NEWS

02.09.2010
SERBIAN CANDIDATE IN UN COMMITTEE
Serbian representative Mr. Damjan Tatić was elected in expert team UN aimed
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31.08.2010
Virtual Career and Education Day expands regionally!
Since the 2nd Virtual Career and Education Day has been very successful
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27.08.2010
Center for employment of persons with disability
The first Center for professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with
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Poverty is a condition in which a person or community is deprived of, and or lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of well-being and life. Since poverty is understood in many senses, these essentials may be material resources such as food, safe drinking water, and shelter, or they may be social resources such as access to information, education, health care, social status, political power, or the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.

Measuring poverty

The percentage of the world's population living on less than $1 per day has halved in twenty years. However, most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia.

When measured, poverty may be absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000-2500 calories per day for an adult male).

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ (PPP) 1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It has been estimated that in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.

In many developed countries the official definition of poverty used for statistical purposes is based on relative income. As such many critics argue that poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. For instance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46% of those in "poverty" in the U.S. own their own home (with the average poor person's home having three bedrooms, with one and a half baths, and a garage). Furthermore, the measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth.

Even if poverty may be lessening for the world as a whole, it continues to be an enormous problem:

• One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes. That's 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US.

• Every year nearly 11 million children die before their fifth birthday.

• In 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day

• 800 million people go to bed hungry every day.

The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor", based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people consider elements of poverty. Most important are those necessary for material well-being, especially food. Many others relate to social rather than material issues.

• precarious livelihoods
• excluded locations
• gender relationships
• problems in social relationships
• lack of security
• abuse by those in power
• dis-empowering institutions
• limited capabilities, and
• weak community organizations.

Causes of poverty

Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. However, no single explanation has gained universal acceptance. Some possible factors include:

• Natural factors such as the climate or environment
• Geographic factors, for example access to fertile land, fresh water, minerals, energy, and other natural resources.
• Inadequate nutrition in childhood in poor nations may lead to physical and mental stunting that may lead to economic problems
• Disease, specifically diseases of poverty: AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis and others overwhelmingly afflict developing nations, which perpetuate poverty by diverting individual, community, and national health and economic resources from investment and productivity
• Poverty itself, prevents (for example) various forms of investment
• Inability to find a well-paying job (see working poor)
• Unemployment and/or underemployment
• Globalization, too much or too little
• Lacking rule of law
• Lacking democracy
• Lacking infrastructure
• Lacking health care
• Lacking education
• Government corruption
• Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods
• Tax havens which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other nations
• Historical factors, for example imperialism and colonialism
• Lacking free trade.
• Lack of freedom and social oppression
• Lack of social integration
• Slavery
• Crime, both white-collar crime and blue-collar crime
• Substance abuse, such as alcoholism and drug abuse
• War, including civil war and genocide
• Brain drain
• Lack of social skills
• Exploitation of the poor by the rich
• Individual beliefs, actions and choices
• Mental illness and disability
• Discrimination of various kinds, such as age discrimination, gender discrimination, racial discrimination.

Effects of poverty

Some effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a " poverty cycle" and complicating the subject further:

• Depression
• Lack of sanitation
• Increased vulnerability to natural disasters
• Extremism
• Hunger and starvation
• Human trafficking
• High crime rate
• Increased suicides
• Increased risk of political violence; such as terrorism, war and genocide
• Homelessness
• Lack of opportunities for employment
• Low literacy
• Social isolation
• Loss of population due to emigration.
• Increased discrimination
• Drug abuse

Poverty reduction

In politics, the fight against poverty is usually regarded as a social goal and many governments have — secondarily at least — some dedicated institutions or departments.

Economic growth

• The anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank depends heavily on reducing poverty through the promotion of economic growth.
• Business groups see the reduction of barriers to the creation of new businesses, or reducing barriers for existing business, as having the effect of bringing more people into the formal economy.
• The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the number living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the Czech or Slovak republics today.

Direct aid

• The government can directly help those in need. Especially for those most at risk, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. The help can be for example monetary or food aid.
• Private charity. This is often formally encouraged within the legal system. For example, charitable trusts and tax deductions for charity.
• The Copenhagen Consensus is a listing of the most cost-effective methods for advancing global welfare.

Improving the social environment and abilities of the poor

• Subsidized housing development and urban regeneration.
• Subsidized education.
• Subsidized health care.
• Assistance in finding employment.
• Subsidized employment (see also Workfare).
• Encouragement of political participation and community organizing.
• Community practice social work.

Millennium Development Goals

Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal. In addition to broader approaches, the Sachs Report (for the UN Millennium Project) proposes a series of "quick wins", approaches identified by development experts which would cost relatively little but could have a major constructive effect on world poverty. The quick wins are:

• Access to information on sexual and reproductive health.
• Action against domestic violence.
• Appointing government scientific advisors in every country.
• Basic Income Guarantee
• Citizen's Dividend
• De-worming school children in affected areas.
• Drugs for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
• Eliminating school fees.
• Ending user fees for basic health care in developing countries.
• Free school meals for schoolchildren.
• Legislation for women’s rights, including rights to property.
• Negative Income Tax
• Planting trees.
• Providing soil nutrients to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Providing mosquito nets.
• Access to electricity, water and sanitation.
• Supporting breast-feeding.
• Training programs for community health in rural areas.
• Upgrading slums, and providing land for public housing.

Development aid

Most developed nations give some development aid to developing nations. The UN target for development aid is 0.7% of GDP; currently only a few nations achieve this. Some think tanks and NGOs have argued, however, that Western monetary aid often only serves to increase poverty and social inequality, either because it is conditioned with the implementation of harmful economic policies in the recipient countries, or because it's tied with the importing of products from the donor country over cheaper alternatives, or because foreign aid is seen to be serving the interests of the donor more than the recipient.

Supporters argue that these problems may be solved with better audit of how the aid is used. Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; this may be because it is better at reaching the poor and better controlled at the grassroots level.

The Team of Serbian Government for implementation the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) started the Program named Contact organizations of civil society for monitoring of implementation the Poverty Reduction Strategy

Within this Program Center for Independent Living Serbia will monitor the part related to persons with disabilities and their families. Mutual consultations on actual problems that cause the poverty of PWDs will maintain two-way communication between the disabled peoples’ organizations and the Team of Serbian Government for implementation the Poverty Reduction Strategy .

This Governmental Program which is addressed the PWDs should :

а) improve the mechanism of continues cooperation and communication between PWD group and Governmental institutions which are working on poverty reduction

b) improve the quality of adequate measures and programs for poverty reduction of PWDs through their direct impact on their defining and implementation

c) improve the flow and exchange of information related to PRS implementation and better mutual consensus of suggestions in disability movement

d) bring higher possibilities for implementation and monitoring of PRS on local level

f) enable better insight into concrete problems of poverty of persons with disabilities and their families.