Opportunity Inequity: A reflection on privilege and access across generations

Throughout history, our ancestors’ stories have often begun in humble beginnings. For many of us, if we go far back enough in our family lineage, we will find ancestors who earned their meager living through a subsistence lifestyle, perhaps as farmers or manual laborers — not too dissimilar from how many in the developing world still live today.

Knowledge access changing trajectories

However, there was a turning point for our ancestors. At some point in each of our family trees, likely following the Industrial Revolution, our ancestors gained access to key knowledge that led to higher material wealth. This knowledge may have come through personal networks which provided access to more opportunities, leading to improved trajectories and higher living standards for them and their descendants.

Those with entrepreneurial spirits learned how to access capital and spent time investing in new technologies and techniques, revolutionizing societal practices and productivity. For instance, investment in agricultural techniques and tools boosted food production for mass consumption and increased the farming industry's bottom line.

For others who learned of better opportunities in new lands, they may have made the decision to migrate and capitalize on this promise. Through migration, many found higher-paying jobs in manufacturing or industry as it replaced traditional agriculture in these new countries. With higher wages, your ancestors may have started a brand new life for themselves and their families.

Ultimately, such access to knowledge became a major determining factor in one's success and material wealth. Take a moment to reflect on your own successes. What was the pivotal life-changing decision made by you or your ancestor that reshaped where you are today? What information drove that decision and how was that knowledge accessed? Many of us are fortunate enough to have had the means to an institutional education and learned what we needed to find opportunities to better our lives. Unfortunately, the same still can't be said for many in the developing world.

Unequal knowledge access in the developing world

Today, the pursuit of knowledge and opportunity isn't uniform across the globe. Across the developing world, many still have limited access to information about new opportunities or critical practices like sustainable agriculture, disease prevention, or hygiene and sanitation. This restrains people in the developing world from improving their circumstances, earning a better living and having a chance at elevating the outcomes for their descendants.

However, this does not mean that the developing world is void of opportunity. Rather, these opportunities often require people in the developing world to migrate out of their communities or even countries for better lives which leads to talent migration or “brain drain.” Oftentimes, when young people seek such opportunities from outside, they do not return with the knowledge to improve their own community, thus perpetuating inequality and limited progress. This especially occurs in rural, off-grid communities where access to information and technology is limited. 

Turning privilege into opportunity

Just like for our ancestors, access to education and knowledge is crucial for everyone in the pursuit of opportunity. By equipping local educators with the tools and knowledge to empower rural communities with access to knowledge, vulnerable groups can be given valuable opportunities to flourish. illuminAid's approach to locally-created video education democratizes information across sectors to promote improved ways of life for the most marginalized around the world.

Learn about illuminAid’s impact and support our cause to ensure that knowledge and opportunity are no longer privileges. You can show your support here.

Photo credit: nate webb / illuminAid