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Summary

Ten percent of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day — 735.9 million people.1 In a global survey in 2005, the United Nations estimated the number of homeless individuals worldwide to be over 100 million. Surveys struggle to account for homeless populations living in slums, camps or other transitional forms of shelter — the “hidden homeless.”2 In 2015, Habitat for Humanity estimated that 1.6 billion people lacked sufficient shelter or housing.3 In 2017, it is estimated that 821 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide,4 124 million were suffering from acute hunger.5 Additionally, a third of women worldwide are anaemic, affecting the lives of both them and their children.6 Seven and a half percent of all children around the world under the age of five are classified as wasting — a low weight to height ratio. Approximately 875,000 deaths were attributed to wasting in 2013.7 Natural disasters and humanitarian crises can impoverish whole communities in a matter of days. In 2017 alone, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) reported 318 natural disasters worldwide.8 The World Bank estimates that natural disasters result in $520 billion in annual consumption, and impoverishes 26 million people each year.9 Show References
1 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/19/world-bank-global-poverty-rate-drops-to-record-low.html 2 https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/ 3 Ibid 4 http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/ 5 https://www.concernusa.org/content/uploads/2018/10/GHI-2018.pdf 6 http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/ 7 Ibid 8 https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/CredCrunch50.pdf 9 http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/11/14/natural-disasters-force-26-million-people-into-poverty-and-cost-520bn-in-losses-every-year-new-world-bank-analysis-finds
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Homelessness
Poverty Other
Urban Development
Rural Development
Emergency Relief

Homelessness

Data on homelessness worldwide is varied, as the definition of homelessness differs from nation to nation, and natural disasters and other crises can cause fluctuations in the number of homeless individuals at a given time.1 In a global survey in 2005, the United Nations estimated the number of homeless individuals worldwide to be over 100 million. Surveys struggle to account for homeless populations living in slums, camps or other transitional forms of shelter — the “hidden homeless.”2 In 2015, Habitat for Humanity estimated that 1.6 billion people lacked sufficient shelter or housing.3 In the United States alone over half a million people are homeless.4 In Guinea, just 31.5 percent of the population has a form of shelter with permanent walls.5 Eighty percent of Mali’s citizens lack Read More sufficient housing, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).6 Fifteen million people in Egypt live in slums7 — 15 percent of its population.8 In Indonesia, 3 million people are without a home.9 The Russian government estimates that there are five million homeless people throughout the country, of which one million are children, accounting for 3.5 percent of the Russian population.10 Show Less

Poverty Other

Over three billion people, nearly half of the world’s population, live in poverty.1 Of these, one billion people live in extreme poverty, which is defined as living on less than $1 USD per day.2 Nearly 20,000 children die each day due to poverty and poverty-related illnesses.3 The U.N. estimates that from 2010-2012, nearly 870 million people suffered from chronic undernourishment.4 Additionally, over 780 million people do not have access to clean water and 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.5 Poor water quality and inadequate sanitation contributes to 2.3 billion cases of waterborne diseases each year, such as cholera and diarrhea.6 Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death of children under the age of five, and 760,00 children are killed annually diarrheal Read More diseases.7 Each year over 3.5 million people are killed by preventable, infectious diseases because they are unable to receive preventative vaccinations or treatment due to poverty.8 Poverty also hinders the education of many children and adults around the world. In 2012, 63 million school-aged children were not enrolled in school.9 Additionally, close to 250 million children in low and middle-income countries are unable to read.10 Moreover, an estimated 775 million adults lack basic literacy skills worldwide.11 In particular, girls and children with disabilities are often excluded from attending school in impoverished regions.12 The global income gap is still very high, and the top 20% of the world’s population accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s income.13 The Gini coefficient is a measure of income distribution across a country, and the lower the Gini score the more equitably the country’s wealth is distributed, and the higher a score the more income inequality exists within the country.14 Data shows that middle-income countries often experience the most income inequality, and Eastern Europe and Asia both experienced increases in their Gini score in recent years.15 Latin America is the region with the highest Gini score while Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a decrease in their Gini score since the 1990s.16 1 http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats 2 http://www.who.int/hdp/poverty/en/ 3 http://www.unicef.org/media/media_56045.html 4 http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm 5 http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures/en/ 6 http://www.thp.org/learn_more/issues/know_your_world_facts_about_hunger_and_poverty 7 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/ 8 http://www.who.int/tdr/stewardship/global_report/en/ 9 http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61659.html 10 Ibid 11 http://www.speakingbooks.com/impact/overview.html 12 http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61659.html 13 http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Global_Inequality.pdf 14 http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Global_Inequality.pdf 15 Ibid 16 Ibid Show Less

Urban Development

“Urban” areas are defined as heavily populated areas with residential, non-residential and commercial properties throughout them.1 Over half of the global population lives in urban areas, and an estimated 60 percent of the world will live in urban areas by 2050.2 Ninety percent of this growth is expected to fall in Asia and Africa.3 While data on worldwide urban poverty rates is not available, in the United States, 16 percent of the national urban population falls below the poverty line.4 Those impoverished in urban areas face a variety of challenges, including overcrowded housing, inadequate access to clean water and hygiene facilities, child labor, high rates of crime, human trafficking, sexual abuse and violence.4

Rural Development

“Rural” regions are generally defined as sparsely populated areas, or loosely gathered groups of people, outside of a designated city limit.1 Rural regions are home to the majority of the world’s impoverished population.2 In a survey of 105 nations, 85 percent of all individuals who fall under the Multidimensional Poverty Index live in rural regions.3 Many lack access to adequate healthcare, education, clean water or electricity.4 There are an estimated 1,214,322 people in poverty in rural areas around the world.5 In the United States, 16.7 percent of the rural population fell below the poverty line while just 13 percent of the urban population fell below the poverty line.6 Approximately a third of the working poor in rural areas have incomes lower than 50 percent of the Read More poverty line — $12,000 a year for a family of four.7 Show Less

Emergency Relief

An emergency is defined as an urgent event during which a series of occurrences caused human beings to suffer, or be put in imminent danger, in a markedly unusual or abnormal way.1 Disaster relief organizations are organizations dedicated to meeting the immediate needs of regions affected by natural disasters, or other humanitarian crises.2 In 2017 alone, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) reported 318 natural disasters worldwide.3 The World Bank estimates that natural disasters result in $520 billion in annual consumption, and impoverishes 26 million people each year.4
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