Urban and Rural Poverty Around the World

Urban Both Rural- Cities or slums- Cramped housing or homeless- Low-wage jobs, if any- Crime- Prostitution

- Unemployment- Limited education- Insufficient or complete lack of…- social services (esp. in remote rural areas)- Lack of gov’t-mandated social reforms- education-This causes:-High fertility-Large families cause the cycle to repeat-Kids have low-wage jobs, cycle continues-no power to influence decisions—NO VOICE- Gender inequalities/roles

- Farms or agriculture- Homes farther apart- Insufficient transportation infrastructure (e.g. dirt roads)- Fewer rural jobs for women- Depend heavily on environmental resource- Limited access to markets- Limited access to health services- Limited access to resources

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Nicaragua Statistics

• % of people living on <$1 per day: 45%• % of people living on <$2 per day: 80%• 50% of children drop out of school before

completing the 5th grade• 1 of 3 Nicaraguan adults cannot read or write. • % below the poverty line: 48%• % malnourished: 27%• 32 public hospitals in the entire country (for 5.6

million people)http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_NIC.html

• “Fall asleep on the streets of Managua and you’ll wake up naked.”– Magdiel Nicaragua 2009

Some StatisticsNote: Due to economic, political, and social crises in Zimbabwe, there is a

significant lack of recent, accurate statistics on poverty in the country.

• 17% children aged 0-5 years underweight (2004).

• Life-expectancy: 40.9 years (2007).• 15.3% people aged 15-49 live with

HIV/AIDS (2007).• 9.3% people 15 years and older illiterate.• Top 20% population have 56% household

income while bottom 40% have 13% (1995-2005).

Programs

• PlayPumps International: provides wells for isolated rural villages

• Ruchika School: In India, the urban beggar children “go to school” by the trains

• Mothers to Mothers: South Africa; works with women with AIDS ostracized from villages given medical attention and counseling (rural).