LSC
2533 Research Methods
Findings
Report
‘What are the main causes of poverty in the world?’
(Research Topic)
Section 1 -
Research questions
Primary Question
1)
What are the
main causes of poverty in the world?
Sub-Questions
1)
Are there any
organizations that receive donations to help poor countries?
2)
Do you think it
is right for us to donate to these poor countries?
3)
Do you think UAE
has poor people ?
Section 2 –
Background report summary
The
research topic chosen is, ‘What are the main causes of poverty in the world?’
The researcher got an interest in this particular topic because while the
population of the world today is seven (7) billion, 795 million people do not
have enough food to eat. This is equivalent to one in nine people in the world
could not eat properly in a day (Shah, 2011). Additionally, 98 percent of the
world’s population are undernourished and mostly they come from developing
countries such as Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda, only
to mention few of these developing countries with big number of population is
suffering from dire poverty (State of Food Security in the World, 2014). From
among the populations of the world who suffer poverty, 60 percent are women who
are among those suffering from hunger. Also, 50 percent of pregnant women
coming from developing countries do not receive proper maternal care. This
caused 240,000 maternal deaths from childbirth every year. Meanwhile, the
UNICEF reports that there are 22,000 children die of hunger everyday across the
world. Many of these children die quietly in the remote villages on earth
especially those coming from the continent of Africa. On the other hand, based on enrolment data,
72 million children in developing countries missed primary school and of this
number, 57 percent are girls (Basu, 2014).
Section 3 –
Questionnaire results
To
answer the foregoing questions, the research prepared a self-structured
questionnaire with 10 items. They were distributed to 11 participants randomly
that include men and women who willingly responded to the questionnaire without
any action of force or coercion. Many of those people who approached by the
researcher willingly responded the questionnaire because they themselves
believe that poverty is not only a societal issue but a world’s problem as
well. The first question asked is whether they knew of organizations that
receive donations to be given to these poor countries mentioned in the early
part of this report. All of the 11 respondents said that they knew of
organizations in the country that received donations. This is equivalent to 100%
of those participants that are aware that there are organizations in the
country that you can give your donations for these poor countries. Also, 80%
said that they gave their donations as well. Meanwhile, 62 percent said that
they donated randomly while 37.5% said that their donations are monthly or in
regular basis. When the respondents were asked about the causes of poverty, the
responses were summarized as: war, political instability and inequality in the
distribution of wealth. Other reasons of the participants included
unemployment, tribal intolerance, and unequal distribution of foods. Also, the
respondents believe that they can do something to ease the root causes of
poverty by educating and or providing free education to these poor people who
could impossibly go to school to earn even a primary education. The respondents
are also willing to share their little resources to poor people so that they
cannot miss their meals every day. Finally, the 11 respondents believe that
even UAE, a country with high GDP has poor people as well and who could hardly
eat three times a day. These are the families who bread winners may have
abandoned them and the mothers could hardly provide the needs of the children
anymore, he mothers would resort to alms begging.
Section 4 -
Discussion of Results
In agreement with the background
information, the survey findings said that the main causes of poverty around
the world are due to war, political instability, and unemployment, unequal
distribution of wealth and lack of education. What is interesting among the
findings though is that most of the respondents said that they can help the
poor people but they do not specify how they can do it. Although there are 80
percent of the respondents who said that they gave to organizations their help
to support the poor countries but 62 percent do this also randomly, meaning not
in regular basis because only 37.5 percent donated to organizations on regular
monthly basis. The survey also reported that participants believe that even UAE
with high GDP has poor populations as well especially those families that were
abandoned by their parents especially the fathers. Finally, in order to
ease the causes of poverty, probably the college or the council can do the
following recommendations:
1)
Provide
short-term courses for students so that they can easily graduate and find a job
to immediately support their respective families.
2)
Respect and
follow the political system so that instability in the government will not
happen.
3)
Students will
take their studies seriously so that they can gain sufficient knowledge in
preparation for their future career.
Lastly, if I were to conduct research in
the future similar to this topic, I would like to determine the measures that
our government is doing in order to alleviate the living conditions of its
population. Also, I would like to know what help the government extends to
Emirati families who are abandoned by their bread winners especially the
husbands or fathers.
