Introduction
Out of research, it is argued that poverty is one of the widespread and global phenomena and it is seen to have pervasive effects on the global and local communities in most of the countries and a good example is in Turkey. It is through this widespread and a global phenomena that many policies needs to be put in place in order to ensure that people are in a position to have increased standards of living. The level of poverty in a country is one of the signs of decreased economic growth since you find that with the increased levels of poverty, you find that most of the resources are geared towards curbing the issue of poverty levels. Many social scientific disciplines varying from sociology to economics are seen to emphasize on the different aspect of poverty in Turkey.
Its is through these disciplines that are seen to contribute on the existing literature on the causes of poverty, the different ways which can be used to alleviate poverty and also the pervasiveness and the varying effects in the 21st century. There are so many programs and bodies in Turkey which are seen to work together in ensuring that poverty has been alleviated and examples of these bodies include the following, World Bank, UNDP, and local or global civil society organizations all of which have a common goal of ensuring that poverty levels have been controlled in Turkey. They are seen to offer a variety of services and solutions to these phenomena. So it is due to these global phenomena that it is crucial to bring all civil, academic and supranational actors together and state in order to discuss the many different aspects of this phenomenon and thus come up with a common solution to fight against poverty. (Chambers, 1995, pp 347).
The poverty levels in Turkey
In the year 2002, it is argued that 27% of the Turkish population lived below the poverty level as determined by the complete poverty line methodology which was detailed in Annex one. It is this poverty profile which is also seen to be based on the definition of poverty. In Turkey, you tend to find that poverty is usually associated with age and household composition and this explains that families and children are seen to be poorer than average. Poverty in Turkey is also associated with the unemployed, rural location the female headed households and hence this is one of the areas in Turkey which is growing a more concern. It is also seen that the poverty and the labour valuables are seen to be quite interrelated. The 2002 Household Budget Survey in Turkey is also seen to have captured so many correlations of the most well off which is seen to even include the ownership of so many assets plus more consumer durables and many housing attributes.
Out of research in Turkey, it shows that poverty levels are seen to increase with the increase in the total number of household members staring at 3 members. But in Turkey, there are few such households which are seen to range from one member to two members. Although the high birth rate of 1.4 million children per year is slightly dropping, this increasing large population in turkey is giving a great challenge to the economic performance of this country. You find that in the low income families, they tend to sent their children to work in the informal low paid areas of employment and this is seen to affect the level of education of these children and the worse case of this particular scenarios is that they enjoy no education at all and hence the need to have a policy which would address the poverty alleviation in turkey. (Government of Turkey. 2002).
Turkey Poverty and Household
Source (Dymond, 2002, pp 9).
Poverty alleviation program
There are so many public spending programs in Turkey which are all geared towards reducing the poverty levels in Turkey. The public spending program is aimed at alleviating poverty and in this case can be broadly targeted at the categories of spending or even targeted at some types of people. Each of these programs is seen to have its own benefits and costs to the poor in most of the societies. The narrow targeting of the poor people in Turkey is on of the policies which can be used to alleviate poverty levels in Turkey and more efficiently at lower costs which will not lead the country in to deficits. The narrow targeting often is seen to have some costs and you find that once these costs are found the most finely targeted policy is seen not to have any more effects on the poverty levels. It’s through targeting the poor that this policy will be in a position to alleviate poverty so well even though it is not a cure since not every body can benefit from this particular policy. (Dominique 1998, pp 31).
The social sector spending is a current policy which is used in Turkey to alleviate poverty. The public spending policy is seen to assist those people in Turkey who have been left behind by the economic growth. In the field of education, it is through public spending that most of the children from the poor countries will tend to benefit simply because education will have been made cheap. Public spending policy in this case means that most of the Turkeys resources will be spend in ensuring that there is free education but only to the needy students. It is through this policy that it has been in a position to eradicate poverty since you find that if everybody has the necessary knowledge and skills to do a particular job, then this person will be in a position to do it well hence leading to the increased standards of living for this particular person. Sat the end of the day, you will find that the poverty levels in Turkey have reduced.
There are so many related concerns about the unbalanced growth in Turkey and the biggest question here is how can public spending help to deal with vulnerability since you find that in most of the times, incomes can be highly variable in most of the times and this is common in most of the poor rural communities. So the answer to this particular question is targeting only those people who have been left behind and this is the poor in the society. This public spending is only to help the poor families living in Turkey so that they can be in a position to sustaining their living standards. So the Turkey uses the policy of public spending and it does this through only targeting the poor families. It ensures that there is free education but only to the needy students hence these students are in a position to enjoy the benefits the rest of the children get from education. (Dominique 1998, pp 31).
Conclusion
Poverty is one of the global phenomena not only in Turkey but also in most of the developing countries. Policies need to be established to ensure that the country has been in a position to effectively eradicate poverty. Majority of people in Turkey are living below the poverty level hence the need to address this policy. Other policies apart from the public spending policy should also be established. In the past decade a consensus was seen to have emerged that social safety nets which were designed to help in the protection of the consumption levels of the poor households was important in the development in Turkey. This was according to w World Bank report which led to the introduction of this strategy. This could only be achieved through targeting only the poor people in the society.
Reference
Chambers, R 2002, Poverty and Livelihoods: Institute of development studies discussion paper pp, 347. University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
Dymond, A 2002, Poverty alleviation and Universal access: Review of status and issues, ATPS Special paper Series pp 9.
Government of Turkey 2002, Changes in poverty patterns in Turkey, Poverty eradication action plan, Turkey.
Margaret, G. (2004): The Word bank Research Observer. Spring 2004, pp 61.
Dominique V. (1998): The Word Bank Research Observer. ABI/INFORM Global pp 231.