Ending Global Poverty by Stephen Smith

Which theoretical perspectives are represented by the author’s treatment of the topic?

“Global poverty is the scourge and disgrace of our affluent era” (Smith 13). Eradicating extreme poverty has always been one of the greatest challenges in the world. In fact, today poverty has become a major concern for several nations. According to Stephen C. Smith, the author of book Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, ending poverty would require eight crucial keys to escape poverty traps; to provide health and nutrition for adults to work and children to grow to their potential, provide basic education to build the foundations for self-reliance, to provide credit and basic insurance for working capital and defense against risk, to allow access to functioning markets for income and opportunities to acquire assets, to allow access to new technologies for higher productivity, to provide a stable environment to ensure sustainable development, to provide personal empowerment to gain freedom from exploitation and to empower all communities to ensure effective participation in the wider world. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the term, concept, and the theoretical perspectives about poverty that are represented by Stephen C. Smith as well as presenting aspects of the issue that I wish Smith had addressed, an emphasis of questions that the author leaves unanswered will be presented, and finally an exhortation on how believers should think about the issue and how believers should respond to the issue viewed in a cognitive, affective and behavioral perception.

To begin, Stephen Smith came up with the book Ending Global Poverty as a result of a simple question from his wife that was based on how they wanted to see their mon...

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...hor offers a whole chapter where he answers several questions that people have come up with. One of my questions was: How much of an impact do we create in society by taking part in child sponsorship programs? Here, the author explains that he does not really encourage child sponsorship. He stresses that child sponsorship is not necessarily a strategy of education to reduce poverty. He explains, “People seem to identify much more with making an individual, personal connection, particularly with a child” (Smith, 174). Most of the time the assistance that we provide to a child goes to the child’s community rather than his education, so it is essential to find out the legitimacy of the organizations that sponsor children’s education.

Works Cited

Smith, Stephen C. Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.