Recent data from the World Bank highlights a troubling reality: a staggering 10 percent of the global population resides in extreme poverty (Howton, 2020). This stark statistic unequivocally underscores the magnitude of the poverty crisis that plagues our world today. Regrettably, poverty disproportionately affects developing nations, serving as an insidious obstacle to their progress. Despite numerous endeavors, including the implementation of sustainable development goals, poverty continues to persist, particularly in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As such, a pivotal question emerges: is it possible to completely eliminate poverty in developing countries? This essay posits that the eradication of poverty in developing nations is indeed achievable, contingent upon the collective and concerted efforts of the international community.
Poverty in developing countries can be eliminated if those responsible for causing it can take responsibility. As noted by Satz (2005) & Reitberger (2008) and to some extent, poverty in most developing countries is caused by the unjust actions of other countries such as colonization, enslavement, exploitation among others. This is so true if the poverty in DRC is anything to go by. Even though the poverty in the country is not entirely caused by the unjust action of others, it is to some extent caused by the unjust action of others. For instance, DRC is one of the countries rich in natural resources including minerals such as uranium, natural gas, and gold, among others. Despite being the world's richest country in natural resources, Congo is also among the top countries in the world experiencing extreme poverty. Such extreme poverty is attributed to colonial exploitation by the western world more so the imperial European powers (Borgen Project, 2017). According to the Borgen Project (2017), during the colonial era, millions of Congolese men were taken away from their homes and enslaved by European powers. In addition to that, the western countries also exploited them by taking their natural resources away. Unfortunately, this has also continued even in recent years, where the immediate former president of the country gave foreign power access to the countries natural resources in exchange for aids. Such exploitation has denied the citizen of the country the opportunity to economically benefits from the rich natural resources they have. The most recent unjust action that is contributing to poverty in developing countries such as DRC is climate change. It is well known that climate change is a reality which has been mainly caused by human activities such as greenhouse gas emission. Unfortunately, most of the greenhouse gas emission comes from industrialized countries but the impact of climate change is felt heavily by the developing countries (Hope, 2009). For instance, a country such as DRC and other neighboring countries in Africa relies heavily on agriculture. Unfortunately, climate change has negatively and seriously affected agricultural produce making farmers in such regions poorer than they were before (Hope, 2009). So, if the developed countries fail to take responsibility for their greenhouse gas emission, the developing countries especially those in Africa will continue to become poorer since climate change affect the core of their livelihood i.e. agriculture. So, as correctly pointed out by the corrective justice theory, if those responsible for the unjust actions can take responsibility for their action, then poverty in developing countries such as DRC can be significantly eliminated.
Poverty in developing countries can also be completely eradicated through strengthening institutions and states governance. Previous studies have found a strong connection between poverty and corruption (Addae-Korankye, 2014; Page and Pande, 2018). In other words, the more corrupt the countries are the higher the poverty rate. For instance, in the DRC other than the unjust action of others, corruption is yet another contributing factor to the country's extreme poverty. Its leader has exploited the natural resources for their own benefits and through other corrupt means, they have been able to steal the public resource away from the citizens (Borgen Project 2017). Countries such as DRC are not poor, it is people’s resources that are stolen from them by their leaders as well as foreign powers but since the country lack well-established institutions and state governance, it becomes extremely hard to arrest and prosecute those engaging in corrupt practice as well as give the people the power to control their own resources. Therefore, if the rest of the world can work together to help developing countries such as DRC strengthen their institutions and states governance, such countries would easily eliminate poverty among their citizens.