Dear Editor,

Nelson Mandela said, “Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times — times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry, and wealth accumulation — that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils.”

There are but a few rare leaders of this era who have grasped the surreal intricacies of poverty, a recurring phase exuding unprecedented ignorance and fear, stifling the buds of change and progression.

According to the World Bank , 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty on less than US$2.15 daily. Frankly, the global fight against poverty has, for the most part, morphed into a toothless saga.

World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde insists the tenets of poverty can be deliquesced by implementing core foundational policies, instilling a cultural reckoning that will inevitably shift the fate of any nation. A strategy I deem wholly befitting to counteract the staunch rigours and causticity of the stoned fruit, poverty. The initiatives undertaken by her task force unlocks solid solutions that will assuredly reshape the future of underdeveloped economies: from redefining logistics and trade to significantly enhancing agricultural productivity, forest restoration, smart agriculture initiatives, digitisation, rehabilitation of schools and infrastructure, as well as empowering indigenous women.

Evidently, the realisation of radical, sustainable economic growth lies in mandating the need for the poorest sectors of societies to acquire basic educational and vocational skills. In the 1940s, China was among the poorest nations globally, enduring unforgiving economic disruption and famine. Today, given the vast, consistent training of its populace, the country stands as being the second most stable, powerful nation on Earth. This year, China aims to train another 10 million individuals in large-scale vocational training to assure the continued longevity of its country’s progress.

Under this year’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group Spring Meetings theme ‘Building prosperity through policy’, it is hoped policymakers will reinforce the need for beneficiaries to aggressively inculcate a culture to protect and educate the poorest and most vulnerable within their societies.

Tara Henry

henry.tara42@gmail.com