HIV/AIDS And The Future Of The Poor, Illiterate And Marginalized Populations

Today, of the global population of 6.5 billion people about 2 billion have access to modern facilities (food, water, shelter, sanitation, health care, education, jobs), who I characterize as the “haves”. Of these 2 billion, roughly 1 billion live in the developed (industrialized) world and the second billion consist of the top 15-20% of the remaining world population. About 3 billion are poor (living under $2 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per day) and do not have access to modern facilities. Of these, roughly 1 billion people live on less than $1 PPP per day and constitute the extremely poor. The remaining1.5 of the 6.5 billion are in transition between the poor and the haves, i.e., they have access to some but not enough of the modern facilities. These ratios are unprecedented in human history and there are many recent success stories of development at the national level – Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Ireland being the most obvious – nevertheless, there remains a much larger global need.