Developed nations represented in the United Nations Fund for Population Assistance and the International Planned Parenthood must work with developing nations to plan, design and implement effective family-planning programs with due consideration of the respective religious norms and ethnic mores of each developing nations in order to effectively introduce the merits of family-planning and educate the mass population concerning the ills of overpopulation and the liberation of women from confinement in traditional socially defined roles.
Developing nations in the pursuit of modernisation and industrialisation are in need of international markets and capitals. The economies of developing countries are dependent on the export of raw materials such as “…timber, oil, and metals, and agricultural goods such as coffee and bananas.” More often than not, the exports of developing nations usually comprise of one single commodity which makes developing nations dependent on developed nations for processed products and technologies. With imported goods and services being charged a higher price than export products, developing nations also face the disadvantage of unfavourable terms of trade, thus aggravating the situation of poverty within their borders.
To industrialise their economies and to stamp the perpetuation of poverty, many developing nations are heavily in debt to the developed nations for funds borrowed to meet the needs of development. Developed nations and UN agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund could eliminate the foreign debt burden of many developing nations and to work with these nations to put in place trade, fiscal and monetary policies that are conducive to fostering economic development. With the foreign debt significantly reduced, the developing nations could channel their finances to adopt a variety of development strategies to achieve their development goals. For example, to follow in the footsteps of the economic successes of four nations in East Asia, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, developing nations may use their finances to improve in areas such as transportation, sea and airport services, factory and office infrastructures, and banking industries to compliment the exporting of products by firms that are attracted by favourable foreign exchange rates.
International trade between developed and developing nations must not be hindered by trade protectionism and the imposing of tariffs and non-tariff barriers. Developed and developing nations must work in partnership in global capitalism to uphold the practices of free trade which allows each nation “… to benefit from specialisation in the production of goods and services that it is best suited to produce.” With such arrangements of free trade, developing nations would enjoy an influx of foreign investments, capitals and technologies that are needed to speed up the process of industrialisation which is “… the only cure for the poverty and misery that billions of people in the developing world experience every day.”
Meeting the basic needs of the impoverished multitudes in developing nations is also in essence the provision of food, the most basic need for survival. Protracted periods of flood and drought, wars and conflicts, and environmental degradation have brought great difficulty in the production and distribution of food in developing countries. To make matters worse, some developing nations are totally immersed in the production of export crops that they neglected the production of food crops which they have to in turn import from developed nations.
In times of flood and drought, developed nations have through the agency of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) provided food aid to devastated developing countries who do not have any food reserves to fight hunger and starvation. Apart from providing short-term famine-relief to meet food shortages, the FAO is also involved in “… providing technical and financial assistance for agricultural projects in developing countries.” Developing nations can provide technological and scientific expertises in areas such as soil treatment, irrigation system installation, farming methods and land use, food distribution systems and biotechnology researches. For example, developed nations can through the United Nations, set up biotech researches with developing nations, remove the commercial restrictions and legal protections of patents on these biological technologies and share the biotech results in order that the developing nations can reap a greater and better yield in their agricultural ventures. Developing nations must therefore commit themselves to engage in investments that support the necessary complementary structural and institutional reforms in the areas of food production, processing, marketing, distribution, infrastructure, and research activities. Local farmers and agricultural industry personnel must be educated concerning the benefits of agricultural reforms and biotechnological breakthroughs to increase their productivity of producing crops for national consumption and export. For instance, AusAID, an Australian aid program, apart from engaging in famine-relief efforts and giving out food aids, also works closely with the Papua New Guinea government in monitoring agricultural projects, solve water supply problems and tackle any diseases that may occur as a result of droughts.
Tackling the problem of poverty in developing nations is made worse by wars and conflicts. Wars and conflicts bring on violence, loss of life and displacement of people. Both developed and developing nations must work together through the coordination of the UN missions to peace keeping and peace enforcement to contain conflicts that exist in developing countries to prevent the destruction of infrastructure and physical assets, the impediment to relief providing services and the loss of economic development opportunities. Also, food or trade should not be used as a weapon to impose political sanctions and economic pressures on developing or even developed nations that are involved in any military conflicts as that would aggravate the woes of poverty already experienced in these nations. For example, the embargo on trade imposed on Iraq as sanction for the invasion of Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War has led to great suffering among the common Iraq people as they were engulfed with poverty due to a low supply of basic necessities. With regards to the problem of poverty brought on by environmental degradation in developing nations, developed nations can provide the expertise on managing natural resources with long-term sustainability and protection of the environment in mind as the results of the Founex Report of 1971 shows that there is a strong correlation between poverty and the environmental damages found in developing nations.
Reducing the proportion of people living in poverty is a mammoth task and requires the effort of the international community. Developing nations, plagued by political and economic problems, lack the resources to handle the problem of poverty and widespread hunger. Developing nations need the developed nations to assist in funds donation, technology transfers and economic and political expertise to reduce their population, reconstruct their economies, and secure food and water in order to emerge from the gloom of poverty.
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