World Poverty

Description: 

World Poverty is part of the Global Issues series, which is designed to be a first-stop resource for research on the key challenges facing the world today. Each volume contains three sections, beginning with an introduction that clearly defines the issue, followed by detailed case studies of the issue's impact in the United States and several other countries or regions. The second section draws together significant U.S. and international primary source documents, and the third section gathers useful research tools-such as biographies, facts and figures, an annotated bibliography, and more. A foreword written by an expert in the field complements each volume. A chronology, glossary, and index provide additional help.

Although poverty has decreases over the past two centuries, about 40 percent of the world's population still live on less than $2 per day. Approximately one in seven people • just under 1 billion • subsist on less than $1 per day. While the most extreme cases of poverty occur in the least developed countries, particularly in the rural areas of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the crisis is hardly limited to those regions. The United States is considered the richest country in the world, yet it has the highest poverty rate among industrialized nations. It seems that growing prosperity only widens the inequality gap, both within a country individually and around the globe.

World Poverty explores the definition of true poverty, while analyzing its causes and the toll it has taken. Detailed case studies examine the situation in the United States, India, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, and Ukraine and evaluate the various strategies national governments have adopted to fight poverty.

Target Audience: 

Students of social science and any one doing research on poverty in the world.