The following statement is the definition you find when searching the word poverty. “Poverty is a condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.” But what does it feel like to live below 1$ a day? To have an income level so low that the basic human needs cannot be satisfied. A despairing condition that ends the lives of 4000 people every day, more than half of whom are below the age of five. One hundred years ago the rate of extreme poverty in the world was 70%, and humans have come a long way to reduce it to 15% and less. Among some of the main causes of poverty are lack of education, war, unemployment, political instability, climate change, lack of infrastructure, and inadequate access to clean water and nutritious food. Here we examine the three aspects that affect poverty reduction to see how some developing countries have dealt with this crisis, and its destructive effects over time, toward creating sustainable development. 

Is There a Connection Between Poverty and the Environment? 

How does poverty contribute to environmental degradation? Sadly, poverty is increasing in many parts of the world. Poverty-stricken people and countries have no choice but to use their limited and irreplaceable resources to keep the economy alive and raise incomes in the short term. In 2016, a record of 29.7 million hectares of forest disappeared. That is 290,000 square kilometers or an area almost the size of Italy. Quick fixes cannot save poor economies and communities, but they only lead to extreme extraction from the heart of the earth. A lack of sufficiency in using resources hurts people and countries who cannot save themselves from the effects of global warming and pollution. 

This lack of financial resources makes countries extract their natural resources for income growth, and the more we extract there is more raw materials (oil, metals, etc.) to produce. Whether this production happens in poor or rich countries, it always adds to pollution and leads to global warming and ocean level rise. This production also adds a high amount of waste to water bodies and kills 100,000 marine mammals annually because of plastic pollution. Water pollution also reduces the soil quality which can damage local farmers' crops and is unsuitable for industry. These are just some examples of how exceeding extraction of resources affects the economy and makes people lose their jobs.  

The one solution that helps both farmers and the environment is Agroforestry. The World Bank reports that “Accelerating climate change could further reduce crop production, especially in more food-insecure regions. Agriculture, forestry, and land-use change are responsible for about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions.” so is agroforestry going to change that? As a sustainable farming system, agroforestry promotes food security and has great potential as a climate change adaptation solution. It addresses poverty by giving people a chance to use forests and lands simultaneously and have an income without damaging the environment. 

Effect of Society on Poverty 

Many countries confront these issues directly by implementing restrictive policies that focus on empowering disadvantaged groups of society, equity, and the social determinants of health and wellbeing. While about 356 million children are growing up in need worldwide, rapid population growth is one of the factors of poverty, especially in communities with a lower income. According to the British Journal of Sociology of Education, children living in poverty have a higher chance of absenteeism or leaving school because they are more likely to work or care for family members. As a result, children miss education which is a great asset to opening the door to learning skills, jobs, and resources that help a person thrive. According to Education Statistics Services Institute, the cycle continues as 31% of young adults without a high school diploma live in poverty. Poverty cannot be permanently eradicated as strife and war caused by ignorance and power seeking will continue to destroy people's lives all over again. There is no better solution than proper education to help people overcome racial, religious and political fanaticism and thus prevent war. 

A study in Dalarna University indicates that in Mexico, "education accumulation for the economically disadvantaged young has a positive impact on their earnings enhancement and thus inferring a contribution to poverty reduction." Canada and Switzerland are among countries with low poverty rates because of the significant improvement in education standards and healthcare. Also, the United States is known as one of the societies with a low unemployment rate, especially among educated people, by providing learning and job opportunities for all. 

Economic Growth and Poverty 

Is that true that Economic growth directly improves the living conditions of people and reduces poverty? Economic growth is one of our main factors in measuring poverty over the years. Until about 50 years ago, about 13% of the world population was poor, and the number of illiterates and mortality rate at a young age was high. The remarkable economic growth in developing countries during the past 20 years has fueled poverty reduction. This improvement happened not just because they increased the government revenue or domestic market production, but because they paid close attention to the living of the poor and tried to address their issues. But how can measuring economic growth help us overcome poverty?

We know overcoming poverty needs a realistic measurement to assess people’s welfare to improve the living conditions of the poor. GDP was made to measure how good a country’s economy is doing and to quantify the welfare of a nation. The Bank of England defines Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the size and health of a country’s economy over a period (usually one quarter or one year). Most economists believe that economic growth benefits almost all citizens of a nation and it’s partially true but there are two main issues with evaluating welfare with GDP: 

1. Any production and development that adds to the economy also subtracts something from it and we miss this fact if we just measure the market values. For example, 2400 trees are cut down each minute but we aren’t subtracting this damage from wood related productions. 
2. When we calculate GDP per capital, we don’t take average citizens’ living conditions into account because of the pay gap and class distinctions. Millionaires add so much money to the GDP and raise the average per population (GDP per capita) number, while it makes no change in most people’s lives, so how is GDP a good measurement if it doesn’t take the average and minimum wage citizens into account? 

India is one of the first countries that believes in the inefficiency of today's performance indicators of countries in addressing poverty. India is paying more attention to the welfare living quality of its people and its current strategy is to change its economic growth assessment. The government believes that the ease of living index and sustainability are going to make their community more just and make people's lives more meaningful. 

Are There Any Solutions? 

In today's world, having an education and empowering individuals, especially women and girls, with knowledge and skills is the key to poverty reduction and social development. Having access to quality learning, using, and sharing it with others is essential for growing prosperity in a community. It can also prevent child marriage to a large extent.

To end this global crisis, countries need to establish policies on providing clean water and primary health care, improving nutrition, and supporting environmental programs to ensure the reduction of poverty among their population. This issue is one of the United Nations targets in its Extreme Poverty Eradication plan until 2030; to create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional, and international levels and implement social protection systems and measures for all. A nation's success depends on whether all people, regardless of ethnicity or race, have the opportunity to thrive and progress.  

Agroforestry as a land-use method helps locals add to their farming opportunities instead of cutting down all the trees and making a farm. It addresses poverty by giving people a chance to use forests and land to generate income without damaging the environment. 

In this journey to achieve poverty reduction, we could do our part by volunteering in community empowerment activities or supporting foundations such as TwoWings that work with a constructive approach in various development and educational programs. In cooperation with local NGOs, local authorities, governments, and communities, TwoWings tries to support education and agroforestry in underprivileged regions. One of these NGOs is Erfan Connaissance, a local NGO in Congo which promotes education through the villages’ local population and guides willing people to open kindergartens and elementary school to serve the welfare and progress of their communities.    

Supporting non-profit foundations working on local or international scales empowers them to initiate unique solutions for communities around the world because they know how to address challenges in a way individuals do not know.