Basic Security

The fight against poverty continues globally. Government and nongovernmental organizations are in the forefront of the struggle to end poverty. Bill Gates claims that by 2035, no country will remain in poverty. The assertion was made when he compared the volume of goods and services provided by the spirit of globalization and the level of development recorded by some developing and emerging economy countries such as Brazil, Mexico, China, India, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Poverty has been categorized as absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is when people lack the means of a livelihood. It can be regarded as total deprivation. Relative poverty is when people are not living well compared to other citizens. People are considered poor if their level of per capita expenditure falls below a minimum level necessary to meet their basic food and nonfood needs. The recent global economic recession has created more poverty globally. People are struggling to provide basic security. Several no-income indicators in the investigation of global poverty point to basic insecurity. This includes measures for the access to basic services, literacy and education, child malnutrition, maternal health, labor force participation, empowerment, and gender issues.

Basic insecurity is characterized by households where no one has a job, where many are out of a job and have been unemployed for more than a year or more, and where the head of household has no job skills. Also, a lack of basic security is identified as when children start work before the age of 14. In some cases, people suffer from low and irregular income, no money put aside to live on for more than one month, living on earned income, either a wage-paying job or self-employed activities; and no steady employment, short contract work, or having a temporary job. In other circumstances, basic insecurity is reflected in a lack of unemployment benefits. It can also be related to chronic debt, such as owed rents; water bills indebtedness; gas and electricity indebtedness; depending mainly on the family allowance for children; accumulated debts for rent, water, gas, and electricity; and owed money on credit.