Poverty is perhaps the biggest single issue affecting the developing world, with half the world living on less than $2 per day. Staggeringly, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world’s 48 least rich countries is less than the combined wealth of the world’s three richest people.

The knock-on effects of poverty are numerous. Nearly a billion people began the new millennium unable to read or sign their name, but if less than one per cent of the global funds allocated for weapons spending were left aside the money could be spent to put every child in the world into school.

One billion children (half the global child population) live in poverty, with 640 million living without shelter and 400 million with no access to clean water. 290 million have no access to health services. In one year alone, 10.6 million children will die before they reach the age of five, with this number ever increasing.

Effects of globalisation

With the majority of the world’s people and nations living in a state of poverty, the reasons for this are deep-rooted.

One of the main reasons attributed is the linkage between nation states brought about by globalisation, with decisions, policies and practices carried out by the most powerful global figures, leaving the lesser governments significantly weaker by comparison.

Many of the international donor organisations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, have prescribed that nations are given money on condition that they cut their rate of spending on infrastructure (such as healthcare and education) in order to repay previous debts.

Increased levels of dependency

Meanwhile, countries have been forced to open up their economies to primarily act as commodity exporters, leaving countries in a spiralling race against one another, each eventually providing lower standards, reduced wages and cheaper resources for the wealthy. This has subsequently increased levels of poverty and dependency for many, with many trade and resource-related wars being fought as a result.

World hunger

With so many people in the world currently starving, the problem is not a lack of food globally, but that not enough people can afford to buy food. For the problem of world hunger to be resolved, the issue of global poverty must be addressed first.

Even non-emergency food donations – which seem a noble cause – can prove destructive to local economies, as they undersell local farmers and producers. The need is for countries to have sustainable development, for them to produce their own food and other items, otherwise poverty will continue.

The issue of corruption within the upper levels in developing countries has been the subject of much discussion, a highly contentious subject of debate. Although often rich countries speak of how developing nations must stamp out corruption to secure aid and loans, it is often far more complicated than that, with many so-called developed countries exacerbating the problems of corruption, as do many prescribed economic policies..