Transparency in Government spending.
Where and how a government chooses to spend taxpayers’ money and its own revenue should be visible to the media and the common man. This makes governments accountable for their actions and inaction becomes easier to pinpoint and address. It also discourages corruption in government systems. For example, transparency will be especially beneficial to civilians whose government might be allotting money to themselves instead of to its poverty programs.
Prioritizing programs that target fundamental human rights.
Every individual should have access to housing, food, clean water, healthcare and electricity. Technically governments should only move on to other projects after they have made sure that programs that provide these basic amenities to their people are up and running. This might prove to be the hardest step yet.
Taxing the rich more and the poor less.
Redistribution of wealth will be an imperative step in eradicating poverty. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Taxing methods need to be tailored to an individual’s financial bracket to ensure that upward social mobility becomes an absolute possibility.
Building self-sufficient economies.
Creating reduced dependence on oil, external financial aid and imports will help to ensure that alleviation of poverty remains on an upward but permanent curve, as opposed to a temporary revivalist injection in a dying economy. Steps in this area include investment in local infrastructure, transportation and schools that keep the ball of development rolling. Projects to launch new industries and businesses will also need monetary encouragement.
Involvement of the media.
The media has the power to draw the eye of the global conscience to issues of poverty. It becomes too easy to forget the state of the less fortunate when the world is advancing at lightning speed. With effective media coverage of poverty-related catastrophes, the demand for social change rises collectively all over the world.
Education.
As much as poverty is a social condition, it is also a mental and psychological cage. With education, impoverished populations are able to visualize their way out of poverty and are able to work towards it in an organized and reliable manner. Education provides training to tomorrow’s workforce and thus fortifies the economy against poverty. Education in rich populations about poverty invokes sentiments of compassion and a sense of responsibility to the misfortunes of the rest of the world. Education also has the power to bring about social changes such as fights against racism and sexism – both conditions that happen to be linked intrinsically with poverty.
