Global Poverty and Cultural Issues Essay

Poverty has been a pervasive phenomenon in the homo. Hunger, high take of illiteracy, high evaluate of child morality to mention but a few, all eat up characterized poverty. In response to contradict against poverty, several st yardgies shake off been developed globally to help improve the quality of human being reenforcement which have had different impacts on social, economic and semipolitical spheres. The purpose of this presentation is it to discuss the global poverty in the context of globalisation, the role played by inter interior(a) m mavintary agencies in book of factsing this get along and the precedeing effects on culture.Global poverty It has been found that almost half of the batch in the humankind be living on less than $2. 50 in a day and more than eighty percent of the orbits population live in the countries which have a widening income difference. This is reflected by the fact that cardinal percent of the poorest of the worlds population account for only five percent of the global income mend twenty percent of the richest people account for three quarters of the whole world income (Wilson, pp 172).In level of literacy, it has been found that close to one billion people have stepped in twenty first nose candy unable to read a book or even be able to sign in their names (Birdsall, Kelley and Sinding pp 153). Approximately forty million people are living with HIV/AIDS and astir(predicate) five degree centigrade million cases of malaria are witnessed each year. Africa has the highest percentages of these cases and deaths. In the developing countries mass of people do lack adequate access to clean and safe water and still a great impute lack basic sanitation.Children who are born, one billion live in poverty go near six hundred and forty millon children live without adequate shelter while about four hundred million children lack access to safe water. In rural areas three out of four people are found to earn less than $ 1 and the same proportion of the world population is malnourished. The emergence of slums is at alarming rate where out of half of worlds population living in cities and towns, one out of three urban dwellers lives in slum conditions (Otlin, pp67-69).Globalization and Poverty Reduction The verge globalization refers to a process of interaction and integration that involves different groups such people, giving medication of different nations and companies. It is set by international trade and investment and is aided by information technology. It has caused significant effects on culture, environment, political constitutions, economic development and human physical well being of many societies around world (Lawig, pp15).The ideology of globalization has been made effective by policies that have paved way to economies both locally and internationally. The world has become a global village. Commodities which had been earlier confined in one procedure of the world are nowadays avai lable across the globe. Both goods and people can reach destinations in a relative short time due to improved infrastructure. Also, work can be outsourced from any part of the world tolerated there is internet connectivity. Apart from policies, technology has been the great driver of globalization.Information technology has in any case become an important tool for identifying and perusing economic opportunities in the fastest rate possible in addition to more informed economic trends analysis. In the context of global poverty, globalization is considered to be an onset to boost the poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and improve their living standards. Free trade creates impudently opportunities for new investments, jobs and enhances more efficient way in resources use that in turn increases productivity.Liberalization of capital flows enables greater access to external resources needed to finance investments. Besides this, foreign direct investment do gai n the transfer of technology , easy accessibility to a wider range of better quality of goods at agonistic prices in addition to managerial expertise and skills (Niggle, pp 22-24). institution Bank and IMF The founding Bank and International monetary Fund (IMF) are of import international financial institutions in the world. In Africa for example, they are the major sources that provide financial support.Over the past the poorest countries in Africa have often turned to World Bank and IMF to petition for financial support due to their impoverished role. To be able to implement this, these agencies have Structural adaptation Programs/Policies (SAPs). These are economic policies that must be followed by any country that is in need of their loans. These policies in many countries, they have common principles such as merchandise led growth, privatization, liberalization and efficiency of the cease market (Winter, pp36). Structural Adjustment Programs demands the countries to d evalue their currencies against the dollar.This helps to shake off goods barefaceder for foreigners to buy. Also there is need for the political sympathies to equilibrise their budgets and not to overspend, remove price books and state subsides. Balancing national budgets usually should be by sideslip government spending and usually not by raising taxes. The implication of this is deep sheers in government programs such as education, health, social care as well as removal of subsides that are aimed to verify prices of basic necessities such as food. These SAPs often emphasis on production and exportingation of primary commodities resembling tea and coffee for earning foreign exchange.However, in practice the Structural adjustment Programs have only result to escalating state of poverty in countries where they are implemented due to various reasons. First, privatization requires governments to plow off the enterprises to c put downestine owners and in many cases they ar e foreign investors. This result to lay-off and pay cuts for employee in these privatized organizations. Secondly, reduction in government spending results to reducing services to the poor especially the critical ones such as health and education.Thirdly, the progress of exports by countries as required in SAPs is done at the expense of production for domestic needs. This is because the export orientation is often involved with displacement of people who grow food for their domestic own expending because land is occupied by plantations for growing crops for foreign markets. The fourth factor is that change magnitude evoke pass judgment that are recessionary are bound to affect national economies in that small businesses where women are the main actors find it hard to access to affordable credit which make it hard to survive.This leads to unemployment. Lastly, trade liberalization requires excreting of tariff protections for industries. When this happens in developing countries , it causes mass layoff of employees. For instance in Mozambique World Bank and IMF ordered for removal of export tax on moneyew nut that caused about ten thousand workers to loose their jobs (Udayagiri & Walton, pp101-102). set up of World Bank and IMF Aids on Zimbabwe A Cultural Perspective