Editorial;

The increasing level of poverty, particularly among the developing countries, has become a global concern. Governments, NGOs, musicians, private entrepreneurs and a host of organisations and individuals pledge daily, their commitment to fighting against the unpleasant culture of poverty.

But despite the wonderful packages provided by the world for the eradication of poverty, the number of people who continue to live and die as a result of the persistent chronic level of poverty is dramatically increasing.

One might therefore ask what might have gone wrong with global poverty reduction programmes. The answer to this is simple. Those who spearheaded the campaign against poverty (developed countries) view the phenomenon as the lack of food, clothing and shelter, and hence provide the developing countries with millions of dollars to buy these basic necessities for their people. This approach is, however, not the solution.

Poverty is far more than the mere lack of such basic necessities, and moreover, such an approach is only curing the symptoms of poverty and not poverty itself.

What should be done now? This world has enough resources to cater for the material needs of its populace. What is important is for people to understand and accept that poverty is not something natural but rather, it is created by human beings.

The phenomenon is perpetuated simply because of the fact that 80% of the world’s resources that the vast majority of the people should rely on for survival are exported and controlled by only 20% of the world’s population, who are often more concerned about the accumulation of more rather than social justice.

Therefore, to liberate the people from poverty, the global development paradigm has to take the approach of distributive justice. The people have to be empowered to take ownership of their resources and exploit them for their own development. It is in this way that we can have victory in our fight against poverty as it will break the walls of social inequality and every individual will earn according to their needs.

Poverty in the midst of wealth is a sin and the world has enough to deal with it.