POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH ETHICAL PHILANTHROPY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (MENA) REGION
Abstract
Poverty using the United Nations’ criteria refers to denial of choices, opportunities, and the lack of capacity as a result of low income for a person to effectively participate in society. Poverty creates problems such as ill-health, inability to acquire the basic necessities of life, deprivation of full exercise of civic and political rights, and so forth. In spite of the enormous wealth in both human and natural resources in MENA, many people in the region are living in abject poverty. Using phenomenological hermeneutics and existential critical analysis, the paper argues for ethical philanthropy to be used to alleviate the poverty in the region. Poverty is an ethical issue for it affects the quality of lives that humans can live as moral beings and impacts human behaviour. It is unacceptable that the enormous wealth of the region is not used for the benefit of all. Outside government efforts and the imperative of efficient political leadership, wealthy individuals and non-governmental groups have a moral responsibility to help to alleviate poverty in the region. It is this ethical role of individuals and groups in rendering philanthropic help to alleviate and if possible end poverty in the region that is the thrust of this paper. The paper affirms that abject and other forms of poverty are present in the region. The paper concludes that individuals and groups have an ethical duty in philanthropy to alleviate poverty in the region. The people of the region will become better and achieve a higher level of happiness and peace through the practice of ethical philanthropy.
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