Introduction

Every minute a human being dies due to poverty-related reasons. Among the absolute poor in Africa, south of the Sahara, and South East Asia, whose number exceeds one billion people, children in particular are the innocent victims of this enduring moral dilemma (cf. the contributions, including recent figures, by Stephan Klasen, Michael Ward and Thomas Pogge in this book). Not long ago, most of us, the members of the Western world could excuse ourselves from the moral responsibility of global poverty because there were insufficient resources available to alleviate the miserable conditions of the absolute poor. For the first time, following a long and successful period of globalisation and economic growth, the beginning of the twenty-first century presents a real opportunity to relieve those living in absolute poverty from their life-threatening situation, ² and to change the structures which cause absolute poverty. ³ In fact, nobody would have to starve, suffer from avoidable illnesses, be poisoned by dirty water, live an extremely shortened life due to insufficiencies, and suffer from other poverty related constraints, if it just was a case of sufficient economic provision.