Poverty and Development

Poverty and Development

1. Child mortality is an indicator for poverty

   • MDG: reduce child mortality rates
     • Some not achieved targets - SDG set instead. Reduce mortality to 25 or less
   • Sri Lanka 1990 CMR = 32
     • 2016 rate = 3
     • MDG Target 2015 = 11
     • Reduced their rate lower than MDG target
   • Children in dangerous living conditions with high probability of contracting disease - no access to clean water/sanitation
   • Poorest 5th have highest mortality rates (World Bank, 2016)
   • Rural households suffer from child mortality more than urban (World Bank, 2016) - access to healthcare?
   • Mothers with no education - more likely to have child mortality (World Bank, 2016)

2. Invest in keeping girls in school to reduce poverty

   • Positively impacts child, infant and maternal mortality rates
   • Women stay in school longer - get married later - reduce underage marriage
     • First pregnancy later, reduce no. of births at one time
   • Educated women look after children properly
   • Woman's income more likely to improve living standards than male income
     • Women more likely to invest in socially beneficial things than men

3. Thomas Malthus

   • 18th century - relationship between food and population
     • Population increases geometrically, slow beginning, steep increase
     • Food increases arithmetically, eventually food deficit
       • Food will ultimately limit pop. growth (lack of food - increased conflict - increased deaths)
     • Same theory can be applied to oil, steal, pollution, access to timber etc.
       • Many things ar limited - will not increase at same rate as pop.
   • Neo-Malthusians and Malthusians - populations evolving too fast = conflict
     • Countries with fastest growing population are the poorest, with greatest food insecurity

4. 8 MDG Goals

   • UN Background
   • Commitments in 2000
     • Targets - 2015
   • Overall not considered on track
   • Have to accept population we have and resources available to us
     • Find a way to distribute sources + reduce child mortality rates

5. Sustainable Development Goals

   • Each goal has 2/3 targets
   • WHO estimated 47 countries, currently, will not meet targets (2017)
   • 79 countries have under five mortality rate (WHO, 2017)
   • SDG Goal 3, Target 3.2.1, 25 deaths per 1000 live births by 2030