The rich and the poor

Norway and Tanzania are located at two completely different parts of the world. Norway is located in the north of Europe and has the world's highest Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.94 out of a total of 1.  Tanzania is a country on the East coast of Africa and is ranked as the 152nd country according to the HDI with a score of 0.46. HDI is an index calculated based on factors such as life expectancy, education, literacy and GDP per capita to range the countries on more than just an economical basis. From this we can see there is a clear distinction between the two countries with one being very rich while the other very poor. The difficulty with terms like this is to be able to define them, because what is poor and what is rich?

Tanzanian women in the countryside

According to the UN the definition of poor is when one cannot cover one's basic needs such as habitation, food and clean water. The definition of extreme poverty is often defined as living for less than 1 dollar a day (6 NOK). We live in Norway and for us it is absolutely impossible to imagine how it would be because one would not be able to survive with that amount. In Norway poverty is often referred to as not being able to have a certain standard of living, for example this includes not having enough money to send your kids to after school activities that all the other's can afford. This causes the topic of poverty to be very difficult because how can we really set a line for how much people should have and where does the line go between what we want and what we need?

Two small children in the Arusha slums 

The condition in the slums

According to AllAfrica 65% of Tanzania's population live under the poverty line. With a population of 44 million people, this means that almost 29 million are living in poverty. Tanzania has Africa's third largest slum population, only 5% of the population attend secondary school and there are only three state universities in the whole of Tanzania. In addition a whole of 80% of the population depend on agriculture and live in rural areas. In Norway all state education is free, as well as the health service until your 18th birthday. The literacy rate in Norway is 100% compared to 69% in Tanzania. These facts show the reality of how different the two countries are and makes us question how it is possible that one country is so poor when the other has so many more resources. Is there something wrong with the world's distribution of resources?

The landscape in the middle of Norway

The question is how have the two countries ended up to be so different and what are the causes of poverty?