By Joanna Slater, Washington Post, July 10, 2018
It is a distinction that no country wants: the place with the most people living in extreme poverty.
For decades, India remained stubbornly in the top spot, a reflection of its huge population and its enduring struggle against poverty.
Now new estimates indicate that Nigeria has knocked India out of that position, part of a profound shift taking place in the geography of the world’s poorest people.
According to a recent report from the Brookings Institution, Nigeria overtook India in May to become the country with the world’s highest number of people living in extreme poverty, which is defined as living on less than $1.90 a day. The threshold captures those who struggle to obtain even basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing, and takes into account differences in purchasing power between countries.
The Brookings report was based on estimates generated by the World Poverty Clock, a model created to track progress against poverty in real time. As of Monday, its figures showed that India had 70.6 million people living in extreme poverty, while Nigeria had 87 million.
What’s more, the gap is widening: The number of people living in extreme poverty in India is falling while the opposite is true in Nigeria, where the population is growing faster than its economy. Extreme poverty rises in Nigeria by six people each minute, according to calculations by the World Poverty Clock. Meanwhile, the number of extreme poor in India drops by 44 people a minute.
“It’s a good news story for India, coupled with some caveats, and it’s a real wake-up call for the African continent,” said Homi Kharas, director of the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution.
Extreme poverty is increasingly an African phenomenon, the Brookings report noted. Africans make up about two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor, it said. By 2030, that figure could rise to nine-tenths if current trends continue.
Africa’s central place in the battle against poverty comes amid dramatic progress worldwide. Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen more than 60 percent, according to the World Bank. Much of the reduction has come in Asia, first in places such as China, Indonesia and Vietnam, and more recently in India.
Dennis Edwards: When I went to Mozambique in 2000 I visited the work of the Sisters of Charity outside of Maputo. Travelling over to Mother Teresa's work we noticed it was very close to the city dump. Arriving at the project we delivered the food stuffs we had bought and spent a few hours with the children playing games, singing, and even teaching sight words in English. After a while we helped one of the workers bring the some 50 small babies out of their baby beds onto the patio for some fresh air and sunlight.
The problem was the flies. Being close to the dumpster there were thousand of flies. But the reason the project was close to the dumpster was because the city dump was used to abandom unwanted babies. Those who worked picking through the garbage for valuables would find the abandomed babies and bring them to Mother Teresa's home nearby. I picked up one of the babies in my arms to keep the flies away, but the others just lay there, flies all over their faces. I felt frustrated and helpless. They needed to build some kind of screen to keep the flies out like they had done in the canteen area.
I remember coming back to Portugal and wondering what I could do to help. My friend with money had just spent $10,000 on a project in another African nation, so I couldn't ask him. I didn't know how I could raise the money for the screen project. Instead of getting desparate for an answer and seeking God to supply, I let myself get busy with a little here and a little there until the conviction of heart, that I needed to do something about that situation, went away. That's what I did to help. I forgot about it.
I had arrived in Maputo with $4,000, but had already donated it to a local group of Christian volunteers led by a couple I had met when I was in Japan. It was with them I had come to visit Mother Teresa's home in the outskirts of Maputo. We had also donated clothes and designer sports shoes and food stuffs to the former street children at the local Anglican Church Center for Street Children in downtown Maputo. We took the boys for different activities and a restaurante, also.
But all that, didn't alleviate the feeling of my conscience. Looking back, I'm ashamed at my lethargic attitude, my lack of love and desperation for that sad situation with Mother Teresa's children in Maputo. Hopefully, the Sisters themselves were able to raise the finances they needed and the situation improved. But I lost the opportunity to help. Nevertheless, we learn from our mistakes. I'm trying to do better. Lord, help me to be a better instrument of your love.
Dennis Edwards: When I went to Mozambique in 2000 I visited the work of the Sisters of Charity outside of Maputo. Travelling over to Mother Teresa's work we noticed it was very close to the city dump. Arriving at the project we delivered the food stuffs we had bought and spent a few hours with the children playing games, singing, and even teaching sight words in English. After a while we helped one of the workers bring the some 50 small babies out of their baby beds onto the patio for some fresh air and sunlight.
The problem was the flies. Being close to the dumpster there were thousand of flies. But the reason the project was close to the dumpster was because the city dump was used to abandom unwanted babies. Those who worked picking through the garbage for valuables would find the abandomed babies and bring them to Mother Teresa's home nearby. I picked up one of the babies in my arms to keep the flies away, but the others just lay there, flies all over their faces. I felt frustrated and helpless. They needed to build some kind of screen to keep the flies out like they had done in the canteen area.
I remember coming back to Portugal and wondering what I could do to help. My friend with money had just spent $10,000 on a project in another African nation, so I couldn't ask him. I didn't know how I could raise the money for the screen project. Instead of getting desparate for an answer and seeking God to supply, I let myself get busy with a little here and a little there until the conviction of heart, that I needed to do something about that situation, went away. That's what I did to help. I forgot about it.
I had arrived in Maputo with $4,000, but had already donated it to a local group of Christian volunteers led by a couple I had met when I was in Japan. It was with them I had come to visit Mother Teresa's home in the outskirts of Maputo. We had also donated clothes and designer sports shoes and food stuffs to the former street children at the local Anglican Church Center for Street Children in downtown Maputo. We took the boys for different activities and a restaurante, also.
But all that, didn't alleviate the feeling of my conscience. Looking back, I'm ashamed at my lethargic attitude, my lack of love and desperation for that sad situation with Mother Teresa's children in Maputo. Hopefully, the Sisters themselves were able to raise the finances they needed and the situation improved. But I lost the opportunity to help. Nevertheless, we learn from our mistakes. I'm trying to do better. Lord, help me to be a better instrument of your love.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment