Compare the effectiveness of strategies to reduce poverty in the UK and in Guyana.

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Comparative essay, Phoebe Russell

Compare the effectiveness of strategies to reduce poverty in the UK and in Guyana.

Poverty comes in two forms, relative poverty and absolute poverty. Relative poverty is when you can’t afford the goods and services deemed necessary to participate fully in society, and absolute poverty holding the definition of not having enough money to afford the basic human needs for survival (Baker, B 2011).  Both of these types of poverty can be reduced with the enforcement of government strategies.

        This essay will focus on the UK and Guyana because they’re highly contrasting countries; The UK is a thriving MEDC that contains high levels of income inequality whereas Guyana is an LEDC and one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere (Guyana’s poverty reduction paper, 2005). In order to compare the two countries, the government action in both the UK and in Guyana will be looked at and compared with attempts to deal with key problems affecting poverty, such as standards of healthcare, education and literacy rates.

Poverty in Guyana lies at 43% of the population (2011) with 29% living in absolute poverty ( ). This is because Guyana has suffered from several problems over the last few years that have worsened poverty, including the rise in oil prices, unpredicted rainfall and flooding in 2004 and high crime rates (Guyana’s poverty reduction paper, 2005).  In order to alleviate poverty and fight these issues the government enforced a poverty reduction strategy paper that would refocus public expenditure to improve infrastructure, health, education and employment.

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Poverty is highly affected by health care because with illnesses thrive in people that cannot afford a well balanced diet. In Guyana 1.7% of the GDP is spent on healthcare, leading to improvements such as the infant mortality rates dropping from 41 deaths per 1000 in 1960 to 29 in 2002. Also, it’s increased the training for doctors, meaning that by the end of 2004 there were 190 fully trained doctors in Guyana and a plan to train 500 nurses in place (Guyana’s poverty reduction paper, 2005). This decreases poverty by allowing everyone to have a good healthcare, making opportunities ...

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