Culture can be defined as the thoughts, practices and products of a social group.It is shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and affective understanding that are acquired through socialization process. It is through these shared patterns that identify the members of a particular culture group and in like manner it distinguishes those of other group. The following is a cultural perspective discussion on the effects of international monetary capital and globalization in Zimbabwe. Since Zimbabwe sought aid from IMF and World Bank and adopted their Structural Adjustment Programs, the situation has been deteriorating.The negative effects of Structural Adjustment P rograms have not been felt on economy levels entirely but also in the Zimbabwean culture. Zimbabwe was a choice in this presentation because of its current torment socio-economic trends which have been catalyzed by high inflation rates than any other African country and has also witnessed tight IMF/World Bank screws (Mumbengegwi, pp 22-26) When IMF demanded adoption of SAPs by Zimbabwean government they were not clean-cut to address the local needs of common man. Rather they were in favor of foreign investors through trade liberalization. unrivaled of SAPs required Zimbabwe government to privatize state owned enterprises. This is culturally because most of Zimbabweans have been known, for instance, to be small-holder dairy farm farmers as their livelihood. As result of privatization, for instance of dairy cooperatives through floatation of share, majority of the farmer experience a cultural crisis. This is because they were unable to continue with their selling of milk. They co uld no drawn-out enjoy relatively cheap and affordable credit facilities as before making it impossible to continue with dairy farming.Also the issue of privatization provoked neuterations in land tenure system. It has been a tradition to own land on common basis as opposed to private land ownership. However, this tradition has been broken through issuing of freehold prenomen to male landholders which never used to exist before. This anticipated productivity crisis particularly in farming system in many small carapace commercial farming. SAPs had effect on the Zimbabwean culture of clavus farming. Before implementation of SAPs in Zimbabwe, the country was used to grow maize in large scale which made it to have enough to feed its population and have stock piles.But due to the demands of World Bank and IMF for the country to be export oriented to increase if foreign exchange, it forced the country to sell all of its stockpiles in obedience. Due to unfavorable climatic condition s, now Zimbabwe does not have any maize reserves to feed it population as it was its culture. It now relies on importation which is scarcely enough to edge food needs of it starving citizens. Before, introduction of export-oriented concept in Zimbabwe, it practiced traditional farming that focussed on growing of indigenous crops for local consumption.This has gradually phased out because of SAPs demand for growing crops that are export oriented. Instead of improving on indigenous crops that will enhance attainment of food sufficiency , residential district has ended up suffering from extreme hunger because growing the local foods have been abandon for cash crop growing. To facilitate cash crop growing, most of land was commercialized. This privatization and commercialization of land have stifled women rights in regard to land control. In the past when communal land system was practiced, women had access and control over the land.But commercialization and privatization of the land in the country have adversely affected land rights of most of the women because they now have limited access and control of the land despite the fact that they are the main contributors in agricultural production (Wod, pp 122). World and IMF policies further demanded the Zimbabwean government to reduce its national budget by retrenching certain number of employees and strict wages control. In addition to this, it was expected to cut down social spending on health, health and public services and charge them some fee.To make matter worse apart from privatization of state owned enterprises, Value Added Tax was to be introduced. This resulted to high hail of living which altogether affected the normal way of living of Zimbabwean citizens. This led to high rate of unemployment. In response to this family ties started loosening as many men migrated in search for jobs causing increase rate of female headed household in the country which is contrary to existing culture. Thorough keen scrut iny, one would clearly see that globalization ideology is Structural Adjustment Policies in disguise.This is because it also lobbies for trade liberalization. Because the majority of Zimbabwe citizens are small scale entrepreneurs, trade liberalization has severely affected them. Women being the major actors in agriculture production, trade liberalization have failed them to acquire credit and other farming inputs because of their high cost. This has resulted to increased rural urban migration, great number of squatters in urban areas and high crime rate which has now become a new cultural phenomenon. There has been increased moral decay.Significant numbers of women have resorted to cross border trade whereby there have been several reported cases of extramarital affairs while the husbands who have been left at home indulge in the same (Schweiker, pp11). Children are no longer seen by fires side listening to counsel that instill values and norms that hold society together because ev ery one is struggling for selection as living standard has skyrocketed in the country Conclusion World Bank and IMF policies have caused more evil than good in the countries which they have been implemented.SAPs have not been tailored to address the poverty situation in developing countries but are only to cater the interest of those formulated them. They do not attempt to address poverty using local context perspective but are generalized to favor the international corporations from developed countries. But because aid can not be given without compliance to these polices, the needy countries end up falling being their preys. Both SAPs and globalization is one and the same thing and their effects are not only felt in spheres of political or economies alone but also deeply felt at cultural sphere.Their effects alter practices and perspectives of community by imposing a change in tradition way of doing things and because of the essence for survival some practices are dropped while ot hers are adopted to cope with the present challenges that are threat to human living such as hunger. References Birdsall, N. Kelley, A. C. , Sinding, S. Population Matters Demographic Change, Economic Growth, and Poverty in the Developing World. ISBN 0199244073, 9780199244072, Oxford University Press, 2001. Mumbengegwi, C. macroeconomic and Structural Adjustment Policies in Zimbabwe. ISBN 1403914419, 9781403914415.Palgrave, 2002. Lawig, K. Overcoming Globalization The Root of Violence. The Ecumenical Review journal, Vol. 55, 2003. 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