

Ask HN: How can we solve world poverty - Maven911

Serious question. The poorest of the poor, those who live off of 1-2$/day
There is enough food and moneybut inefficencies, corruption and bad governement.
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leashless
Making the rural poor richer is hard. As they get more and more of their needs
met by the market they are competing with people thousands of times richer
than they are. Simply increasing their incomes is not necessarily an answer,
although it is part of the puzzle.

The real key is how can they turn what they have (land, sunlight, sometimes
water) into what they need (everything else) _without_ having to go to buy
things when they need essential needs met. It's not as simple as self-
reliance, but admitting that the poor _are poor_ and making them a little
richer is not going to stop them being poor.

So most of the problems of the poor are basic infrastructure - contaminated
water supply and cooking over open fires are huge issues. Both of those are
tech-fix issues: cheap, reliable water filters and efficient cook stoves
exist. They're coming down in price and improving. Toilets are another huge
win, although the technology is less ready.

One Acre Fund has a programme which doubles farm yields; they've done tens of
thousands of farms in Africa already with excellent results and are scaling
fast.

If you're interested in software, three areas: medical expert systems, farming
expert systems, and basic education services from primary level up.

If we could just get that set done, we'd have roughly doubled their standard
of living without having put them into direct economic competition with the
rich for more of their basic needs. This is not a common perspective, but it
actually makes sense. The conventional development agendas do not really
consider increased economic competition in their models at any deep level,
resulting in very poor results so far.

Hope that's helpful. <http://hexayurt.com>

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stevenameyer
In the last couple years or so I've had the opportunity to travel Morocco,
heard stories from my mom who volunteered as a doctor in Haiti after the
earthquake, and got an opportunity to discuss some of the challenges that
volunteers on the ground face with someone high up in Engineers Without
Boarders. After all of these experiences I have grown very cynical about the
ability for us to create a long lasting positive change around the world.
There is so much that needs to happen in poorer countries in order for then to
reach sustainable improvement that it's becoming harder and harder for me to
believe that it is possible. The one thing that I would say would make a
drastic improvement is a complete overhaul of the education system, and I
think they need to emulate online education that is on the rise in north
america rather then our traditional school structure.

Now maybe it's just that I am a developer and I have an instinct to see
technology as the solution, but I honestly think that it would solve a lot of
the major problems.

1) It allows people to work through material at their own pace so in countries
where people are not able to get educations due to having to work full time
this would allow them to get an education at the pace that they are able to.

2) Having access to teachers and curriculum that is well above what is
currently available would allow people to learn things they would have never
been able to since often people with those kinds of expertise are near non-
existent in these poorer countries.

It may sound weird but I honestly believe that for these countries to improve
we need to commit to establishing solid internet availability worldwide, and
making a high quality free online education to everyone world wide.

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cjbprime
My wife and I have been donating an increasing percentage of our yearly gross
income to effective aid organizations:

[http://blog.printf.net/articles/2012/11/27/celebrating-
seven...](http://blog.printf.net/articles/2012/11/27/celebrating-seven-years-
with-seven-percent/)

Earning a tech worker salary and giving a significant amount of it towards
poverty relief is better than most alternative ideas I've been able to think
of.

The other good idea is to follow GiveWell very closely:
<http://www.givewell.org/>

If you want to do something with code.. I'm optimistic that people would
donate more if they could feel an emotional connection to the people they're
helping, and the internet can help with that, so anything that removes
barriers like <http://kiva.org> or <http://watsi.org> seems promising.

~~~
Maven911
Thanks, givewell seems like a neat website!

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ig1
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Consensus>

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Maven911
Thanks, didn't hear about this, and landed on a Ted talk about Bjorn Lomborg.

But do you know of any groups trying to implement this ? Would you also happen
to have any involvement with them ?

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terrykohla
Poverty is a misleading word. You can be poor with a 20K$/y salary in one
place and filthy rich in another. It's not because some people live more
simple lives that they are poor. A poor person is a person who cannot meet its
basic needs. You cannot help the mentally ill by giving them money either.
Poverty exists because of diversity as well, trying to make someone else think
like you is a form of indoctrination. Some people prefer technology other
prefer nature, some prefer money other prefer fresh air, clean water and lots
of time with close friends and family. It's hard to label some people as poor
when they live happier and healthier lives than people with big bank accounts,
big houses and fancy cars.

~~~
stevenameyer
This is a good point that a lot of people sometimes forget. We should help
countries that want our help, but at the same time it is not our job to try
and make every country like us. Some countries function differently. And if
the people are ok with it that way, then maybe that is ok for them.

This topic is one of internal conflict for me at times because I believe that
Theocratic countries that are underdeveloped right now will never be able to
develop fully in the western sense of the word. But maybe they don't need to,
maybe they like the way things are. I don't know, sorry about rambling for a
bit there.

~~~
terrykohla
There is a whole moral debate around the words "good" and "bad"; and I think
that words like "developed" and "growth" have to be weighed in that sense.
"Developed" might mean better quality of life, but it could also mean
pollution,noise, stress, depression and dehumanization. To whoever wants to
change the world I recommend to start by changing their own back yard. There
are enough challenges in developed countries as it is, "underdeveloped"
countries are facing their own challenges. Travel the world and you'll find
problems and solutions, listen to the media and you'll be a blind man serving
someone else's interest.

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Maven911
60 minutes had a segment on Mercy Ship, which was really interesting and gives
hope there's people ready to make change in this world:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPojrMobnyI>

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Kanbab
Teach people that they can learn. That basic skills can help you build a home,
or a city. That your civilization cannot blossom if you don't handle waste
properly. Teach people to manage domesticated animals, and farming.

~~~
Maven911
Thanks, That's some good suggestions, and which I think a lot of poverty
activists know of, but do you know of any NGOs / programs that are currently
doing this, and that are hopefully succesful too ?

~~~
Kanbab
I dont know why I was downvoted. Here is a talk of a brave man who turned a
poor, uneducated town, and helped them make something of themselves:
<http://www.ted.com/talks/bunker_roy.html>

~~~
Maven911
wasn't me, I don't even have enough karma to downvote : )

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soneca
We can de the generation... (lots of insights in these)
<http://www.owen.org/blog/6588>

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Mz
_Diet for a Small Planet_ outlined some of the political issues involved. You
could read that. Second, support anything which promotes better education and
more independence. A lot of charities worsen the problem by promoting
dependence, among other things.

~~~
Maven911
The book is a bit dated (1971), and from what I understand, it is promoting
vegetarianism. I'l still take a look at it : )

~~~
Mz
Later books by the author suggested "one less hamburger" would do a lot and,
iirc, about half the book is about her research into how foreign food aid made
locals dependent on diets they could not afford and stuff like that.

