Increasing Productivity As Panacea To Extreme Poverty

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Increasing Productivity As Panacea To Extreme Poverty

03 août 2020 12:20

Amartya Sen says “poverty” is not just the lack of money, it is not having the capacity to realise one’s full potential as a human being.” Poverty can also be defined as the inability to satisfy ones wants notably food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education and social utilities. In most cases, the majority of the global poor live in rural area and are poorly educated, employed in the agricultural sector. Governments, international organisations, the World Bank amongst others have been relentless in reducing poverty in the world. The World Bank for instance has as goal to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. The underpinning mission informs all the analytical, operational work in combatting the cankerworm. There has been marked progress on reducing poverty over the past decades. According to the most recent estimates, in 2015, 10 per cent of the world’s population lived on less than $1.90 a day, down from nearly 36 per cent in 1990. Progress has been uneven, and the number of people in extreme poverty remains unacceptably high. Given growth forecasts, the world is not on track to end extreme poverty by 2030. The work to end extreme poverty is far from over, and many challenges remain. In most parts of the world, growth rates are too slow, and investment is too subdued to increase median incomes. For many nations, poverty reduction has slowed or even reversed. Economic growth has proven to be a powerful force in the fight against poverty across the world, especially since 2000. While good progress has been made, 900 million people are still trapped in extreme poverty and the prospects for many, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, remain worrying. However, pundits hold that increasing productivity will be the solution to poverty. Through increased productivity in the various sectors of the economy, economic growth swells with a trickle-down effect to the population. If a company increases its productivity, its profit margin also surges meaning employees will have better wages as well as new employment created. According to the European Commission analysis in a publication authored by Beatriz Péres de la Fuente tittle “Economic Growth and Poverty in a Rapidly Changing World,” growth is inextricably linked reduction of p...