Correction
POVERTY ERADICATION POLICIES 10
MEMO
TO: The governor
FROM: Policy Advisor on Poverty Eradication
RE: Reduce Poverty and Increase Opportunity
This policy memo recommends to the Office of The Governor to address the level of poverty that has seen the majority of people unable to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing. This recommendation also seeks to identify causes and effects of poverty in the state better as well as coming up with clever ways through which people can be freed from the yoke of poverty once and for all. The conclusion serves, to sum up the magnitude and the implication of the subject matter as it were.
Background
Mr. Governor: as you know, The most critical challenge facing different communities in this state is to raise the rate of economic growth. It should be a level a that incorporate broad-based improvement in the standards of living and the well-being of the people living within the community to reduce poverty which has increased rapidly in the recent past. The rate of economic growth has declined dramatically from an average of 7.5 percent to somewhere around 4 percent in the last two years. The living conditions of the vast majority of people in the community are deteriorating rapidly. There is a notable rise in the number of people unable to access clean water, clothing, housing, quality health services as well as education.
Unemployment is a big problem in the community. As at now, average unemployment stands at 28 percent and is even higher for women and to be specific the young people who drop out of school. State services in many cases are no longer available. There is growing disparities in access to services which has further undercut the conditions of living for low-income households. School enrolments, the infant mortality, and life expectancy have deteriorated.
The state’s economic objectives of growth, eradication of poverty, improved resource unitization and access have for years remained the same. The quest for stable socio-economic development has however been a very challenging endeavor (Kanji, 2013). The effectual call has fundamentally majored on poverty reduction and redistribution of resources that are productive. What appears to have consequently changed are the strategies to meet the objectives of human development that is sustainable, focusing on improving the quality of life of the majority of people who are poor.
Poverty reduction as broadly defined, requires procedures that help people enhance their capabilities and functioning that enable them to take control of their affairs. Nations have come up with many poverty reduction policies most of which have had little success. The previous 20th-century poverty alleviation policies erroneously assumed that the benefits of rapid growth in key sectors such as industry, service as well as agriculture would automatically trickle down to all sectors of society. So more effort was injected into improving the performance of economies at the expense of promoting societal welfare enhancing projects.
Analysis
The actual response to poverty has been predominantly to re-direct to other orders of government. Indeed much is not done by other orders of the administration and need to address equitable access to employment and an increased minimum wage. Poverty alleviation, being a collective responsibility, requires the influence of state legislatures, the judiciary, and all other state agencies so as to smoothen the work of formulating and implementing policies to alleviate poverty. The legislative system needs to come up with clear procedures of law that will reduce the current level of poverty. The importance this approach is to guide the administration on what should be done to ensure that all strategies meant for poverty alleviation are implemented accordingly. The legislature acts as an oversight body in the whole poverty reduction plan.
The state’s judicial system on the hand has the capability to interpret what should be and what should not be done in the poverty eradication plan. It ensures that rules and regulations governing the whole plan are adhered to by all and sundry. A well-established judicial system protects the welfare of the less fortunate and in this case the poverty stricken communities. Things like fund embezzlement become minimal given that the judiciary is there to act on whoever is caught trying to weaken the fight against poverty through curved ways. With the help other agencies, the system of judiciary makes sure that everybody in the entire poverty reduction mission does their job with proper care. Of great interest is the welfare of the people who need serious attention as far as poverty and its effect are concerned.
Poverty eradication involves ultimate reforms to stimulate broader political participation. It serves to inform administrations of issues smoldering among the people to direct state resources toward areas of potential dissatisfaction and conflict.The lack of active voice of the destitute groups perpetuates disorganized forms of governance as well as delivery of services which keep the poor in a subservient position (Kessy, 2015). Therefore, the media and political leaders enable individuals and communities to become active in the course of community development. Poverty eradication also ensures transparency and accountability of the government in power and generates a strong role for community groups in the process of making policies.
Poverty alleviation also requires poor individuals to have access to applicable information so as to make decisions that are informed concerning them as well as realize their fundamental rights. Lack of access to the means communication demoralizes the capability of the poor people to play a part in policy making processes. It is also the duty of political parties to make sure that the concerns of the people living in abject poverty are addressed in the right time and that the action is taken early in advance. In most cases, the media, political parties, and interest groups serve as a connection between governments and the people. Organization of the three works to the advantage of the community. They influence on policies that governments make concerning the ordinary citizens.
Solution to the Problem
It is not easy to alleviate poverty altogether just because it is primarily caused by human factors. It involves the deliberate use of apparatuses such as economic development, education, health as well as income redistribution, so as to improve the means of support of the people most affected by poverty. They also aim at doing away with social and legal obstacles to the growth of income among the poor communities. Going by the fact that the needs of the poor are complex and multi-dimensional, the state has to make credible efforts to eradicate poverty and improve the welfare of the people. It should synthesize the needs into specific and particularly implementable objectives. Additionally, it should dichotomize these objectives in terms of attainable goals with short and long time perspectives.
