Economic empowerment as a result of achieving SDGs with resource access: A comparative research between Gaza Strip and Hungary

. Donors, development agencies, and international non-governmental organizations are currently shaping a large part of the development and humanitarian agenda of sustainable developmen, especially regarding the first and second Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to ending poverty and hunger worldwide. Thus, an increasing number of development interventions are aimed at protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for everyone by strengthening the resilience of vulnerable households and communities. The research implemented a quantitative methodology approach that relied on distributing a survey based on the research variables. Data were collected in both the Gaza Strip and Hungary using google forms over a sample of 700 respondents, however, only 616 respondents filled out the survey. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical tool to research the impact of no poverty and zero hunger on economic empowerment and how resource access mediates this relationship. The research results were reported


INTRODUCTION
Economic empowerment and poverty alleviation are terms that go hand in hand.Through economic empowerment, individuals, communities, and nations are given the tools they need to improve their economic standing and alleviate poverty in their countries and worldwide (Nejadrezaei & Ben-Othmen, 2019).Increased empowerment means more opportunities to increase savings and wealth, and reduce society's poverty level.Poverty alleviation is a duty of every government that claims to be democratic or accountable and is, therefore, pursued by authorities worldwide (Cernev & Fenner, 2020, Rada, 2010).To lift their citizens out of abject poverty, governments have enacted various laws and programs designed to help individuals find appropriate jobs and have access to financial resources so they may start their enterprises.Despite the expressed concerns of past governments and the plethora of programs and policies that have a bearing on poverty, the incidence and the scourge of poverty have worsened over the years.
Increasing agricultural production has become one of the most important ways to close the gap between securing food resources and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include ending poverty and hunger, protecting natural resources (like water and energy), fighting climate change and its effects, and stopping the loss of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems.Aligning current agricultural policies with the UN-SDGs is essential for switching to cleaner and eco-friendlier food production, especially for countries like Gaza Strip and Hungary, with different geography and populations.The research shows that even though the government has enough food, getting food to everyone in the country is still a significant problem, as is the fact that some SDGs indicators and their data values do not match up.Also, a critical analysis of both operational and recommended agriculture and farmer welfare policies shows that making an overarching policy that affects the sustainable management of agricultural systems and putting social welfare programs into place properly would help the Gaza Strip and Hungary reach SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), and SDG 8 (access to resources) on time.
Despite its natural wealth, the Gaza Strip remains poor, with little social development.According to the World Bank, two-thirds of the population is poor.Corruption of leaders and officials in public and commercial sectors is a key contributor to worsening poverty in developing nations, primarily due to a lack of institutional infrastructure to promote accountability (Tran, 2022;Nguen, 2022, Rada 2011).This leads to more crucial poverty and unfair income distribution as it is estimated using the official data due to the significant share of incomes remaining out of observations (Mishchuk et al., 2018).As a result, funding for

No poverty
Poverty occurs when a person's income is below what is considered to be the minimum standard of living.Lack of money or other resources makes it challenging to meet fundamental human needs like eating, sleeping, and not having a good home.People experiencing poverty are individuals who struggle to meet basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.Their low level of education also prevents them from fulfilling their most fundamental requirements (Lynch et al., 2020;Wongnaa et al., 2019).Thus, the impoverished are characterized by widespread illiteracy, poor health, and short life spans.They even lack essential resources such as education, training, and career opportunities.These people cannot satisfy their social and financial needs (Jouquet et al., 2020;Nommela & Kaare, 2021;Nasir et al., 2022).
The poor are those with income below the poverty line who lack access to essential services, valuable contacts, and other forms of support.Poor people are isolated in different areas where basic infrastructure is not found.Governments in all developing nations, incredibly Gaza Strip, have demonstrated their commitment to improving the socioeconomic wellbeing of people with low incomes through various efforts.In Hungary, the catching-up is slow and happens with moderate income inequality and poverty.After the shifts of local power led to the conservative populist majority in the local council, an anti-poverty program was created to alleviate and manage to alleviate poverty, according to Sobczak et al. (2021).The first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 1) aims to end poverty in all its manifestations by 2030, ensure social protection for the poor and vulnerable, increase access to essential services, and support people harmed by climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters (Firoiu et al., 2019;Ahmad et al., 2022a;Ahmad et al., 2022b).

Zero hunger
Populations are considered hungry when they spend days without eating owing to a lack of money, access to food, or other resources (Asiedu et al., 2020;Danso-Abbeam et al., 2021;Saáry et al, 2021;Pató et al, 2022, Garai-Fodor -Popovics, 2021;2022).Hunger is the distress associated with a lack of food.Hunger is one indicator of poverty, influenced by a complex web of social, political, demographic, and economic factors.Poor people are more likely to experience food insecurity at home, face inappropriate care practices, and live in dangerous locations with limited access to quality water, sanitation facilities, and education (Ayompe et al., 2021).A large portion of a family's budget in Gaza goes toward purchasing food.The regular distribution of essential food commodities to some people has had a broader stabilizing impact and formed a collective safety net in a highly constrained market environment under protracted access and movement restrictions, which have been made even more difficult by current global price fluctuations (El Bilbeisi et al., 2022).On the other hand, Sobczak et al. (2021) stated that there has been no improvement in the living conditions of the poorest Hungarians, and poverty remains a serious societal issue in the country.
The second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2) aims to end hunger, improve food security and nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.The goal seeks to eliminate hunger and all types of malnutrition by 2030.Providing "universal access to safe, healthy, and adequate food at all times of the year" is another goal.Sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices, equitable access to land for farmers and communities, technology and markets, and international cooperation on investments in infrastructure and technology to boost agricultural productivity are necessary for achieving SDG 2 (Cernev & Fenner, 2020;Naidoo et al., 2021;Bhagat & Magda, 2021;Szemere et al., 2021).

