Poverty, Inequality, and Global Development Challenges

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Item 14: Poverty, inequality, and development.

This section examines the nature and magnitude of the problem from the human dimension of development, focusing on cooperation and development aid.

The Human Dimension of Global Poverty

In the Third World, more than 130 countries strive to exercise their right to development. Beyond their own efforts, the economic system imposed on the world prevents progress. These nations lack access to markets and new technologies; they are handcuffed by a burdensome debt that has already been paid more than once. They are relegated to being dependent countries. The system makes them believe that their poverty is the result of their own mistakes.

In those countries, the poor and destitute—who constitute the majority—do not even have the right to life. Thus, each year, 11 million children under five years old die, some of whom could be saved with a simple vaccine or oral rehydration salts. Furthermore, 600,000 women die during childbirth due to extreme poverty. They are denied the right to learn to read and write, as it would be dangerous for the owners; they are kept in ignorance to remain docile. We should be ashamed of the nearly one billion illiterates in the world.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The MDGs consist of eight specific objectives:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development

Cooperation and the Right to Development

The Millennium Development Goals relate to the right to development, poverty reduction, and humanitarian assistance across the globe in situations of disaster or war. They also address the need for a healthy environment and its preservation against the serious and progressive deterioration of planetary ecosystems and the common heritage of humanity.

This highlights the urgent need for cooperation and solidarity between all human beings to respect, protect, and promote universal values and aspirations. This requires contributions from all individuals and peoples in a coordinated effort, aware of our joint responsibility. However, realizing these rights is increasingly difficult within a model of globalization that encourages competition, confrontation, selfishness, and unilateralism—ultimately leading to a "war of all against all" in every walk of life.