On minimising poverty

Since May 2021, I have dwelled on the concept of poverty and its realities.

Being the No. 1 SDGs goal is enough to rank its importance. However, the realities are difference from one country to another. No one exhaustive definition of poverty because of its multidimensional forms. We all know it when we see it, yet, it is difficult to agree and generalised any definition of poverty.

Why is this? Beyond it conceptualising and how people understand poverty, it manifests itself in various forms and are measure in various ways. These understandings are what inform policies where there are holistic efforts to achieve 'no poverty'.

In Africa where the statistics has been and is becoming more alarming, less seem to be going on to holistically combat this ever growing mustard-seed-like problem.

For my country, Nigeria, salient details could point us in the direction that there are no concrete policy to reduce poverty. National Social Investment Policy that birth N-power, Tradermoni, Marketmoni, Farmermoni, CCT, School feeding are going the way of many programmes that has failed in the effort to reduce poverty (since 1960) - doing the same thing and expecting a magical different result?

Policy making is key to solving problem (like poverty) that affects the public and national growth and development. More important is communicating these policies, keeping and working with up-to-date data and following up with conversations on efforts on the poverty. Until we have concrete data driven policies, we are yet to walk in the right direction.

Interested in the role of the mass media in all of these? Then, you should look out for my next post.

#poverty #africa #nigeria #statistics #socialpolicy