Resource access
Resources are many different things that can work together to support the exchanges between an individual and their environment.In general, a resource is seen as a way for a person to improve their life by allowing them to act in everyday situations (Sobczak et al., 2021).The power of a resource comes from the fact that it is available, easy to use, practical, and supported by other resources that are also available and easy to use.In economics, a person's resources are the tools, goods, and services available to them, whether from the private sector, associations, or the public sector.Resources are all knowledge, declarative and procedural, structural and functional, related to abilities for different parts of behaviour that define an individual at a certain point in their life, according to Leal Filho et al. (2021).In other words, resources include the information stored in memory and the ways that information is activated and used.The resource is also defined as any available, accessible, and usable means that a person thinks will help them do their activity.A resource environment is an incentive environment that gives a person what they need to identify, activate, and coordinate relevant resources for their activity and develop and use alternative resources to stay "competent to act" when normal resources aren't available according to Priyadarshini & Abhilash (2020).
Limits on breeding and grazing make it challenging to maintain cattle, which is particularly problematic for the people of Gaza who have no legal claim to the land they live on.While Palestinian herders are only allowed access to 31% of Palestinian rangeland, Palestinian fishermen have only been allowed access to 35% of the area allocated to them under the Oslo Accords in Gaza, a coastal zone with 35,000 fishermen (6 out of 20 nautical miles).In April 2016, when Israel raised the permissible sea access in certain areas to nine nautical miles, the amount of fish captured surged more than fivefold, according to Asi (2020).Since the conflict in 2014, four fish farms have been constructed in Gaza to help locals get around fishing bans.Due to electrical outages, these farms have to import fish eggs from Israel, which adds to business difficulty.The worldwide focus on climate change has highlighted the Palestinian people's loss of environmental rights.The Israeli government began supplying Palestinian farmers with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, which led to increased contamination and pollution, according to Priyadarshini & Abhilash (2020).Lower yields and an increase in soil pests resulted from a decline in plant variety and an increase in mono-cropping.Since most Israeli settlements are situated on hills, their sewage can seep into Palestinian communities, where it might taint drinking water and destroy crops.Palestinians living close to settlements said they saw a decline in business and quality of crops and the deaths of animals that drank the sewage water.
Regarding Hungary's vegetable value chain.Pesticide-free or significantly reduced pesticide use in vegetable production strategies were investigated.Despite their extreme marginalization and disempowerment, the findings highlighted the need for more value-driven and market-driven engagement, the diversity of vertical and horizontal production arrangements, and promising alternative vegetable food systems in Hungary.UNESCO examined agroecology projects in Hungary and discovered that the country's ecological agricultural sector had grown by a factor of ten over the previous two decades, implying that it could catch up to the EU average in the not-too-distant future (Salazar et al., 2020).

Economic empowerment
Economic empowerment occurs when poor people acquire the resources and knowledge necessary to engage with, negotiate with, influence, and manage the systems that affect their daily lives, as well as to hold those systems accountable for their wellbeing (Ladha et al., 2020;Sarkar et al., 2021).Due to the complex nature of poverty, those living in it need a wide range of resources and skills to enhance their financial situation.These include access to quality healthcare, education, housing, and the capacity to pool resources and take the required actions.Removing formal and informal institutional barriers that prevent poor people from taking action to improve their own or their community's wellbeing is essential to empowering them.Most people think of formal institutions as the state, markets, civil society, and international organizations, but there are also informal institutions, including social exclusion norms, exploitative relationships, and corruption.Financial intervention to support local business activities (increased access to credit), citizen enterprise development (increased access to skills, business and management training, and improved production technologies), marketing strategies for locally produced goods and services (increased access to markets), and bargaining for higher wages and better working conditions are just some of the six broad categories that make up economic empowerment strategies (Yang et al., 2020).
Economic oppression (such as politically induced poverty and reduced employment opportunities) and structural violence were studied to determine their effects in the Gaza Strip.A lack of psychological health, human instability, many losses, humiliation, shame, damage to dignity, and a sense that one's life is on hold were all linked to economic oppression and structural violence.It has been stated that the people of the Gaza Strip experience a kind of existential pain peculiar to the region as a result of the region's harsh political and economic sectors.Violence-affected persons may find that unemployment and the resulting poverty are even more traumatic than the actual conflict itself, according to Sarkar et al. (2021).
Hungarian conceptualizations of well-being include meeting needs.Gabrić-Molnar & Teréz (2019) found that Hungarians view employment as an element of wellbeing or quality of life.Employment was found to be a protective factor for wellbeing in Hungary.Restoring livelihoods can be expected to have a beneficial impact on the wellbeing of conflict-affected people.The Economic Empowerment Program (EEP) is an intervention offered as part of the youth empowerment program by Prosperitati Foundation based in Hungary, which was opened to all young people across Hungary.The EEP consisted of a nineday training course focused on establishing and managing an income-generating project.The Prosperitati Foundation arranged for the training to be delivered by external trainers/experts in the field.The criteria for a grant award included an assessment of the quality of the proposal, the type of project being proposed and whether it was needed in the community, the feasibility of the project, and the geographical location of where they proposed to set up their project and whether there were other existing businesses offering similar services/products in the locality according to Gabrić-Molnar & Teréz (2019).

