Findings Report

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.