Contemporarily, what are the mechanisms or processes that maintain inequality?

Write a 1500 word essay on the following title:

Choose a case study of an African, Asian or South American middle or low-income country (as listed by the World Bank in 2015: see http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-and-lending-groups#Low_income ), and critically discuss the historical and contemporary causes of poverty and inequality in that country.

You should draw on a range of reading to answer this question, including AT LEAST TEN academic pieces (in addition to any websites or grey literature) and keep in mind to use Harvard referencing style.

NB: You will not be able to explore every aspect of poverty and inequality in your chosen country, so you should express clearly (in your introduction) which aspects you have selected, and (at some point in the essay) show some recognition of the limitations of that selection.
Illustrate your arguments with detailed examples wherever possible.

The following questions may help you to think critically about poverty and inequality in your case study country:
1.Who (which groups of people) are most affected by poverty and inequality?
2.Which aspects of their lives are affected, and in which ways? How do these groups of people typically try to address these effects?
3.Historically, by what processes have certain groups come to have dominance?
NB: Be wary of a historical answers, such as environmental determinism or individual merit: they wont clearly demonstrate your critical ability.
Try to be detailed in explaining or describing historical processes, e.g. Just saying colonialism or exploitation may name a historical phenomenon, but it does not explain a process

4.Contemporarily, what are the mechanisms or processes that maintain inequality?
5.What steps have been and are being taken towards a more equal society or towards reducing poverty?
e.g. policies, legislation, welfare or redistributive systems, political campaigns
By whom have these steps been taken (e.g. by governments, by people who are trying to escape poverty or the effects of inequality, by non-governmental organisations, by political movements, or by aid organisations)?
What is/was it about these steps, or about the context within which they are being/were taken, that makes/made them successful?
6.What remains to be done to address poverty and inequality in your case study country, and are there any emerging processes or actors or initiatives that might achieve it?