The impact of no poverty on economic empowerment
To reduce poverty and hunger, development in general, and a flourishing smallholder private agricultural sector in particular, will need to be encouraged.Encouragement of development is the most effective strategy to assist impoverished farmers and inhabitants in becoming more productive and improving their living conditions.It's also essential for expanding the national and global food supply (Younis et al., 2021).Furthermore, development may significantly help better managing natural resources and the environment.At the household, national, and international levels, steps must be taken to increase agricultural productivity, reduce poverty, and improve health and nutrition.Although overall poverty, infrastructure, and farming initiatives will gradually improve nutrition, targeted measures will likely have a more immediate and substantial effect (Ayompe et al., 2021).
Economic empowerment focusing on agriculture and raising the earnings of low-income family farmers and landless workers is especially effective at alleviating poverty.Agricultural expansion impacts poverty reduction by raising farm incomes, and agricultural development increases food availability, which lessens malnutrition.According to Brück et al. (2019), no sustained economic empowerment or food security can be sustained without significant changes in regions.Agriculture strengthening focused on poverty reduction, and food security is a critical step toward reaching worldwide development objectives.An adequate nutritious food supply is vital to achieving long-term poverty and hunger reduction.It also emphasizes that progress will not be sustained until it addresses the many causes of hunger and poverty.
Before communities develop, policymakers must lay the groundwork and chart the way.Development projects have a tremendous impact on income and social empowerment.Policies providing chances for families to achieve better wages alleviate poverty (Nejadrezaei & Ben-Othmen, 2019;Szilágyi, 2019).Complementary procedures, such as infrastructure loans and extension services, are required to ensure better levels of wellbeing.In many affluent nations with relatively low poverty levels today, agricultural growth often preceded industrialization.Even though agricultural expansion does not necessarily ensure a decrease in poverty, it frequently helps to reduce poverty by boosting farmers' income, providing jobs and lowering food costs, mainly when agricultural plans target smallholder farmers (Danso-Abbeam et al., 2021).These consequences in economic development are highly affected by public policy on resource planning.Particularly, public debt causes poverty due to the negative impact on domestic investment (Tung, 2020).
Instead, the efforts of policymakers regarding the labor market development and ensuring a decrease in unemployment lead to the growth of wellbeing (Aliyev, 2021) Poverty is caused by inadequate development strategy formulation, execution, and monitoring.Improving the community's economic, social, and environmental circumstances results in development.These three factors complement one another and contribute to the person's and community's overall betterment.Policymakers learned that development planning with local involvement is pointless unless the poor are empowered as a viable route out of poverty (Brück et al., 2019).The participation of government policy in improving food security at both the household and national levels since establishing and maintaining food security is the outcome of poverty and hunger reductions.

The impact of zero hunger on economic empowerment
Food shortages have plagued humanity throughout history and are a significant issue in many parts of the world today.Jouquet et al. (2020) stated that in 2017, over 124 million people across 51 countries and territories faced emergency levels of extreme food insecurity, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance.Global environmental, social, and economic challenges such as resource shortages, ecological degradation, and climate change converge in food systems.Wongnaa et al. (2019) reported that 47 percent of the world's population, or 5.5 million, were severely malnourished in 2017.How we produce, distribute, and consume food is closely related to poverty, hunger and malnutrition, inadequate diets, land degradation, water scarcity, social injustice, biodiversity loss, and climate change.Land, water, and ecosystem degradation; biodiversity loss; excessive greenhouse gas emissions; chronic malnutrition and hunger; and a failure to eliminate poverty, particularly in different areas, are all negative outcomes of our current food systems.According to Ayompe et al. (2021), the need to transition to more sustainable food systems is underscored by the fact that future food systems must maintain food and nutrition security while coping with unprecedented sustainability issues.
It is impossible to separate hunger from poverty since food insecurity is a global problem, and finding solutions is a top priority.Countries worldwide have taken action to improve people's access to nutritious food via initiatives like the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals and their national policies.Land use planning is the key for the developmental plans (Aboelnaga et al, 2021).According to research by Danso-Abbeam et al. (2017), the Zero Hunger goal requires executing all aspects of the 2030 Agenda in ways that benefit people worldwide.
OCHA provided the world's most comprehensive, authoritative, and evidence-based assessment of humanitarian needs in its Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) reference in 2022.OCHA found that women and girls, who make up 60% of the world's chronically food-insecure population, bear the brunt of the effects of these overlapping crises.Women are more likely than males to report food insecurity in over two-thirds of nations.There are now 584,000 individuals in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan, and Yemen who are at risk of hunger.Worryingly, the situation in Nigeria hasn't improved much either, and hunger is a real threat in the conflict-affected northeast.As violence continues to erupt in northern Ethiopia, the consequences are catastrophic (Abdulkadr & Neszmélyi, 2021).Midway through 2020, at least 5.5 million people in the three areas of Afar, Amhara, and Tigray were suffering from severe food insecurity and were in critical need of food assistance.
A severe food shortage hit Afghanistan in 2020 in which twenty-two million Afghans are currently suffering from extreme hunger (more than half the population).This number includes 8.7 million individuals who are at immediate risk of hunger.By the end of the year, acute malnutrition is predicted to affect 3.2 million children less than five years old.Half of Yemen's population (16.2 million people) is experiencing some form of food insecurity, with 5 million.The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan has escalated as a result of recent floods that have swept away whole towns and overwhelmed the country's limited ability to react.The number of conflicts worldwide and the number of attacks on people spiked in 2021, especially in Africa.Many conflict-affected countries are expected to see an increase in armed violence in the coming months.Nearly 16 million people in 15 countries faced food insecurity due to extreme climate and weather in 2020 according GHO provided by OCHA (2022).

