Essay on Corruption

With development there are many barriers and one of those is corruption. Many development experts see the corruption as the primary barrier to development, which slows down the development and wastes money. Therefore, experts think corruption is the biggest problem, and could bring economic, socio-cultural and political implications. This leads countries to poverty. However, this perspective is argued against by the article “Does corruption create poverty?” which was written by Walden Bello, an intellectual and activist who is one of the leading critics of the current model of economic globalization. Bello (2010) argues that corruption is not the main cause of poverty but economic policies are.

In his study of the correlation between corruption,

Chetwynd (2003, pp. 3-4) says that while corruption does not directly make a mark on poverty, it has negative influences on economic growth and government administration, which lead to poverty. In terms of economy, corruption interrupts economic growth, worsens income inequality and decreases economic growth rates which increase poverty. Regarding government administration, corruption lowers governance, impairs governance, and decreases public trust in government that increases vulnerability of the poor (Chetwynd, 2003, The World Bank Group, 2015). For instance, political corruption in Kenya, which is estimated more than 40 percent of Kenya’s public revenues lost, decreases investments in schools, infrastructure, and social services (Mutua, 2008). Apart from that, Labelle (2014) asserts that corruption and poverty go hand-in-hand which harms the people’s well-being. The impacts of corruption are personal and they are harmful. Corruption also leaves children without mothers, families without healthcare, people without food, the elderly without security, and businesses without capital. Furthermore, Swardt (2015) also reveals that high levels of corruption affect the targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This correlation holds across all the development goals which are linked to poverty and hunger, low education, maternal and child health, communicable diseases, water and sanitation. As a result of these reasons, corruption is a main factor of