A beggar on the streets of New York: poverty is a problem that is not exclusive to developing countries. Even in the prosperous West, some people live around subsistence level. In developing countries the situation is even more harrowing, despite the first millennium goal agreed in 2000 by the UN member states: the percentage of people living in extreme poverty must be reduced by half in 2015. Extreme poverty means that a person has less than one dollar a day to spend.
Under the influence of globalization, extreme poverty appears to have been driven back. In 1990, 29% of the global population lived on less than a dollar a day, in 2004 this had dropped to 18%. Progress, however, is unequally divided across the world. Particularly in China and India, the two emerging economic superpowers, poverty has been substantially reduced. And Sub-Saharan Africa has recently experienced economic growth. Although the percentage of extremely poor is decreasing slightly, their absolute numbers are rising due to the rapid population growth.
Prosperity is unequally divided from the geographical point of view, but also within societies. Many developing countries have a well-to-do elite alongside large groups of people living in extreme poverty. People living in the country are often poorer than townspeople. In addition to which, women – especially in developing countries – are economically more vulnerable than men. An important factor in the struggle against poverty is reducing the economic inequality within a country. In some countries economic progress is being made, but at the cost of the poorest people. The World Bank has calculated that there would be fifteen euros a day for everyone if all the money were equally divided worldwide.
There is no extreme poverty in the Netherlands. However, polarization can be observed. The gap between the very poor and the very rich is widening. For example, the number of Dutch people forced to make use of food banks is increasing. On the other hand, there does not appear to be an upper limit to top incomes in the corporate and public sectors.
