In Christianity Today, Mark Galli shares good news from Poverty in Numbers: The Changing State of Global Poverty from 2005 to 2015, by researchers Laurance Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz.
While as late as the early 1980s more than half the inhabitants of developing countries lived in extreme poverty, by 2005 that number was cut in half. By 2010, "less than 16 percent remain in poverty, and fewer than 10 percent will likely be poor by 2015."
In some 25 years, the proportion of the population in developing nations living in extreme poverty has fallen from above 50 percent to less than 16 percent!
This is fantastic news of amazing progress! What brought about this remarkable change? What lifted these masses of people out of poverty? Foreign aid programs from developed nations? Donations given through charitable organizations? Government programs to transfer wealth from rich to poor? None of the above.
The primary factor responsible for this huge reduction in poverty is economic growth. In particular, the economic progress made in China and India over the past 25 years has lifted the standard of living for hundreds of millions of individuals.
This is not to say that the problem of poverty has been solved, or that churches and charities have no role to play in helping the poor. But the record of what has been most effective in lifting the poor out of poverty offers lessons for governments, charities and churches:
- Governments in developing nations should focus on creating and preserving a business-friendly environment, keeping corporate taxes low and offering legal safeguards for businesses to operate with freedom and security.
- Foreign governments should focus on maintaining free trade with developing nations in order to give their businesses a chance to succeed.
- Charities should focus on educating and training the workforce in developing nations.
- Churches should help people in developing nations to acquire the moral virtues that will help them succeed as employers and employees: honesty, thrift, diligence, service, self-discipline, etc., including Godly ways of attaining and using wealth.
(Of course, this is not all churches should do; but this would seem to be the most effective way they can achieve the goal of helping people out of poverty.)
Thank God for successful businesses which provide jobs to lift people out of poverty and raise the standard of living for all! Business as ministry, anyone?