Your Questions!
Will poverty ever go away?
One of the questions we frequently receive is if poverty can ever truly be eliminated.
After decades of efforts and billions of dollars spent, it seems as if poverty is still thriving in many parts of the world – both at home and abroad.
To answer this question the first thing we have to do is define what poverty is.
Poverty is understood differently by different people. For the economically wealthy – such as people in Canada – poverty revolves around financial wealth. In other parts of the world, especially among the less fortunate, poverty is often defined by joy, respect, and being heard. But since most of those who ask us this question come from Canada, we will mainly focus on economic poverty.
The good news is that economically, poverty has been decreasing significantly over the past few decades! According to the International Poverty Line, people are considered to be in extreme poverty if they live on less than $1.90 USD per day.
In addition, the percent of people living in extreme poverty has declined significantly over the last 3 decades. In 1990, the percent of people living in poverty was about 37%. Today, that number is closer to 10%! Praise God.
This is due to a number of factors including the industrialization of China, India and other countries. But it is also thanks to the many efforts of people like you who have faithfully given to aid and development organizations over many years. Your generosity is making a difference!
In fact, almost every measure of extreme poverty seems to be on the decline. Measurements in maternal health, infant deaths, death by infection disease, and malnutrition are all decreasing. This is good news.
But, the fight is far from over. There are still certain areas in the world where extreme poverty is stubbornly high. Sub Saharan Africa is one of those places. And recent trends are also concerning.
Although hunger has decreased steadily over the last few decades, in the last 3 years it has actually increased. This has been due to events such as the Syrian civil war, Venezuelan crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic. One of the massive challenges going forward is the reality of a changing climate and how that will negatively affect the world’s poorest. We are already seeing the effects on our farmers in Ethiopia and other countries. They tell us how the rains have dramatically changed and drought is far more frequent.
So, yes, we do believe that extreme poverty (economically) can be eradicated — and we continue to fight towards that goal. But it will take a collective effort and remaining vigilant.
We will now briefly talk about other forms of poverty. As Christians, we believe that poverty is not merely physical, but social, economic, and above all spiritual. In Canada, we have much less economic poverty and very little to no extreme poverty. But where we have many resources we lack in others. Substance abuse, broken families, systemic injustice, and spiritual famine are all other types of poverty.
For a good series on poverty and how to help, we highly recommend the video study (and book) When Helping Hurts – found here.
As Christians, we understand the truth that as long as there is sin in the world, there will indeed be poverty. We might be able to eliminate extreme poverty, but greater economic poverty and spiritual poverty will continue to exist. But there is hope. God, through Christ, has promised that one day He will make all things right and put an ultimate end to poverty. His promise of a new Kingdom is the hope that ignites our desire and prayer to have His Kingdom come.
Whether or not we can truly “end poverty” does not mean we aren’t called to try. We are commissioned to start God’s restoration mission now, to bring his future Kingdom to Earth today. With that hope in hand, we are able to pursue Christ’s work of bringing an end to most evil things that we see by consecrating our work, finance, knowledge and mind for those that Christ loves: the world.
