Poverty eradication through profitable ventures : a comparative study of three business models

Abstract

Poverty is the most pressing problem for majority of mankind, even in the modern society. This is evident from the facts that in the September 2000 meet of United Nations the representatives of 180 countries unanimously declared 'eradicating extreme poverty and hunger' as the highest priority goal, amongst the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)] agreed upon. Also, the first target decided upon was to "reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day" between 1990 and 2015. This prime goal and target not only signi?es the graveness of the issue of poverty but also indicates that eradicating extreme poverty completely from the society is indeed a daunting task.Additionally, it is widely agreed upon that poverty is one of the worst kinds of epidemics existing in the society. It is the compelling factor behind various other pressing issues like life threatening diseases, high mortality rates, widespread illiteracy, increasing crime and even ?agrant terrorism. In fact poverty eradication can be a key reason behind successfully achieving most of the other MDGs. As freedom from poverty would lead to, universal primary education, greater gender equality, improved maternal health, reduced child mortality, less instances of diseases and overall human development in the society. Hence, a strong emphasis on poverty eradication seems justi?ed under all circumstances.Further, it is true that when it comes to poverty, for a sizeable population, not much has changed since the ancient times. According to World Bank (2008), in 2005, one fourth of the world population i.e. around 1.4 billion people lived in extreme poverty, on less than USD 1.25 a day. By 2015, this number in developing countries will still be around 900 million (United Nations, 2011a). Additionally, according to the United Nations (2Ollb), the target of halving extreme poverty seems difficult to meet in Sub Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, the two 'very high poverty' regions, with the prevailing trends. However, there has surely been a change in the perspective. As "most people in traditional societies were poor, and this was accepted as natural and unavoidable" but in modem society, "the condition of poverty is unacceptable" and it is believed "that it should be possible to ?nd the ways to eradicate it" (Schwartzman, 1998). In fact, today we face a wide looming debate on most effective approaches for poverty eradication.