Picture it: you need to feed your family, travel to and from work, and get your child school supplies. But you only have $1.90 in your pocket (which is approximately about R35,00 – a decent loaf of bread and a litre of milk will cost roughly this amount). It seems like an impossible scenario. But for approximately 800 million people in the world, it’s their reality. 11% of the world’s population is living in extreme poverty, which is defined as surviving on only $1.90 a day.

As dire as those figures are, there is some good news: In 1990, 35% of the world (1.8 billion people) were living in extreme poverty — so we’ve made some huge strides. While many argue that we will never be able to truly get rid of poverty, extreme poverty can be eradicated. Unfortunately, there is no “magic bullet” solution, but if we want to get rid of extreme poverty, we must first understand its causes. Today, we look at some of the top causes of poverty around the world.

1. INADEQUATE ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD

Currently, more than 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water at home, while over 800 million suffer from hunger. You might think that poverty causes hunger and prevents people from accessing clean water (and you would be right!), but hunger and water insecurity are also big reasons why people struggle to escape extreme poverty.

If a person doesn’t get enough food, they simply don’t have the strength and energy needed to work. Lack of access to food and clean water can also lead to preventable illnesses like diarrhoea. And when people must travel far distances to clinics or spend what little money remains on medicine, it drains already vulnerable populations of money and assets, and can knock a family from poverty into extreme poverty.

Even if clean water sources are available, they’re often located far from poor, rural communities. This means that women and girls collectively spend some 200 million hours every day walking long distances to fetch water. That’s precious time that could be used working or getting an education to help secure a job later in life.

2. LITTLE OR NO ACCESS TO LIVELIHOODS OR JOBS

This might seem a bit like a “no brainer.” Without a job or a way to make money, people will face poverty. But it’s easy to assume that if someone wants a job, they could have one. That just isn’t true, particularly in developing and rural parts of the world. Dwindling access to productive land (often due to conflict, overpopulation, or climate change), and overexploitation of resources like fish or minerals is putting increasing pressure on many traditional livelihoods. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for example, most of the population lives in rural communities where natural resources have been plundered over centuries of colonialism — while conflict over land disputes has forced people from the land they relied upon for food and money. Now, more than half of the country lives in extreme poverty. While inconsistent work and low paying jobs can land a family in poverty, absolutely no work means that a family can’t get by without assistance.

3. CONFLICT

Conflict can cause poverty in several ways. Large scale, protracted violence that we see in places like Syria can grind society to a halt, destroy infrastructure, and cause people to flee, forcing families to sell or leave behind all their assets. In Syria, around 70% of the entire population now lives below the poverty line — this in a country where extreme poverty was once very rare. Women often bear the brunt of conflict: during periods of violence, female-headed households become very common. And because women often have difficulty getting well-paying work, their families are particularly vulnerable.

But even small bouts of violence can have huge impacts on communities that are already struggling. For example, if farmers are worried about their crops being stolen, they won’t invest in planting. Women are particularly vulnerable in these kinds of conflicts, too, as they often become the targets of sexual violence while fetching water or working alone in the fields.

4. INEQUALITY

There are many different types of inequality in the world, from economic to social inequalities like gender, caste systems, or tribal affiliations. But no matter the inequality, it generally means the same thing: unequal or no access to the resources needed to keep or lift a family out of poverty.

Sometimes inequalities are obvious, but in other situations, it can be subtle — for example, the voices of certain people or groups might not be heard in community meetings, meaning they don’t get a say in important decisions. Regardless, these inequalities mean that the people affected don’t have the tools they desperately need to get ahead, and for already vulnerable families, this can mean the difference between being poor or living in extreme poverty.

Tomorrow we will look at a few more causes of poverty.