The Mediating impact of resource access on the relationship between no poverty and economic empowerment
Poverty reduction is the goal of development, which can be accomplished through economic empowerment.This is based on the idea of the trickledown effect, which states that the development of a group of people will naturally trickle down, producing employment and economic opportunities, and eventually growing diverse circumstances to build an equitable distribution of economic empowerment (Ayompe et al., 2021).Economic empowerment that is beneficial to people experiencing poverty may positively influence poverty reduction.Economic empowerment is required for poverty reduction; growth should be dispersed across all income groups, including the poor (growth with equity).According to Jouquet et al. (2020), economic empowerment has a detrimental impact on poverty.This suggests that poverty reduction accompanies increased economic empowerment.Cernev & Fenner (2020) discovered that economic expansion had little influence on poverty.The link between growth and poverty does not occur immediately.This indicates that economic development does not permanently alleviate poverty.Based on the mentioned findings, it can be notices that the intervening factors mediate the relationship between economic empowerment and poverty.Lynch et al. (2020) investigated whether job opportunities mediate the relationship between economic empowerment and poverty.Unemployment is, therefore, one of the reasons for poverty.Economic empowerment must be capable of creating employment to relieve poverty.Economic empowerment is often driven by capital-intensive industries that do not offer employment for the community and so have little influence on poverty reduction, according to empirical evidence.
The relevance of employment possibilities in the link between economic empowerment and poverty reduction is based on the assumption that strong economic empowerment should create many jobs.Employment opportunities are critical to the influence of economic expansion on poverty reduction.Furthermore, work possibilities and poverty are inextricably linked.This is confirmed by Asiedu et al. (2020) results, which show that raising the dependence ratio would increase the share of people living in poverty.Infrastructure development, among other things, facilitates the movement of people, goods, and services and is intended to have an impact on poverty alleviation.
Infrastructure development is required to support business (Cernev & Fenner, 2020).Therefore, infrastructure upgrades are projected to promote prosperity, raise people's income, and eliminate poverty.Human capital includes education.Investment in human capital (education, skills, and health) may boost production and revenue, resulting in increased wellbeing.These links are proved in many related works, particularly in the research of Hamdan and Hamdan (2020) and Samoliuk et al. (2021).The first sign of poverty alleviation is education.This is because the higher the degree of education, the better the prospects of finding work and earning a reasonable living (Vágány, 2021).

The Mediating impact of resource access on the relationship between zero hunger and economic empowerment
Social difficulties influencing agriculture aimed to provide household with access to food resources and people's capacity to live healthy lives.As a result, the correlational analysis aimed to justify the relationship between the indicators related to health and agriculture within leading agricultural country.Women's empowerment is promoted as a development aim for two reasons.First, it is claimed that social justice is essential to human flourishing and is fundamentally worthwhile to pursue (Naidoo et al, 2021).
Second, women's empowerment is a route to other goals such as development, household food security, and poverty reduction.As a result, achieving household food security may be one of the most important accomplishments of women's empowerment.One of the main reasons for food insecurity and worldwide hunger is a lack of empowerment among women.Empowering women gives them greater control over their lives, improving food security and driving human growth.Increased asset ownership by women (resource empowerment) has influenced family food security in several nations (Leal Filho et al., 2021).The similar findings are obtained by Adnan and Amri (2021) with empirical evidence of a negative and significant effect of gender empowerment on poverty.
Aside from different types of women's empowerment, additional household socioeconomic characteristics hypothesized to impact food security in research on this subject include income, family size, dependence ratio, and related concerns.The degree of family income is a crucial driver of the access component of food security.This is because family income impacts a household's capacity to get food.Households with higher income levels have greater access to food (Cernev & Fenner, 2020).
Individuals earning capacity is determined by their level of education and employment, which directly impacts family food security.A big family may be a danger or an advantage regarding food security (Ayompe et al., 2021).The larger the family, the more people there are to feed from the available food.As a result, several studies have shown a link between family size and food insecurity.At the same time, there is a chance that the big family size will supply more working individuals, lowering the family's risk of food insecurity.As a result, the dependency ratio was negatively related to food security.

