For the past two weeks we’ve published a series of poverty questions for you to consider. We appreciate everyone who submitted comments to the posts, and we extend our congratulations to Judy Tremblay and her enormous brain for answering the most poverty questions correctly and becoming the proud new owner of a brand, spankin’ new magnet.
Yep! A magnet. Can we get get a “Woot! Woot!” for Judy?
Now, without further ado, here is your answer key.
1. Question: How many children under age 5 die of hunger-related causes every minute?
Answer: Six. More than 9 million children under age 5 die every year, and malnutrition accounts for more than one-third of these deaths. Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
(Source: www.unicef.org, November 2008)
2. Question: True or False – One-third of the children in developing countries live in poverty.
Answer: True. Of the 1.8 billion children in developing countries, 600 million of them live on less than U.S. $1 a day.
(Source: www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html, November 2008)
3. Question: True or False – In reducing the rate of sickness and death from diarrhea, the supply of adequate quantities of water is more important than improving its quality.
Answer: True. The organisms that cause diarrhea can be spread through many routes besides drinking water; increased quantities of water can improve household and personal hygiene, which prevents the spread of disease.
Each year about 1.7 million deaths related to dehydration caused by diarrhea occur in children under age 5.
(Sources: www.cdc.gov; http://rehydrate.org/, November 2008)
4. Question: Which one of the following is NOT one of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals?
- Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure environmental stability
- Provide worldwide access to safe water
- Develop a global partnership for development
Answer: Provide worldwide access to safe water
The Millennium Development Goals were created to develop a concrete action plan for the world to reverse poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people. The other five goals are:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
5. Question: True or False – Life expectancy in the world’s poorest countries is about one-third lower than that in the high-income world.
Answer: True. Life expectancy in the least developed countries averages 55 years, as compared with 79 years in industrialized countries.
In fact, in most of Africa, average life expectancy is only 50 years.
At any given time, close to half of all people in developing countries suffer from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
For people in the the developing world, illness, job loss, drought or even pregnancy can mean the difference between life and death.
(Sources: www.unicef.org; www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats, November 2008)
6. Question: What is the definition of extreme poverty?
Answer: Living on less than $1 a day. One in six people around the world lives in extreme poverty.
7. Question: Which of the following statements about children in the developing world are true?
- 1 in 3 children does not have adequate
- 1 in 5 children does not have access to
- 1 in 7 children does not have access to
- All of the above.
Answer: All of the above. Along with malnutrition, these mostly preventable causes are leading contributors to the millions of child deaths each year.
(Source: www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats, November 2008)
8. Question: True or False – The majority of the world’s chronically undernourished people live in Africa.
Answer: False. Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.
Despite the food production rate being better than the population growth rate, there is still desperate hunger in many parts of the world.
(Sources: World Resources Institute, “Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems” (February 2001); www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-andstats, November 2008)
9. Question: What percentage of the world’s population growth occurs in developing countries?
Answer: 95 percent.
Currently, the world’s population totals more than 6.7 billion and grows at an average rate of around 80 million persons per year.
Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, three regions of the world made up of mostly developing countries, account for most of the world’s increasing population.
(Sources: www.worldfactbook.org; www.census.gov, November 2008)
10. Question: What is the United Nations’ deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals?
Answer: 2015. The Millennium Project is working with individual countries to help identify and address specific needs, such as access to health clinics, immunizations, teachers, roads and water pumps.
Developed countries have committed to provide increased funding to help reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.