Poverty is the condition of insufficient resources and lacking fulfillment of fundamental human needs such as, adequate nutrition, clean water, clothing, and shelter and health services. Some of the devastating effects of extreme poverty include protein-energy malnutrition, several severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies, rampant infectious diseases, and depression and anxiety disorders. Also, the poor often involve themselves in criminal activities out of desperation, anger and an urgent need for money.
Therefore there is a significant need to reduce this poverty around the world before it is too late. It is every citizen's responsibility to create a system through which the poor can acquire the necessary resources, reduce their vulnerability and attain a minimally acceptable level of existence.
Firstly, good governance must be present in order for poverty to be reduced in the nation. The government should be meritocratic so that there is an even distribution of wealth hence, limited monopoly. This will encourage internal competition and the poor will at least have some capital investment and savings. .
The government should also be incorruptible as it is the poor who pay the price of corruption, misuse of resources and wasted opportunities. Developing countries must be clear that one of the key lessons of the recent Asian crisis is that development is unsustainable in the presence of widespread corruption. .
The government's inefficiency and incompetence can also lead to heavy, unsettled debts that bring the nation's already weak economy to a standstill. In order to shift from crisis to rehabilitation, poor countries need to be relieved of their debts first, so that they can invest more in education and health. These countries should maintain the momentum of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative - under which the IMF, the World Bank and the industrialised countries -the "loan sharks"- act together to reduce the debt to manageable levels.