Research area
This section provides an overview of poverty and hunger in both the Gaza Strip and Hungary and considered the scope of the research in which the questionnaires were distributed for data collection.

Overview of poverty and hunger in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip is a small (365 square kilometers) yet highly populated (2,166,269 people), according to PCBS (2022).In recent years, the Palestinian territories have suffered a progressive drop in economic performance and political instability.Since before the 2014 war, the Gaza Strip's economy has been in decline.Prolonged war, economic stagnation, limited trade and access to resources in Palestine, and high unemployment and poverty pose severe hurdles to implementing SDGs 1 and 2 on no poverty and zero hunger, food security, and better nutrition.
The most severe military clashes since 2014 broke out in Gaza in May 2021.The collapse of all economic sectors, essential social services, and infrastructures has led to dire humanitarian circumstances in Gaza, where 53% and 64.4% live in poverty and food insecurity, respectively.Fifteen years of sea, land, and air blockade have weakened Gaza's social and economic circumstances.Overlapping nutritional issues are a direct result of inadequate dietary diversity.About half of the individuals tested in nationwide surveys had dangerously low concentrations of main nutrients, according to PCBS (2020).
Providing coupons helps feed the people living in Gaza, saves money for local farmers, and keeps money in the community.Households experiencing food insecurity may benefit significantly from conditional financial assistance since it will allow them to safeguard their family and community assets better.Rehabilitating and providing essential assets, increasing the quality and sustainability of local production, and facilitating access to a job, education, and training opportunities are all crucial steps in restoring and boosting the productive potential of vulnerable food-insecure families (Lin et al., 2022).
Since its inception in 1991, the World Food Programme (WFP) in Palestine has delivered food assistance to the most vulnerable non-refugee populations and technical advice to ministries and other partners.WFP supports government initiatives such as universal health care and retirement programs to reduce poverty.Gaza Strip is one of the WFP's primary areas of attention due to its high rates of food insecurity.
Food insecurity is a major global nutritional problem, especially in poor and middle-income nations.The preliminary results of El Bilbeisi et al. ( 2022) indicate that over 68% of families (about 1.3 million people) in the Gaza Strip, are either severely or moderately food-insecure.In addition, among children less than 5 years old, stunting (10.3%), underweight (2.5%), and wasting (2.4%) continue to be the most common forms of undernutrition.Children's physical quality of life suffers from food insecurity, and as a result, they are less able to participate in regular activities.
Directly, conflict-associated behaviors like the occupation of farmlands, destruction of animals, and theft of crops may raise food expenditures, diminish dietary diversity, and undermine food security.Agricultural output may be disrupted, and farmers' investment choices might be influenced, which have a knock-on effect on food insecurity.Conflict-affected families often experience shocks unrelated to the conflict, further complicating the link between the two (i.e., economic instability (Lin et al., 2022).Households in these areas may resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as a higher calorie or less varied diet, to make it through the conflict.Research suggests that to improve calorie intake and lessen the effects of food poverty, some people may resort to less diverse diets at home.However, precise data from conflict situations are uncommon, making it difficult to deconstruct and examine the complexities of the relationship between violence and food insecurity.
According to a study conducted by Nassar, Naárné Tóth, and Vasa (2022), the Gaza Strip relied heavily on leaders with innovative skills to ensure food security and humanitarian assistance.Furthermore, NGOs may be able to remain sustainable due to the creativity of the leadership and because innovation is recognized as a necessary component for the sustainability of NGOs to ensure food security in the Gaza Strip.In addition, other research conducted by Nassar, Naárné Tóth, and Vasa (2021) found that the resilience ability of many families in the Gaza Strip has increased as a result of humanitarian assistance provided by NGOs, which leads to poverty reduction, and household resilience plays a critical role in minimizing poverty and alleviating suffering by empowering and engaging them in the economy.

Overview of poverty and hunger in Hungary
Hungary is a country in Central Europe and shares borders with Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.The main river in Hungary, the Danube, cuts the country into two parts with flat to rolling plains.The government is a parliamentary democracy, with the president as the head of state and the prime minister as the head of government.Hungary has changed from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, with a free pricing system setting prices goods and services.In addition, It is a member of the EU (Dian et al. (2019).
However, the income gap between the poor and the rest of society is increasing.The severe material deprivation rate is relatively high at a national level but is particularly high, at 26.6% in the lowest income quintile.Poverty as a social problem in Hungary is mainly manifested in persistent marginalization and severe material deprivation of the most vulnerable groups, whose situation has hardly changed over the past years (Mohammed et al., 2022).
The Hungarian government provides those who need it in nurseries and schools to cut down on the number of hungry children.About 370,000 children get free meals from the government.Food programs like the Food Aid Program give almost 50 million pounds of food annually.The EU Food Assistance Program also gives food to about 11% of Hungary's population, about 1.2 million people.Even though there is still a lot of poverty and hunger in the country, there is still hope that it can be fixed.The government is always trying to solve the problem of hunger.Thanks to community programs and government support, slow, steady progress is being made.This shows that ending hunger in Hungary is possible (Brück et al., 2019).

