Poor people are poor because markets fail them and governments fail them. That markets fail them is well-known. Failures in capital markets mean that young people cannot get loans to finance their education; imperfect or nonexistent insurance markets mean that poor people will not get decent health care if left to unfettered markets; economies of scale as well as the simple fact that basic services such as water are necessities mean that markets will not ensure that poor people will get the services they need to survive. As Roy Radner, a former professor of mine once put it, “When you allocate resources by market prices, you discriminate against poor people.”
To overcome these failures—that is, to protect the poor—governments step in. They finance and provide primary education and basic health care; they subsidize water and electricity so poor people can afford these services. Unfortunately, these well-intentioned government interventions lead to failures of their own. In Ugandan public schools, teachers are absent 27 percent of the time; health workers in primary health centers are absent 37 percent of the time. Only one percent of the money allocated to non-salary spending in Chad reached the health clinics. These “government failures” are sometimes as pernicious as the market failures they were intended to correct. They are also difficult to overcome because various interest groups who benefit from the status quo may resist reform.
One way to overcome them may be to create a debate around these failures, to amplify the voices of the poor, so that political leaders will listen to them. Today is Blog Action Day 2008, and the topic that bloggers worldwide are writing about is “Poverty.” Let us hope this global movement, that is based on information-sharing, debate and discussion, will eventually help overcome both market and government failures so that poor people around the world can escape poverty.
Same same in Asia
I read this article. I think about my birth place, Thailand. Thailand has some problem like this article. Poor people cannot get loans for their education.I hope this problem that been solve some day.
Hope that country and all
Hope that country and all Africa will develop fast to become a power continent in the near future.
Well, this is a good move.
Well, this is a good move. There are 14,053 blog posts on BlogAction 2008. 13 million people should have read the posts overall, I wonder if there was any Governments reactions since October the 15th. I wish there was every year's Blogaction raising the topic of poverty for everyone reading in order to initiate social movement.
The attention of global
The attention of global organizations such as World Bank and UN focused on the African continent is quite intent. Some western political leaders often call for a return to the practice of soft-colonialism: because there is a wide diffused view that any budgetary funds granted to the authorities of African countries, will be immediately stolen. In any case poverty cannot be overcome if not to include centers of poverty in a global network of international trade. And this is very difficult when the various African regions are geographically too distant from the ports.
Poverty Reduction in Africa
There is a need to advance the socioeconomic security of Africans through a compassionate and vigilant leadership. The African Governments must immediately implement a workable model of Social Policy Programs in Africa that will combine efforts, reduce duplicity, and adequately serve both the people and governmental needs. This is most pertinent now that world attention is on Poverty Eradication by way of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) as a part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In essence, we can mitigate poverty by categorizing them into defined sectors and I propose that we start with our disabled.There are known methods and strategies used by developed Nation that we need to employ in managing time, resources, and recourse to the advantage of Africa. Africa has what the world needs and the world has what Africa needs. It is time for African to plan its future and request assistance from the world; not the reverse.
The current situation in
The current situation in Chad is indeed appalling. Poor people are dying from diseases due to lack of prevention and treatment. I have left my feedback about this after reading this post here http://africacan.worldbank.org/les-d%C3%A9penses-publiques-perdues-au-tc...
. Indeed, the overall effort needed to rise a wave of public discussion of issues and to ensure that politics and government people have started to pay attention to this.
The face of Poverty in Niger
Poverty in Niger is very recurrent and it has to faces,first rural and second urban.I would like to remain you that only development aid can't reduce poverty in Africa in general anr in Niger in particular because of lack of the implication of the poor in this process.So think about this....
Bonjour, une réponse à
Bonjour, une réponse à votre article ici : http://www.etreenafriquenoire.com/reagir/QuestionsDeFond/2008/PauvreteEn... .
Thanks Thomas for your
Thanks Thomas for your comment, I hope that the problems in Africa will be solved.
Rural communities that have
Rural communities that have sustained themselves for millennia on their land, now they are being measured with global development indicators hence they are failing, undeveloped and in western terms, poor. The infrastructure to help them develop socially and economically in line with how they are being measured has not been put in place. The Millennium Development Goals have very aggressive targets and indicators.
With the lack of infrastructure, these goals would not be achieved. Why don't we just look at how these communities have survived and help them be better at whatever it is they are doing? It is obvious that global development is a Eurocentric concept and would not address the development challenges of the African nations.