SEATTLE — A well-esteemed global poverty researcher is speaking out about the growing threats of climate change and economic inequality throughout the world. He advocates for a new method and reform for poverty reduction efforts.
As Executive Director of the Global Development Institute (GDI) at The University of Manchester, Professor David Hulme has great knowledge of the necessities of addressing the problems of the developing world. He urges the richest nations of the world to increase their poverty reduction efforts in the book he published on June 17, titled, “Should Rich Nations Help the Poor?”
According to Hulme, the reasoning for aid from the rich is simple.
“They should help because, morally, it is the right thing to do. Despite recent progress, 800 million people went to bed hungry last night and 19,000 children will die today of easily preventable causes,” he told The University of Manchester’s news team.
Hulme also urges the richer countries to support global poverty measures for reasons beyond moral obligation. He says that a reduction in global poverty could lead to reducing other issues such as migration, terrorism and climate change.
According to Hulme, foreign aid alone is not sufficient enough to reach global poverty reduction goals. Hulme notes that the rate of progress for developing countries has been improving for the past 25 years, but the rate of progress could be expedited.
In the past 10 years, many of the world’s developed countries have spent $2 trillion in foreign aid towards poverty reduction efforts. The United Nations has set a goal for all developed economies to utilize 0.7 percent of their national Gross Domestic Income on foreign aid each year.
Hulme notes that despite this target goal, 1.2 billion people still are living in extreme poverty-stricken conditions around the world. This includes nearly three billion people that do not have access to clean water, food or health care.
The solution, according to Hulme’s book, is to advocate more radical change. For example, a reform for international trade policies allowing poor countries to gain a larger share of trade benefits.
Hulme also advocates for action against climate change, a recognition of international migration, better regulation of big corporations and national elites siphoning money from poor countries and a limit in the arms trade involving military action in poverty-stricken areas.
“If rich nations are serious about helping the poor, they need to go beyond aid. We live in an affluent world and produce enough food to feed the entire planet. Indeed, countries that are ‘better-off’ would be stupid not to help the poor if we want a decent world for our children and grandchildren to grow up in,” Hulme said in a press release to the University of Manchester.
Hulme has over 30 years of experience in different leadership positions in the area of global interests. Currently he is serving as a member of the Academy of Social Sciences, as well as a board member of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
He has extensively researched Bangladesh, South Asia, East Africa and the Pacific. From his impressively vast research and study of poverty at the micro-level, he has gained his life’s passion and his credibility in global poverty and global government.
Hulme has also authored “Global Poverty: How Global Governance is Failing the Poor” and “Just Give Money to the Poor.” The professor can be reached via his website or by email at david.hulme@manchester.ac.uk.
– Katie Grovatt
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