How do we end Poverty?
Poverty is a relative concept but in this article let’s stick to the absolutes and the fact that we all know poverty to be a genuine lack of…It might be the single most complex problem of any time in conceivable history.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as a continuation of the Millennium Development goals declared in the adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they would take steps to eradicate poverty everywhere by 2030, but, progress is seemingly noticeable in Asia, America and, Europe but not so much in Africa. The number of absolutely poor people in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to outstrip the European Union’s population by the end of this decade
Here’s a figure that will blow your mind; 2/3 of the world’s absolute poor live in just 17 sub-Saharan Africa countries namely Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, Ethiopia et al
The CIGF way
At CIGF, we believe, a cocktail of the efforts below can make significant strides;
- Real Financial inclusion
One can argue that the word “financial inclusion” has now become cliché, governments around the world throw it around with ease in their planning and strategy sessions but there isn’t much work to show for it. In Uganda alone, close to half (42%) of the population is to this day still financially excluded, and this figure is pretty consistent with what we see in most of the other countries in Africa. Walking the talk and implementing those sound plans here can improve people’s lives.
- Micro-insurance
The less fortunate are unfortunately the most susceptible to all sorts of risks, creative affordable ways to help the poor transfer some of these risks will definitely be relieving. One of these ways is designing cheap insurance products that tie the premium expense to an already existing expense or that take an insignificant percentage of their daily earnings. Check out one of the cool implementations of this idea here: http://dissertations.mak.ac.ug/handle/20.500.12281/9553
- Financial discipline
Fostering this among the masses through mass sensitisation on savings and investment culture could also be helpful.
- Income redistribution
Probably the least popular of all solutions given the capitalistic fabric of our society today but if you think about it, it might be the faster viable way out. Consider this, the UN recently said 6.6 billion US Dollars could end world hunger and Elon musk offered to pay if the UN was willing to open up their books. This just serves to show that if the rich countries committed just a fraction of their GDPs toward uplifting the unlucky 17 African countries from the poverty ditches, light would surely be at the end of the tunnel.
Ruhunda Pius