METHODOLOGY
The research implemented a quantitative methodology approach which relied on distributing a survey constructed based on the research variables in both Gaza Strip and Hungary for data collection.The data was distributed using google forms over a sample of 700 respondents.However, 616 respondents filled the survey, in which 316 respondents filled the survey from Gaza Strip and 300 respondents filled the survey from Hungary and the data collected were analyzed using the SPSS statistical tool to research the impact of No Poverty and Zero Hunger on Economic Empowerment and how Resource Access mediates this relationship.The research had been applied in both Gaza Strip and Hungary, and the results were reported using descriptive and regression analysis, noting that the mediation analysis had been based on the method of Barron and Kenney.Referring to table 2, the age of 319 respondents was between 20-29 years, where 146 were between 30-39 years, and 113 were between 40-49 years.However, 30 respondents were between 50-59 years, and eight respondents were 60 years.Table 5 represents the validity and reliability analysis conducted to test whether the data collected is valid and reliable.Referring to the rule of thumb, it states that if the Cronbach Alpha (CA) is less than 0.5, then the data is not valid; if the Cronbach Alpha is between 0.5 and 0.7, then the data is valid and reliable but contains some bias, and if the Cronbach Alpha is 0.7 and above then the data is ready for statistical analysis.

Validity analysis
Referring to the table, it can be noted that "No Poverty", "Zero Hunger", "Resources Access", and "Economic Empowerment" scored a CA of 0.813, 0.782, 0.780, and 0.765 respectively, which means that the data is valid and ready for statistical analysis.Table 6 shows the normality distribution of the variables and data set in which the mean value for each variable falls between 3.6781 and 3.7656, indicating that, on average, the respondents have a relatively positive perception of the four factors measured: No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Resource Access, and Economic Empowerment.The 95% confidence intervals for the means of each variable are relatively narrow, with upper and lower bounds less than 0.05.This suggests that the sample size is large enough to provide a reliable estimate of the population mean.The minimum and maximum values for each variable fall within the range of 1 to 5, indicating that all respondents provided valid responses and did not indicate extreme values.The skewness values for each variable are negative, meaning that the data are slightly skewed to the left but not excessively so.

Normality distribution
The kurtosis values for each variable are close to 1, indicating that the data are approximately normally distributed.Overall, the statistics suggest that the sample is reliable and that respondents have a generally positive perception of the four factors measured.

Regression analysis
This section addressed the regression analysis to validate the research hypothesis and discuss the breakdown of two main subsections, the Gaza Strip and Hungary; each section contained two regression analyses to validate the assumptions and then come up with a comparison between the Gaza Strip and Hungary based on the statistical analysis results. Figure ( 1) introduced the research model implemented throughout the research.

Gaza Strip
This section constituted of two regression analyses; the first regression aimed to research the relationship between independent variables (No Poverty and Zero Hunger) and the dependent variable (Economic Empowerment), and the second regression addressed the impact of the mediator (Resource Access) on the relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable based on the data collected in Gaza Strip.The regression analysis in table 7 revealed a moderately strong positive linear relationship between the independent variables, No Poverty and Zero Hunger, and the dependent variable, Economic Empowerment.The correlation coefficient, or R, is 0.819, indicating that there is a positive association between the variables.Furthermore, the coefficient of determination, or R Square, is 0. R Square, which takes into account the number of independent variables and the sample size, is slightly lower at 0.612.The Standard Error of the Estimate, which measures the average distance between the dependent variable's actual values and the model's predicted values, is 0.810.The unstandardized coefficients, or B values, represent the slope of the regression line for each independent variable.The B value for No Poverty is 0.546, indicating that a one-unit increase in No Poverty is associated with a 0.546 unit increase in Economic Empowerment, holding other variables constant.Similarly, the B value for Zero Hunger is 0.436, indicating that a one-unit increase in Zero Hunger is associated with a 0.436 unit increase in Economic Empowerment, holding other variables constant.Both B values are statistically significant, as indicated by the t-test results, with p-values of 0.001 and 0.003 for No Poverty and Zero Hunger, respectively.

Regression one: Relationship between no poverty, zero hunger and economic empowerment
The regression analysis provides evidence of a positive relationship between No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Economic Empowerment.The results suggest that reducing poverty and hunger may contribute to increased economic empowerment.However, it is essential to note that the model only explains a portion of the variation in Economic Empowerment, and there may be other factors that the model does not capture.
This had led to the validation of the following hypothesis: H1: The relationship between No Poverty and Economic Empowerment in Gaza Strip is accepted.

H2:
The relationship between Zero Hunger and Economic Empowerment in Gaza Strip is accepted.8 represents the regression analysis conducted based on the data collected from the Gaza Strip to research the mediating effect of "Resource Access" on the relationship between "No Poverty", "Zero Hunger", and "Economic Empowerment".The regression analysis indicates a strong positive linear relationship between the independent variables, No Poverty, Zero Hunger, the dependent variable, Economic Empowerment and the mediator Resource Access.The correlation coefficient, or R, is 0.895, indicating a strong positive association between the variables.The coefficient of determination, or R Square, is 0.786, meaning that the two independent variables and the mediator can explain 78.6% of the variation in Economic Empowerment.The adjusted R Square is 0.671, indicating that the model may not fit as well when considering the number of independent variables and sample size.

