Saudi Arabia Paper 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Saudi Arabia Paper 1 - Essay Example The use of aid in Saudi Arabia is also discussed, notably that Saudi Arabia does not receive aid but instead provides foreign aid to impoverished Muslim countries. Despite the efforts taken by the Saudi government, there is still criticism due to its religious based aid provision. Finally, the paper also discusses the environmental issues facing the country and the steps taken to mitigate them. It is noted that the main environmental issues are desertification, water depletion and emission of carbon waste from oil production in the country. Despite being one of the world’s strongest economies, Saudi Arabia still bears the mark as having more than three million people living below the poverty line (Burke and Yaghoubian, 2005). Some of the biggest heralds of poverty in the oil-rich country is seen in the urban areas, where a big percentage of the population lives below a dollar a day in income. Currently, the Saudi population lies at more than 28 million people, and it is estimated that more than third of this population lies below the poverty line. One of the biggest social imbalance issues in Saudi Arabia is the fact that the government does not regularly release poverty figures, and the international community is hard pressed to determine the exact count of poor individuals (Burke and Yaghoubian, 2005). It should, however, be pointed out that in the IGAD region, Saudi Arabia still lies better that the other countries in the poverty index. Because of the widening inequality gap between the poor and rich, the gov ernment has been trying to implement measures aimed at reducing both rural and urban poverty. Two of the main programs implemented by the Saudi government aimed at reducing urban poverty are the Free Lands Plots project and the Real Estate Development Fund, both projects aimed at providing land and land development resources