Can poverty ever be eradicated?
According to Kamala Sarup, Kathmandu, in order for a poor country to be relieved from poverty, it must certain technological abilities. Therefore, a poor country must import technology that produces more and better goods and services for its own people and for producing goods and services for trade with foreigners. However, this requires much capital which the poorer countries are lacking in. Despite loans from organizations like WTO, World Bank, poorer countries may not be able to achieve success in technology due to other factors like geography, economy and polity. The fact is irrefutable. In some cases, in desperation to spur economic development and rid poverty, poor people's basic technological needs are generally overlooked in this process. Local communities' knowledge and skills go unrecognised, and they are given little or no role in choosing, controlling and assessing the impacts of imported technologies.
Though it may be difficult in the process of eradicating poverty, but we should be optimistic about it. I agree with Jeffrey Sachs that we can help people to become more productive through various means like improving health, education, infrastructure and soil. For example, in South Africa and Zimbabwe, they have benefited from the transfer of simple technological solutions such as rainwater harvesting, seed conservation and drip irrigation. With these methods, they would be able to grow crops more efficiently. In some other areas, community-based disease control initiatives like the Practical Action Eastern Africa's community programme in Kenya have decreased the incidence of Chagas disease and the population of tsetse flies respectively. They will be less prone to certain diseases and standard of living can be improved.
These transfer of technologies from other countries marked the progress in these less developed areas and these are signs of success in the expedition to combat poverty. Hence, we should be optimistic towards the success of eradicating poverty.
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