Regression two: mediating effect of resource access on the relationship between no poverty, zero hunger and economic empowerment
The Standard Error of the Estimate is 0.821, which is the average distance between the dependent variable's actual values and the model's predicted values.
The unstandardized coefficients, or B values, indicate the slope of the regression line for each independent variable.The B value for No Poverty is 0.639, meaning that a one-unit increase in No Poverty is associated with a 0.639-unit increase in Economic Empowerment, holding other variables constant.Similarly, the B value for Zero Hunger is 0.582, indicating that a one-unit increase in Zero Hunger is associated with a 0.582-unit increase in Economic Empowerment, holding other variables constant.The B value for Resource Access is 0.605, indicating that a one-unit increase in Resource Access is associated with a 0.605-unit increase in Economic Empowerment, holding other variables constant.All three B values are statistically significant, as indicated by the t-test results, with p-values of 0.004, 0.007, and 0.005 for No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Resource Access, respectively.
The regression analysis provides evidence of a strong positive relationship between No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Resource Access, and Economic Empowerment.The results suggest that reducing poverty, hunger, and improving resource access may contribute to increased economic empowerment.However, it is important to note that the model only explains a portion of the variation in Economic Empowerment, and there may be other factors that the model does not capture.It can be noted that after the mediating variable had been used in regression two, the Beta of "No Poverty" increased from 0.546 in regression one to 0.639 in regression two, as for "Zero Hunger", its Beta had increased from 0.436 in regression one to 0.582 in regression two.
It also can be noted that after using the mediator, the R had increased from 0.819 in regression one to 0.895 in regression two, which means that "Resource Access" mediates the relationship between "No Poverty" and "Zero Hunger" and "Economic Empowerment" in Gaza Strip.This led us to validate the following hypothesis: H3: Resource Access mediates the relationship between No Poverty and Economic Empowerment in Gaza Strip is accepted.
H4: Resource Access mediates the relationship between Zero Hunger and Economic Empowerment in Gaza Strip is accepted.

Hungary
This section constituted of two regression analyses; the first regression aimed to research the relationship between independent variables (No Poverty and Zero Hunger) and the dependent variable (Economic Empowerment), and the second regression addressed the impact of the mediator (Resource Access) on the relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable based on the data collected in Hungary.  10 represents the regression analysis conducted based on the data collected from Hungary to research the mediating effect of "Resource Access" on the relationship between "No Poverty", "Zero Hunger", and "Economic Empowerment".The model has an R of 0.823, indicating a strong positive correlation between the predictor and dependent variables.The R Square of 0.723 indicates that the predictor variables can explain 72.3% of the variance in the dependent variable.However, the Adjusted R Square of 0.643 indicates that only 64.3% of the variance in the dependent variable can be explained by the predictor variables, after taking into account the number of predictor variables in the model.The Standard Error of the Estimate is 2.326, indicating the average distance that the observed values fall from the predicted values.The Unstandardized Coefficients show the magnitude and direction of the relationship between each predictor variable and the dependent variable.The regression equation can be expressed as Y = 0.907X1 + 0.437X2 + 0.623X3 + 0.897, where X1 represents No Poverty, X2 represents Zero Hunger, X3 represents Resource Access, and Y represents Economic Empowerment.All three predictor variables have significant positive coefficients, indicating that an increase in each predictor variable is associated with an increase in the dependent variable.The Sig shows the significance level of each coefficient.value, with all three predictor variables having values less than 0.01, indicating a statistically significant relationship.

Regression two: mediating effect of resource access on the relationship between no poverty, zero hunger and economic empowerment
It can be noted that after the mediating variable had been used in regression two, the Beta of "No poverty" increased from 0.532 in regression one to 0.907 in regression two, as for "Zero Hunger", its Beta had increased from 0.377 in regression one to 0.437 in regression two.It also can be noted that after using the mediator, the R had increased from 0.764 in regression one to 0.823 in regression two, which means that "Resource Access" mediates the relationship between "No Poverty" and "Zero Hunger" and "Economic Empowerment" in Hungary.This led us to validate the following hypothesis:  The above table compares the Gaza Strip and Hungary based on the regression analysis results.It can be noted that the Beta of "No Poverty" in Gaza is 0.546, which is higher than that of Hungary, which is 0.532, which means that the Gaza Strip suffers from a higher rate of poverty than Hungary due to many reasons such as the Israel Attacks.At the same time, Hungary is enrolled in the European Union.It gets financial and economic aid from European Countries, adding to the continuous empowerment and donations from the United States to minimize poverty and the findings of this research complies with the findings of (El Bilbeisi et al., 2022).

Comparison between Gaza Strip and Hungary
It can also be noted that "Zero Hunger" in Gaza Strip had Beta of 0.436, which is higher than that of Hungary, which scored Beta of 0.377, and that is due to the high poverty rates in the Gaza Strip and the absence of the required funding to support the hunger and poverty programs to alleviate both poverty and hunger, as for Hungary it has specific programs to alleviate poverty and ensure food security for its citizens and the findings of this research complies with the findings of Asi (2020).
At last, it can be noted that "Resource Access" play an essential role in minimizing hunger and poverty and increasing economic empowerment in both Gaza Strip and Hungary since providing citizens with the suitable resources like education, appropriate training, enhancing women empowerment, and agricultural programs tend to minimize poverty and hunger and increase economic empowerment and by that reflecting better economic performance.

