Poverty in the third world countries has pushed the people to the extremes in terms of the way of living. In these countries, it is a common feature to find children wandering aimlessly in the streets with empty stomachs, dressed in tatters, and looking very weak due to malnutrition. These innocent roam about in bare feet with no where to turn to since the majority of them are either orphaned or their parents are very poor to come to their rescue. The future to the young generation in these countries is bleak since the only solution that they seem to have to escape from these tribulations is an early demise. The people of the third country continue to suffer as a result of malnutrition, war, AIDs and other misfortunes that are associated with poverty (Todaro, 2008).

Poverty continues to remain the major challenge in these countries based on the fact that the rate of unemployment is very high in these countries, the access to public services is a challenge and lastly the central governments in most of these countries are corrupt and weak. These have resulted rampant cases of deaths and diseases in the region. In some of these regions such basic item as water is a challenge to some of the regions. In the twentieth century oil was the major challenge but it seems that in the twenty first century water has also entered this list and this is very sad. With the increased rates in fresh water sources pollution, the challenge of global warming, and the ever increasing population the competition for the necessary resources to support live in these countries has increased and the situation seems to be getting out of hand (Todaro, 2008).

Conditions of scarcity or what can be referred to as poverty has been blamed on the unequal distribution of not just resources but also power (United Nation, 2004). Resources in this case essentially refer to factors of production and other important asset that add a value to the lives of societies. Power and especially political power has also been accused of exacerbating poverty in third world countries, this is because power has been used, or misused by those in position of power to deny sections of the population the resources or the assistance to enable them confront poverty within the society and all its manifestation. Lack of information is another thing that has ensured that large population in third world countries live in grinding poverty without a strategy to get empower themselves economically (United Nation, 2004). This is because information has the potential of enabling them to know what is good for them at any given moment.            

Just as the adage goes "education is power", without which societies might not be able to know exactly how best to address issues to do with poverty. Access to education is particularly a serious handicap to those living in third world countries which is unfortunate because it has made them suffer resource deprivation which they could have access easily if only they had access to quality education (United Nation, 2004). Failure to access quality and affordable health care has condemned those living in third world countries to viscous cycle of poverty whereby the meager income they can muster in course of their day to day survival is quickly gulped by high medical bill thereby perpetually condemning them to abject poverty (United Nation, 2004). This is especially common in third world countries, which has made this issue of poverty a global issues that can be rectified easily by just making it possible to access quality and affordable health care.