YOUNG persons are more prone to be hopeful than those of previous generations that an end to global poverty is feasible, a study has found.
A survey of UK adults suggests that greater than half — 54 per cent — of under 34-year-olds are optimistic about achieving an end to poverty. This optimism is shared by just 27 per cent of over-55-year-olds.
Their optimism is backed by progress over the past few a long time. Figures from the World Bank show that levels of maximum poverty have declined dramatically prior to now 40 years. In the Eighties, about 40 per cent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, compared with about nine per cent today. Slower progress lately has been attributed to international development funding cuts and the impact of climate change on already fragile communities. Extreme poverty is defined by the UN as living on lower than $3 a day.
The poll of 2128 adults was carried out by Savanta for the kids’s charity Compassion UK. It found a drop in the general numbers of adults believing that it was possible to finish poverty: from 48 per cent last yr, to 41 per cent this yr.
Justin Dowds, Compassion UK’s chief executive, said that it was possible to eradicate extreme poverty in the subsequent 40 years. “We consider, and the subsequent generation believes, that a world without poverty is feasible,” he said.
“I actually have seen extreme poverty dramatically reduce in my lifetime, but, sadly, that rate of decline is slowing. We are seeing extreme poverty increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and in fragile, conflict-affected regions, where climate-related impacts disproportionately affect the poor.”
An estimated 412 million children were still living in extreme poverty and surviving on lower than $3 a day, he said. Two thirds of the world’s poorest live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Compassion UK carried out a separate survey of 387 young individuals who had benefited from its work in Uganda, which has certainly one of the world’s fastest-growing national populations. There, 91 per cent of young people said that they believed that the eradication of maximum poverty was possible.
Izzy Madavan, presenter of The Way UK, the most important digital youth ministry in Europe, has visited projects in Uganda with Compassion UK. She said: “Young persons are working with the local Church to interrupt the cycle of poverty for the families and communities.
“While there, I met families, including the brothers my mum and I sponsor, and saw how each child was truly known and cared for of their individual needs. I also met programme graduates whose lives, and the lives of their future generations, have been transformed by being lifted out of poverty.
“I think it’s right down to people of my generation to tackle extreme poverty in order that there will likely be a future free from its devastating effects. I’ve witnessed this in a small way in Uganda, and I’m confident it may well be done elsewhere.”
