Do the developed countries have a duty to eliminate poverty from developing countries?

Major Essay 2500 words
Instructor
Course
Name
Do the developed countries have a duty to eliminate poverty from developing countries?
Introduction
Poverty is a state where the basic needs of people are not met. This state can be either of absolute poverty or relative poverty. Absolute poverty can be eradicated and involves a condition of destitution when individuals cannot get adequate resources to sustain the least level of physical health. It is always measured in terms of the amounts of calories that an individual can obtain. Relative poverty on the hand is a comparative approach that looks at situations where people cannot match up with the living standards of the larger population or the standards set by the government. Unlike absolute poverty, it is difficult to eradicate since it exists everywhere. Developed countries also called the north are industrialised nations including countries like Canada, France, U.K, U.S and Italy among others. Developing Countries also called the South are non-industrialised nations whose citizens rely on agriculture but who are seeking to advance both economically and socially (World Bank; World development report, 1990).
According to the World Bank, about a quarter of the world`s populace lives in poverty. People are dying worldwide each day due to poverty and related problems such as malnutrition, hunger and hunger related diseases (World Bank; World development report, 1990). The most striking fact is that, the majority of the affected populace if from South Asia, East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. For instance, the mortality rate in developing countries is about 170 deaths per a thousand while in developed countries it is less than 10. These has given rise to debates whether it is the responsibility of the world particularly the developed countries to aid developing countries in alleviating poverty.
Developed Countries have no Obligation to Aid Developing Countries.
Different scholars and ethicists have come in the open to oppose the idea of developed countries aiding developing countries for a number of reasons. They claim that poor nations have a high birth rate and that helping them would be supporting them to reproduce and increase in number, which ultimately will lead to strain in the world food supply (Gunnell, 2002). This causes more suffering other than reducing the suffering that it intended to alleviate. Therefore, according to them, developed nations should operate in ways that minimize human suffering. Developing countries should be left on their own to learn the hard way, consequently, developing policies and programmes to address poverty issues, which include among them the issues of population control (Hardin, 1974)
The second argument is the fact that most of the aid provided to developing countries, is misused or misallocated to unintended projects and so, it does not address the problem it is initially meant to tackle. The governments of such nations may ch...