There are many important key issues that affect international development such as ethnic conflicts, democracy, health, etc. However, this policy brief will focus on the issue of poverty in international development. It will define poverty and the causes of poverty such as unemployment, political instability and rapid urbanization. As well as, the impact these causes have on international development. Lastly, this policy brief will offer suggestions to eliminate poverty. Poverty is defined as the condition of having insufficient resources to live and is one of the largest problems in developing countries. In the poorest of developing countries, almost eighty percent of the population lives in absolute poverty; which has a variety of serious consequences on human lives (Handelman, 2011). With the rising rates of poverty, many face problems of famine and lack of lodging. Over half of the population of developing countries, live in urban slums. Urban slums are generally self-made homes of brick and tin close together where there is no access to clean drinking water, sanitation or urban services including health care. Sanitation is poor, if there is any at all, and the water is contaminated because of the sewage running through it. The immediate danger with this type of environment is the risk to the people’s health. This degree of poverty and lack of clean water leads to poor personal hygiene resulting in the proliferation of various harmful bacteria which results in the development of diseases such as cholera, malaria, etc. (Tharp, 2007). Unfortunately, poverty in developing countries has a variety of causes including lacking social security, lacking natural resources and nutrition, and having no financial stability. Developing countries are economically depressed because they do not have social security or welfare. These countries cannot afford to support their citizens. Due to extremely high unemployment rates and low wages, the citizens have little or no income to survive. These extreme poverty situations could lead to hostile actions against their government; which could cause political instability. Political instability is defined as an undependable government; which implies the government is either corrupt, misusing the countries resources or not using these resources to their full capacity. In many parts of the developing world, corrupt dictatorships and economic elitism contribute to income inequality and poverty (Tharp, 2007). In a system where bribery is necessary in order to get opportunities such as government contracts, those opportunities will go to individuals with the money to pay the bribes. In corrupt governments opportunities also frequently go to those with friends and relatives inside the government itself. This tends to create a climate where a small group of wealthy and powerful individuals become more wealthy and powerful and the majority of the population is left in poverty; which generally causes economic problems. When a government is inconsistent, a tax system cannot be established and revenue cannot be collected. If a government doesn’t receive revenue, it cannot provide sanitation, or health care, and cannot build or repair roads or buildings. This often leads to political violence against the government. Political violence or reactions to the government will continue as long as the needs of the citizens are not met (Handelman, 2011). In fact the political instability may make it more difficult for democratic regimes to survive and may be replaced by authoritarian regimes. This causes the citizens to migrate from region to region looking for a better life leading to rapid urbanization.
Rapid urbanization can be defined as the sudden growth in city population. It results in problems such as congested streets, lack of jobs and an increase in poverty (Handelman, 2011). For example, when people flock to the city to find jobs, not all of them are able to find work, these people remain unemployed. Those who manage to find work, face long hours and low pay. With so many people there is a shortage of food, housing, and health care. In many developing countries, it is rural poverty that drives people from rural areas into the city in search of employment, food, shelter and education. Most people move into the urban areas because they are ‘pushed’ out by factors such as poverty, food insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure and services in the rural areas or because they are ‘pulled’ into the urban areas by the advantages and opportunities of the city including education, electricity, water, etc. There are many factors, which contribute to unemployment; however, it is directly related to the lack of education, rapid change of technology, recessions, inflation, disability and discrimination in the place of work (Handelman, 2011). There are many social and economic effects due to unemployment. There is a huge loss of production and output because those who are unemployed are not able to add towards GDP. The government loses on the income tax revenue as unemployed are unable to earn. In order to cater to the needs of unemployed, government must take a sizeable step, which aims at providing financial assistance to the workers till the time of recovery in the economy (Tharp, 2007).
As stated above poverty has many causes and many impacts; however, there is no one right way to reduce poverty. Most countries that have successfully reduced poverty adopted heterodox policies that reflected their national conditions, rather than fully embracing market-conforming prescriptions (UNRISD.org). Countries and peoples must be allowed the policy space to adopt different models of development where aspects of livelihood and food security, land reform, cultural rights, gender equity, social policy and associative democracy figure prominently. Some developing countries are attempting to improve their situation in many ways. For example, these developing countries want to promote economic diversity and education. Economic diversity can be defined as producing various kinds of crops and goods so that the nation is not dependent on a single export. By promoting education, governments set up schools to train students in the skills needed in a modern industrial economy, therefore creating more skilled workers for jobs in the management field as opposed to labor. The examples of economic diversity and education are ways in which nations within the developing countries have attempted to change their situations. The economic situation which exists in the developing countries today is dependence on the industrialized world. They are dependent because they need a market for their resources, and the products of industry.
In conclusion, some suggestions for developing countries to potentially gain capital could be met by receiving gifts of direct aid from developed nations. They could participate in fair trade with foreign nations to obtain capital, increase exports of agricultural and industrial products. Lastly, they could receive direct investments from private corporations or loans from a number of unique public international financial institutions, such as, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. “The World Bank provides loans at reduced interest rates to help developing nations acquire capital. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lends to countries over the short term to remedy balance of payments deficits, and requires in exchange rigorous economic policy measures from the borrowing nation to cut internal expenditures and increase exports” (UNRISD.org).

References
Handelman, H. (2011). The Challenge of Third World Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kahn, M. (2001). Rural Poverty in Developing Countries. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues/issues26/index.htm
Tharp, J (2007). Sustainable Development: Problems in the Third World Countries.
Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/180056/sustainable_development_problems_inhtml?cat=37
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). (2010).
Combating Poverty and Inequality. Retrieved from
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/