most of them usually came from the countryside and had to settle in the slums because they had no other choice (read: not enough money). Collectors make enough to live just around the Indian poverty line, while pickers live far below the line.

Discrimination among the poor

In fact, they don't come from the same places: the former are from villages around Delhi, and the latter come from further away provinces where Bengali is the main language. Already, a first form of discrimination - typical of the social structure of poverty in India - is discernible: the poorest communities stick together to vie for resources and the best jobs.

Even by the standards of most slums in India, the living conditions of the pickers are at best appalling (i.e. when they're not being beaten up or asked for bribes). And this is despite their invaluable contribution to the environment and the cities' waste disposal budget.

That same old need for infrastructure and institution

That's easy, you need to turn the slums into a normal urban place. Hah, easier said than done, right? There is in fact such program (see end of page), aimed at restoring basic services in the slums and making them a real part of town with access to water, electricity, health care, education, sewers etc. But that's not enough to help our pickers and collectors in the short run. Education and training are just as vital, however not as long as they're denied a chance to find a job.

Therefore, a new challenge arises: creating (appropriate) jobs; and why not for example use the fact that they're specialized in the waste recycling business. Integrating them further up the chain of recycling by making and or re-selling recycled goods is one possibility that will considerably raise their income. With the craze about going green, it's the best time and there's a great opportunity for each municipality to help a new section of the private sector grow.

That is nonetheless at the condition that local governments act upon the lack of infrastructure and industries, the limited access to training and job-hunting support. There's everything to bet that once their income and social status are raised, new opportunities will arise for these people to keep on improving their lives, seek new types of jobs or engage in new business ventures.

The impact of corruption

Last but not least, Indian cities' pro-poor policies ("pro-poor" is just a technical jargon for "democratic") would have a much better impact if each municipality wouldn't be so prude about policing its own civil servants and its own police.

It's no secret that they are the flagship of Indian corruption and have this irritating habit to regularly extract money from the poor as a strange toll for working on their territory. Starting with this alone would represent a great step to directly increase the income of many of the slums' residents.

Better anti-poverty policies

The limits of NGOs and local poor organizations

Just how effective policies aimed at urban poverty in India are depends greatly on how the poor are organized. Their communities, the social structure can become a major drive or a tremendous obstacle to the equitable distribution of public services and anti-poverty programs' money.

In the context of India, you have both cases: social services spread really well within one community, and at the same time poor communities that are higher on the social hierarchy often try to keep as much as possible to themselves and block the diffusion to poorer communities.

Slums - a pillar of urban poverty

And in slums, the poorest of the poor are unfortunately often not organized into communities anymore. This lack of social fabric makes them all the more fragile to their environment and to any shock (rise in food prices, not finding a job for a few days, etc) as they can't rely on anybody for temporary help. This means that public policies should pay extra attention to so-called poor organizations insofar as they may represent in fact special interests within the larger "poor community".

Hence the one thing that local governments lack to actually tackle urban poverty is ground research. Finding out who needs what, finding out the right people to target and try to represent and seek a consensus on everybody's interests and not only those who can afford to gang up and promote their interests (although it's not entirely wrong either!).

More, more and more research

Including the poor is obviously important to solve poverty and know what they need more precisely. But including the poor can be done in different ways ranging from public consultation and cooperation to household surveys (rather than coming up with numbers and artificial targets in a top-down manner).

The advantage of incorporating direct insights from the poor is to gain both in nuance and thus efficiency regarding the most urgent and effective ways to tackle their problems. More research then becomes essential to target the right people, especially when you consider that the government is generally short of basic information on the state of slums.

The new governmental plan - the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission - from 2005 has been trying to break up with the traditional top-down approach that overlooks long term goals, the value of community-building and social harmony in reducing poverty. As it's endeavored to restore the provision of basic services, one thing became obvious: there's a need for more research. A need to know which policies work and which don't.

That supply is finally picking up, providing vital information on urban poverty in India, but a substantial amount of it will be necessary to create enough results that validate or invalidate strategies in different contexts (e.g. slums in Delhi will likely require somewhat different solutions than slums in Mumbai).

REFERENCES

Header photo courtesy of Akshay Mahajan

Deprivation and Incidence of Urban Public Services, Partha Gangopadhyay, Shyam Nath, The Applied Regional Science Conference (ARSC) / Blackwell Publishers 2001

Prospects and Problems of Housing Microfinance in India: Evidence from "Bhavanashree" Project in Kerala State, Manoj P K, European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences 2010

India, Urban Poverty Report, by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations Programme 2009

Poverty Lines and Lives of the Poor: Underestimation of Urban Poverty - the Case of India, Meera Bapat, Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas Series / IIED 2009

Progressive Patronage? Municipalities, NGOs, CBOs and the Limits to Slum Dwellers' Empowerment, Joop deWit and Erhard Berner, Development and Change 2009

Waste Pickers and Collectors in Delhi: Poverty and Environment in an Urban Informal Sector, Y. Hayami et al., Journal of Development Studies 2006

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