Although prosperity and economic development have benefited a lot of countries, certain sectors of the society continue to lose the battle. A lot of times, hardest hit by poverty are older people, single people, and couples with children.
Poverty is felt even in developed nations such as Wales which released this week new figures that show the rise in poverty in the past decade. BBC reported that in the last 10 years, there was a 3-percent increase in the poverty rate among single people to 29 percent from 26 percent.
Among pensioners, the increase was by 4 percent to 18 percent from 14 percent. Prior to the latest data release, pensioner poverty in Wales was declining the past five years. A similar 4 percent hike was observed in the poverty rate for couples with children which expanded to 23 percent from 19 percent.
Boosting the number of well-paid jobs
The study was conducted by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation which looked into the incomes of different groups over 20 years ending in 2015/2016. Actually, the overall poverty rate among the Welsh went down to under a quarter the past two decades.
However, among the three sectors, the poverty rate expanded over the past 10 years. Although the proportion of single parents who live in poverty dipped from 61 percent in the mid-1990s, it is still high at 46 percent. One observation of the foundation is that a reduction in child poverty got stalled as the rate hovered around 30 percent, not too far from the mid-1990 level of 36 percent.
Worst hit were disabled people whose poverty rate is 39 percent, while the rate for non-disabled people is 22 percent. It is the highest in all of the UK which also applies to pensioner poverty.
In response to the report, the Welsh government said it was taking action by increasing the number of well-paid jobs and preventing poverty. The effort produced some results as the proportion of Welsh who were employed went up to 73 percent from 66 percent in 1997.
Fundamental priority
Given the data, the foundation called on the Welsh government to ensure that the country's economy works better for low-income families by working with business to create better jobs, construct more affordable homes, and ensure that when the youth leave school, they have the needed skills to acquire work.
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said that many Welsh remain locked in an everyday struggle to make ends meet because of low-paid and unstable jobs, rising cost of living, and insufficient benefits.
The Welsh government insisted that the prevention of poverty is a fundamental priority. It said the economic action plans aim to boost the availability of well-paid jobs and commitment to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes by 2021.
Economic ruin after Arab Spring revolution
Worse than the situation in Wales, the Independent reported that many Egyptians are now teetering on the brink of poverty. The harder times are the result of the massive inflation and the sharp drop in tourism since the 2011 Arab Spring revolution.
The International Monetary Fund advised Egyptian President Abdel Fateh el Sisi to reduce the subsidies for food and fuel that a lot of citizens depend on which the president followed. Another action that caused the number of Egyptians who live in poverty to nearly double from the 2000 level is the unpegging in 2016 by the country's central bank of the country's currency from the US dollar. Overnight, the Egyptian pound dipped to less than 50 percent its previous value and resulted in a spike in the cost of imports on which Egypt relies heavily.
It was not only 30-year President Hosni Mubarak who was thrown out of power by the Arab Spring revolution. The event scared foreign investors and tourists. With a four-year austerity program under Sisi, poor Egyptians have fewer alternatives left except to further tighten their belts.
Eliminating absolute poverty
In China, the Straits Times reported that Liu Youngfu, the head of the State Council's Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, outlined three principles. The principles set the tone as China turns to regions where the poverty problem has been the most intractable to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020.
The first principle is to ensure that not one Chinese remains under the official poverty line of 2,300 yuan ($478) a year by 2020. The second is to ensure that goal is met through real improvements in the lives of people. Liu stressed that the government's poverty alleviation work must be of high quality and could withstand the test of time. He said it cannot be diluted, faked, or on paper only.
Under the strategy, Beijing will intensify coordination with the provincial and local governments in areas considered as deeply impoverished regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Yunnan. These areas will receive the bulk of poverty alleviation funds that had been newly earmarked.
[researchpaper 리서치페이퍼= Vittorio Hernandez 기자]