Identifying the Causes of Poverty

Poverty is an extremely pertinent issue in today’s world. Poverty can be described as a social condition wherein people do not have the money to avail basic needs such as food, medicines, clothes and shelter and tend to be marginalized in society. Poverty is a burning issue that needs to be acknowledged, accepted and alleviated. There has been a decrease in global poverty with global poverty being halved since 2000, but still there is a long way to go. Efforts are required to boost the incomes of the people who live below the poverty line, alleviate suffering and try to build the resilience of those individuals who are still living in acute poverty, especially those people living in sub-Saharan Arica. One should implement and expand social protection systems and try to mitigate risks for those countries, which are disaster prone and are also the most impoverished countries.

In order to eliminate poverty, one must first identify the causes that lead to poverty. The causes of poverty include illiteracy and lack of education, overpopulation, diseases and natural causes like lack of rainfall, which leads to drought and consequently famine. Excessively rainfall on the other hand can also lead to poverty as it may result in floods which may destroy everything that the poor people possess. Studies conducted by the International Food Study revealed that one of the major causes of poverty is the inability of a family to set aside financial resources for education, property, healthcare thereby continuing the vicious cycle of poverty. Overpopulation leads to poverty because the growth of a country’s population exceeds the growth of a country’s development and the growth of a country’s economy. Overpopulation further leads to unemployment and an extremely lower standard of living. Countries where agriculture is the backbone of the economy can suffer due to lack of agricultural infrastructure. Unequal distribution of assets, inflation and price hike also lead to poverty. Gender inequality also contributes to poverty. Poverty can also be attributed to the fact that the underprivileged sections of society do not have access to basic amenities as well as not having access to markets and resources. Warfare and violence also contribute to poverty as it destroys everything and drains the resources of a nation. Nothing is ever achieved by waging a war. War only leads to a loss of lives and the decline of a nation and its people. Another reason for poverty is also Colonialism. The main causes of poverty are unemployment, debt, inflation, corruption, extreme weather, lack of access to education, global hunger, mental illness and the lack of psychiatric care, overpopulation and diseases that cause epidemics. The historical causes of poverty include war, conquest and slavery.

The Effects of Poverty on Society

The effects of poverty are extremely serious. Poverty leads to malnutrition and hunger and people who live in abject poverty are susceptible to various diseases because impoverished people cannot afford medicines and basic healthcare. Children who grow up in abject poverty may suffer from severe health problems like malnutrition and various diseases than children who grow up in an environment that possesses the financial resources to support them. Many infants who are born in very poor households weigh very less and are more prone to diseases because of a weak immune system which, stems from a lack of food and nourishment. They are also prone to having physical disabilities. These infants unfortunately have a low mortality rate.

Children who live in abject poverty and are extremely poor also tend to miss school because they fall sick very often. They do not have access to proper food and adequate food and also do not have access to proper medical facilities or healthcare. Most of these children have problems in their eyesight and suffer from anemia because of deficiency of iron. They also have increase levels of lead in their blood, which leads to an impairment of the functions of a brain.

Loss of jobs and subsequent poverty leads to violence in impoverished families including abuse of the elderly and child abuse. Extreme poverty also leads to homelessness and children who are homeless are more often than not unlikely to receive proper food, medicines and immunization, which, in turn causes malnutrition and other diseases. Poverty is a self-perpetuating cycle and the only way to break poverty is through education, which will lead to employment thereby alleviating poverty. Wastage of food around the world, lack of sanitation

The governments of impoverished countries can take the following measures to alleviate poverty. The government can implement social protection plans to prevent and reduce poverty and inequality at every stage of the life of a person by giving them benefits for children, by giving benefits to mother with new- born babies, people who are physically challenged, elderly people and to those people who are poor and do not have any jobs. Studies showed that in the year 2016, only forty-five percent of the population of the world was protected by a social protection system. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that elderly people get their pensions on time regardless of where they live. The government should also provide disability benefits to people with severe disabilities, provide unemployment benefits to those who are unemployed and maternity benefits for expectant mothers. The government should try its best to build the resilience of the poor in order to end extreme poverty in the most afflicted countries of the world.

How to Mitigate Poverty: Social Protection Systems and Disaster Risk Reduction

The government should ensure social protection for the destitute and the vulnerable people in society, ensure that the poor people get access to basic services, and support people who are harmed by natural disasters. Implementing social protection programs to the impoverished sections of society can help to alleviate poverty. Disaster risk reduction is extremely important to ending poverty and fostering sustainable development. Disaster risk is higher in poor countries. The government should ensure that all people, particularly those who are poor and vulnerable have access to basic services natural resources, inheritance, new technology and microfinance. The government should also take steps to build the resilience of the poor and those people who are in vulnerable positions and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related catastrophic events and other social, economic and environmental disasters. The government should further ensure the mobilization of financial resources from a plethora of sources in order to provide means to developing countries and the countries that are least developed and should also implement programs and various policies to try to eliminate poverty absolutely. Governments should also create a sound framework of policy at the regional, national and international levels that is based on pro-poor and strategies that are gender sensitive in order to eradicate poverty. Thus, the United Nations can adopt these rules in order to alleviate poverty.

The primary stakeholders of an organization are the customers, shareholders, suppliers and employees of a firm. The primary stakeholders of a firm include customers, governments, communities and investors. The secondary stakeholders include the government, competitors, civil society and shareholders of a firm. Media, special interest groups and trade associations are examples of secondary stakeholders. The relationships between the primary and secondary stakeholders in a firm are all correlated and dependent on each other. The managers of a firm thus pay attention to the people who are stated in the above positions.

The Principles for Responsible Management Education is supported by the United Nations which was founded in the year 2007 as a policy to promote awareness and sustainability in schools across the world and to equip students who are studying business with the ability to bring change. It has over six hundred and fifty signatories worldwide.

The Principles for Responsible Management Education’s core principles include Purpose, Values, Method, Research, Partnership and Dialogue (Epstein 2018) The Principle one of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education that includes Purpose, is of utmost importance. The purpose is to ensure students have the capability to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy, wherein students are taught not to waste any kind of resources since resources are precious and wastage of resources would only lead to resources not reaching the poor and the downtrodden sections of society. The Principle two of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education that includes Values ensures that students develop social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact. It is of paramount importance that students learn to have values and develop compassion towards the poor and destitute thereby becoming better individuals, better human beings. The Principle three of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education, i.e. Method, will ensure the creation of educational frameworks for students so that they learn about poverty, learn about what causes poverty and learn how they can alleviate poverty. The Principle four of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education is Research, which will ensure that students develop an understanding about the role and the impact of creating an organization that focuses on social, environmental and economical aspects. The Principle five of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education is Partnership, which ensures that students are able to understand the importance of collaboration, of collaborating with other business organizations to address the various issues of sustainability and global social responsibility. The Principle six of the UN Principle for Responsible Management Education in Research is Dialogue that ensures that there is a dialogue between educators, the government, business and students (Schwartz  2017 ).

The Importance of Responsible Management Education

Social responsibility is very important and the first way corporations can achieve the task of alleviating poverty is by instilling the right values in students and other people. Incorporating the right values in academics and academic activities will ensure that students develop the right values and grow up to become good human beings and help to alleviate poverty from this world. Incorporating the right values in individuals is extremely essential and pertinent in order to develop a sense of compassion for others, and for humanity as a whole, to develop a charitable nature so that one learns to help the poor and the destitute in whichever way they can. Students can be taught the value of education and how it helps a person to become a good human being and also how education helps to alleviate poverty by helping one to secure employment. Students who have the right values embedded in them will grow up to teach others the value of education and how it ensures employment thereby helping to alleviate poverty.

The second recommendation by which corporations can achieve their goals is through partnerships and collaborations. Corporations can come together and collaborate with each other and take remedial steps to eliminate poverty.  Corporations can donate various resources to the poor and destitute as part of their corporate social responsibility. Corporations can also address generic social impacts through good corporate citizenship. If there is an overall growth in economy, then poverty can be curtailed. The industrial revolution led to a high growth in economy thereby eliminating high levels of poverty which, led to what is now known as the developed countries. Poverty can be curtailed by giving financial services such as savings to the poor and the destitute through mobile banking. Alleviation of poverty also include the improvement of living conditions of the poor. Illiteracy or lack of education is one of the major causes of poverty and companies can allot money for spreading education among the underprivileged sections of society as part of their corporate social responsibility. A root cause of poverty among the underprivileged section of society is the lack of access to resources and markets. Companies can address this issue by providing training in skills to the underprivileged sections of society. Skills training help people to qualify for jobs thereby bringing in revenue and alleviating poverty from their lives. Providing financial resources to the poor communities can help them set up cooperatives thereby helping them to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

A bank can be established to give microloans to the poor people so that they are able to start an enterprise or a small business (Spencer 2017). People who are poor may not qualify for bank loans from conventional banks as they lack the collateral that is needed, lack a steady employment and a credit history that is verified. Due to this, they may be forced to borrow money from moneylenders who charge a high rate of interest that will take away a large part of their salary. Microloans on the other hand are short-term loans with repayment schedules that are flexible. Another means by which companies can alleviate poverty is by providing women with opportunities so that they can become financially independent.

Conclusion

To conclude, one can say that companies can help to alleviate poverty from society. Companies can donate a substantial part of their profits to charitable causes thereby curtailing poverty. They can also reduce the prices of their goods and services so that the poor and the destitute can afford to buy their products and avail their services. Companies can also employ more staff thereby helping to reduce unemployment. Companies can recruit local people from the economies they are operating in like Coca Cola. Companies can also increase the salary of their employees or provide them with the required training and learning skills. Prioritizing staff development can also help to alleviate poverty. Companies can also create indirect jobs and substitute products that are imported with goods that are made locally, especially if they are agricultural goods because that requires a labour intensive force, thereby promoting employment and consequently helping to revive the economy. One should also buy locally. Companies should start to perceive the poor people as potential customers and try to meet their needs. In Argentina, the destitute people pay twice the amount for gas than the wealthy and affluent sections of society. Giving the poor people biogas outfits which will help them to produce gas, which they can then sell, and also use for domestic needs will be extremely beneficial for them since they will no longer have to pay a lot of money for gas. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the UN Global Compact and the World Economic Forum are various forums wherein companies can share strategies that can help the world to become a better place. Government officials of various countries preside over these meetings and discuss ways to improve the conditions of the poor and help to alleviate poverty from the world. Companies can also start or invest in small and medium sized enterprises in developing countries and recruiters can insist on hiring only those people who are unemployed and in desperate need of a job thereby creating employment opportunities in developing countries and contributing towards alleviating poverty.

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