Reflective Investigator
Problem: What needs to be solved?World hunger & poverty
World hunger and poverty, many people all over the world at the moment are dying from hunger and poverty and this problem has been around for a long time.
Context: Describe the problem space (e.g. political/cultural, usual practice, technical complexity)
Hunger and hunger related causes kill around 25,000 people every day, according to the United Nations. That means about one person dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds and they are mostly children. Poverty is linked to hunger, as people living in poverty lack money to buy enough food to keep them from starvation. As adults, if they don’t have enough food to keep healthy, then they will lose any jobs they might have had, which would lead them to even less money and food to provide for themselves also their children.
This problem has a cultural aspect to it, as world hunger has been around for a while; people in these developing countries have grown up in this life, as their parents have, and also their children if nothing changes. Our society now has a lot of fundraisers, not for profit organisations and more to help these developing countries, and a lot of us are aware that they need help. But not a lot of our culture really understands what it’s like to live in poverty and how much help they really need. Our culture takes a lot for granted, that people in developing countries would only dream of having.
Realities: Describe the practice space (e.g. public/private)
The problem of world hunger is very public; it occurs worldwide and involves a lot of the population. It is also splashed across many of a modern day media services and the internet.
Actors: Who are the key actors in the network? (E.g. positive/negative effect)
They are many actors involved in World Hunger & Poverty, hence the word ‘World’. But there are some key actors in this problem:
- The people who live in poverty everyday
- The government systems who govern these developing countries
- People & Organisations who donate their money and/or time to try and fix this problem
- United Nations agencies that are involved in reducing world hunger
Although the UN and people/organisations who donate their money & time have a positive effect on the problem.
Tensions: What are the tensions from the problem/practice space? (E.g. what stops the problem from being solved)
This problem has gone on for so long because it is so global, in 2010, 925 million people went hungry. But what stops it from being solved is that everyone in our world right now is not focused on helping the people trapped in poverty. If the problem of "world" hunger and poverty was to be fixed then the "world" would have to be on the same page about wanting to fix the situation. Every key actor of the situation would have to be focused on solving this problem, although this is much easier said than done.
Problem definition: What would the problem look like if it were solved?
If the problem of world hunger and poverty was solved, then the large number of people who die every day from hunger would be reduced significantly. Every human being on this earth would be closer to having an equal chance at life. People wouldn’t be starving to death while others have too much food to eat. Less food would be wasted and every one would be grateful to be fed.
Concepts: What possible concept might provide a solution?
A concept that I believe may provide the start of a solution is the UNICEF goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Their target by 2015 is to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Even though this is only to reduce the amount of people who suffer from hunger, it is a good place to start. If there were more goals like this by more organisations around the world then the problem of world hunger could be solved.
References:www.unicef.orgwww.poverty.comwww.worldhunger.org
