Poverty, its effects and eradication in Ghana

Poverty has always been a part of the world, even in the developed world where it is assumed that everyone is well to do, some of the people find themselves living on the streets because of poverty. The under-developed countries, which find themselves in all kinds of economic crisis, have nothing to write home about on the issue of poverty, as many people live on less than one dollar a day. The vision of ending poverty worldwide by the year 2015 by the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), seems to be a mirage, as the there is only six years to the deadline, but poverty still has great grip on many countries in the world. From the look of things, the vision of the MDG has a long way to go, as the economy of the world, day in day out, falls into crisis due to one reason or the other.

Poverty in Ghana
The level of world economic crises is a great factor with poverty. The frequent increase in the prices of items and commodities makes people with fixed incomes unable to face the economy. The MDG's report indicates that the number of people living in poverty globally in 2009 is expected to be 55 million to 90 million higher than predicted before the global economic crisis. One of the most important world's assets, which is energy/ crude oil, whenever increased affects the standard of living of people, as it affects the prices of goods and services. For those who live in poverty, they turn to wallow in extreme poverty, and people with a normal standard of living, find it hard to manage their expenses.

In Ghana, the increase in the price of crude oil brings down the value of the incomes of the people, while transportation fares, food, utility bills and even health and educational bills increase. If only people's wages and salaries would be increased when prices of crude oil increases, it would mitigate the effects of the hardships associated with such situations.

Apart from energy crises which also generate poverty, the high rate of unemployment contributes a lot to poverty, as the majority of the youth always graduate from school without jobs. Some stay at home for so long that they give up on their job hunting process, and concentrate on menial occupations, which is way below their qualification, or outside their profession. The pathetic thing is that sometimes, their frustration in the search for job compels them to migrate either within the country or outside, which when not fortunate leads them into extreme poverty. That is when they migrate to a different place for greener pastures, and basically since they lack employment, accommodation and without anyone to lean on, they easily fall into poverty when things don't work right. Those who migrate to the capital city, tend to live on the streets, with the men turning into armed robbers and burglars, and the young girls into prostitutes, ending up in most cases with teenage pregnancy as their burden.

Poverty and gender inequality in education
Gender disparity is a great contributing factor when it comes to the issue of poverty. Whereas many nations are trying their best to eradicate the issue of gender inequality, some nations concentrate on power sharing, as they deem it more important, than giving women a mouthpiece to speak for themselves and the nation as a whole. Gender disparity is evident in the primary and secondary levels of education in some parts of the world, as boys always tend to outnumber girls, and even though some countries in the world are on the verge of closing up that gap in education, other still lag behind.

According to the MDG report, in 2007 only 53 of the 171 countries with available data had achieved gender disparities in both primary and secondary education. However, the higher level of education takes a different turn in the case of gender inequality, as more women in the developed region tend to enroll more into tertiary institutions than men. The report of the MDG indicates that the ratio of the girls to boys enrollment at the tertiary level worldwide, rose from 96 in 1999 to 108 in 2007, which shows signs of closing the gap of gender inequality. However, in as much as gender disparity in education is gradually falling, as not all girls get the opportunity of being educated, especially those from rural and poor communities' and households.

The traditional notion that girls are better off in marriage, the kitchen and child-bearing, makes many parents turn their concentration to the education of boys rather than girls. This kind of gender disparity, coupled with poverty, always renders parents not being able to take care of the educational charges of their female children. Parents prefer to use their little income on the education of boys, and rather give the girl-child off to marriage, sometimes with the notion of getting a bride price to pay the boys' fees in school.

As if disparity in education is not enough, women tend to face low employment accessibilities, and those with a good educational background, who have the chance of being employed, rarely get the opportunity, while those who get the opportunity are rarely promoted due to their gender.

Women, who do not have any educational background, either end up trading or get engaged in agriculture activity. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are barely recognised in issues that are non-agriculture. About 64% are mainly employed in the agriculture sector. The low employment level of women gives poverty a stronghold in the household of women, as they do not get enough income to support themselves and their families, especially when they tend to be single parents or the man is unemployed.

Poverty and maternal mortality
The high level of poverty among women go to the extent of generating maternal mortality as going for antenatal care always tends to be a problem. Every now and then women die during child birth all in the name of poverty. According to MDG's report maternal mortality is among the health indicators that shows the greatest gap between the rich and the poor. Developed regions report nine maternal deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 450 maternal deaths in the developing region, where 14 countries have maternal mortality ratios of at least 1,000 per 100,000 live births. Half of all maternal death occurs in sub-Saharan regions Africa and another third in southern Asia.

The world most times forgets that for poverty to be eradicated completely, women are the main pivot to stand on to fight against poverty. Women are most times the least of most government's priority but if governments should turn a bit of their attention in the progress of women then poverty will be on its way to eradication. In Ghana it is a god thing that the government has given attention to pregnant women to the extent that every pregnant woman has the right to free maternal care in order to her to have a safe delivery.

Ghana's fight against poverty
Campaign of poverty eradication in Ghana has been a day to day activity. The campaign which is dubbed stand up take action end poverty now is meant for the MDG, it is expected that by the year 2015 poverty be entirely eradicated from the country. The MDG have taken the pains to campaign in many part of the country to create awareness and to educate people as to how they can help themselves from fleeing from the glimpse of poverty. According to the Programme Officer of the MDG Secretariat of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), Ms Kyere Akua Assamoash, the MDG's campaign against poverty has been able to involve the youth in its eradication. She said there are about 4,065,972 youth, drawn from the educational institutions, and this, according to her, shows the readiness of the youth to help fight against poverty for their future.

The step to end poverty through maternal mortality, has in a way been tackled by the provision of free maternal care, this action of the government to help bridge the gap between the poor and the rich, will go a long way, if government is able to provide the right medical facilities, and the right medical personnel to people in the rural areas.

What is expected of government?
Governments come in and go out with the same promises of making the poor have a good standard of living, but end up making the poor, even poorer by the time they leave power. According to the MDGs policy demand, the government is in a better position to eradicate poverty if it implements the agriculture development investment fund, create an enabling environment for the local industries to strive, establish a special fund to support locally manufactured products, and as well provide subsidies for agro inputs. In terms of education, the government should invest in primary educational facilities, especially in the rural areas, and establish a special fund to support teachers who will be posted to deprived communities.

The government ought to try its best to improve maternal healthcare, invest more than 78% of health budget in hospitals and health institutions, streamline traditional birth attendants (TBAs) into the health delivery system, and as well prioritise the need to factor deprived communities in infrastructure development.

Environmentally, the government must develop an environmental policy that will engage citizens' efforts on sanitation, review and enforce sanitation by-laws, and develop a national vegetation policy that will seek to engage citizens in preserving the vegetation. If the government will use aids effectively, not bow to development partners' unfair conditions, make trade fairs and not sign the EPA in its current form, poverty in Ghana will go a long way to being reduced.

Conclusion
The campaign of the MDG to help end poverty has been long over due, as it has been advertised almost all over the country, to make awareness about the fast widespread of poverty in the Ghana and the world, and the need to stand firm to prevent it.

It is now the turn of the government to show concrete evidence of trying to end poverty, and avoid the daily theory to end poverty which never comes to reality. If the government world start the elimination of poverty at the district level effectively, its impact will be beneficial to the nation as a whole. Source: Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle

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