It is advisable to identify vulnerable people who are living in absolute poverty. After identifying them, the state is free to unveil and analyze what is perceived to be their immediate needs with the clear objective of fashioning particular programs. The state also employs an approach that is multi-sectoral as well as placing a distinct inflection on the basic requirements of the poor such as, but not limited to, food, housing, sanitation, water supply, health as well as education. Such measures have the capability of yielding tangible outcomes if parallel efforts are put in place to reduce the adverse consequences of poverty-aggravating factors such as the growth of population, land-holding problems, armed conflict, structural adjustment programs plus the pervasiveness of widespread illnesses.
Problems associated with poverty are largely offshoots of little or no opportunities for employment to generate income-earning capacities. The state should actively encourage a broad-based economic growth purely focusing on agriculture and other sectors that relate to it. In this framework, it is the responsibility of both public sector and private sector to play a very significant role in the sustained generation and policies should not only be focused on growth but they should also be focusing of equitability (Kim, 2016). Even at the stage of formulation, policies and development plans must have built-in mechanisms for reducing poverty through reduced gender disparities, growth plus a fair practice of resource allocation.
Priority attention should be accorded to the necessary improvement of critical services and facilities as railway, roads, transport vehicles, storage structures lines, farm implements and inputs, sacks, weighing machines, clinics, training institutes, clinics, farmers co-operatives, research, and extension. Agricultural development is undersized by deforestation and soil exhaustion. Foresighted measures to remedy this problem include well-organized land-use practices; conservation, expansionary and rational exploitation of natural resources, proper utilization of inputs as well as utilization of substitute sources of
An essential condition for the successful poverty alleviation implementation strategy is the existence of effective institutions. Decisive measures should be taken to enhance the operational effectiveness of useful systems by subscribing to improved managerial practices such as the provision of a well-trained, properly motivated and genuinely committed workforce. Strategies aimed at poverty alleviation drive, for effectiveness as much on locally driven resources as on assistance from outside. Since external support is a significant component in poverty alleviation plans, its restructuring and co-ordination in favor of the rural poor are very essential. Only 25 percent of today's aid goes to countries where three-quarters of the world's poor people live.
Recommendations
The state is now recommended to restore the balance between the responsibilities of the public and private sectors in the fields of health care and education to cut the share of the said items in household spending; ultimately achieving free and mandatory basic education, free primary health care, and more efficient preventive medicine. It also needs to come with a clear explanation of a flexible and suitable wage and income policy consistent with the level of prices. Additionally, there should be a formulation of an effective employment policy advantageous to the creation of new opportunities for better employment as well as protecting labor force from unfair competition.
Furthermore, the state should raise the standard of water and sewerage services in the disadvantaged areas and enclaves to the internal standard. It should control the quality of drinkable water, and prevent any contamination at the very source. The state is also recommended to determine the number of water-feed hours, and increase them gradually. It was also important to ascertain the conditions of pits used to collect human waste and excretions and shift gradually to the correct use the sewers network (Tan, 2017). The urgent need for treatment of sewage water before discharging it into rivers is highly recommended. The awareness of population on the need to protect water resources and their rational exploitation is recommended to be raised. Moreover, the state is advised to adopt measures that create a conducive environment for the growth of both small and medium enterprise as well as modernizing and expanding the scope of vocational rehabilitation and training.
In conclusion therefore, given the fact that eradicating poverty has been and will always be one of the most overwhelming tasks that poses massive challenges to almost all types of political administrations and governments in the world over particularly in countries in the developing world, it is fundamentally intrinsic to completely underscore the subject matter as it were in a comprehensive sense (Ellis, 2012). It is also crucial to note that poverty results to laxity in development given that funds that should be used in the improvement of superstructures as well as for infrastructure are used to address the underlying issues related to poverty. This, in essence, implies that regions where poverty levels are strikingly high, the inevitable consequence is that the community is bound to lag behind in terms of development. However, serious long and short term measures taken by governments to eradicate poverty plays a vital role in achieving desired outcomes.
Reference
Ellis, F., & Freeman, H. A. (2012). Rural livelihoods and poverty reduction policies. London: Routledge.
Kanji, N., Braathen, E., & Wilson, F. (2013). Poverty reduction: what role for the state in today's globalized economy? London: Zed.
Kessy, F. L., & Tostensen, A. (2015). Out of poverty: comparative poverty reduction strategies in Eastern and Southern Africa. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota .
Kim, P., Argyriades, D., Fraser-Moleketi, G. J., & Loretan, R. (2016). Democratic governance, public administration and poverty alleviation: thematic discourse and geographical cases. Bruxelles: Bruylant.
Tan, C. (2017). Governance through development: poverty reduction strategies, international law and the disciplining of third world states. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