Discussion of findings
It is essential to have comprehensive empowerment policies to decrease poverty.Most people experiencing poverty live in Gaza Strip, and if we want to help them, we need to concentrate on developing more programs to alleviate poverty and hunger in a modern and sustainable manner since that's what will create employment, increase incomes and consumption, and decrease food costs.Governments need to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses to aid communities in expanding.While primary programs may provide a viable income for those living in different regions, there is always the potential for diversification.Recognizing and capitalizing on different areas' variety or growth might significantly impact lowering poverty levels.There is an urgent need to address the issue of food security, which will need a renewed commitment from governments, farmers, national policymakers, and international donors.
Empowerment projects that use pre-existing social capital-based networks are more likely to affect economic empowerment and food security.Empowerment agents that invest time and energy in collaborating with these groups can facilitate meaningful increases in productivity, family income, and information exchange.Developing strategies that consider local social institutions and how links are forged and maintained between farmers, community leaders, NGOs, and the appropriate government agencies within and outside regions is crucial for sustainable development.
Most people in Gaza and Hungary are involved in the agricultural sector since it is the most effective solution to alleviate hunger and poverty.Organizations that aim to aid empowerment tend to concentrate their efforts on agriculture on a home or family size.In lifting people out of poverty, economic empowerment is at least twice as successful as progress in any other industry.Mechanisation, especially precision farming, may play a major role in increasing agricultural production (Erdeiné Késmárki-Gally & Rák, 2018;Erdeiné Késmárki-Gally, 2020).Agriculture is more effective than other industries at alleviating poverty, particularly for the poorest individuals.Increasing agricultural production is often prioritized above empowerment, even though the former is more important.For instance, if incorporating medium-sized farmers can significantly boost production, it is unlikely that a program designed to aid small farmers with advice or extension will exclude them.
As a result, agriculture has the potential to be the most effective strategy for alleviating poverty and ensuring adequate food supplies in different regions.If people don't perceive the value of community empowerment programs like food gardens, food insecurity, and malnutrition will persist, particularly in different areas.Home food gardening, intercropping, and the introduction of high-value crops are all examples of how agricultural operations may have an immediate impact on food security; yet, nobody is pitching in to help make things better.
Food production and the formation of entrepreneurs who may participate in "accumulation from below" are both important empowerment goals.This is because smallholder farmers, who can create a surplus that may be sold, fall outside of the typical scope of large-scale commercial farms or small-scale home gardens for food security.Due to its positive effects on the economy and the reduction of hunger and poverty, agriculture plays a crucial role in helping poor communities rise beyond their circumstances.

CONCLUSION
Education has many positive effects on economic empowerment and poverty alleviation.Education has the potential to increase the population's income and application of information, as well as to increase production and economic literacy.The absence of resources is a leading cause of poverty and hunger since education can only improve resources.Education is important for enhancing economic empowerment and minimizing poverty because a community cannot lift itself out of poverty if its members lack the education and are trained to do it.A higher possibility of increased worker productivity is associated with higher education, knowledge, and competence.Overall, a person's wellbeing is measured by their income and expenditures will be greater if they are highly productive.The low productivity of people experiencing poverty might be a result of the community's lack of access to education.
The consequent economic improvement and decrease in poverty have been attributed to this scenario.Education is a big investment in securing a high-paying job, which is essential in the fight against poverty, the advancement of women, and the prevention of child exploitation.Individuals with more education tend to be more knowledgeable and competent on the job, leading to better output.The lack of opportunity to further one's education may be to blame for the low output of the impoverished.Human capital is the idea that the value of a company may be increased by investing in its people by improving their levels of education, health, and other factors that contribute to productivity.The extent to which a nation can adapt to new technologies and develop in a sustainable and competent way is directly related to the success of its efforts to alleviate poverty via economic empowerment.Human capital is widely recognized as an important factor in economic expansion, poverty alleviation, and advancing development goals that seek to expand individual liberties.Furthermore, the Millennium Development Goals focus on modern global advancements has positioned improvements in quality human capital as the major target by making it easier for people to access education, health, and so on.
Poverty alleviation is composed of six factors, including (1) human capital, especially in health, nutrition, and skills acquired through education and training; (2) business capital facilities required in transportation for agriculture, industry, and service; and (3) business capital facilities required in transportation for agriculture, industry, and service.(4) Capital of public institutions, including commercial law, judicial law, and government services; (5) intellectual capital in the form of scientific and technical know-how that boosts productivity and, by extension, natural capital; and (6) sanitation, to name a few.With the right education, everyone may find work, increase their output, and raise their standard of living.
Therefore, education has the potential to end the vicious cycle of poverty and isolation, enhancing individual wellbeing and promoting societal progress.The effect of infrastructure on poverty is negative and insignificant.

H3:
Resource Access mediates the relationship between No Poverty and Economic Empowerment in Hungary is accepted.H4: Resource Access mediates the relationship between Zero Hunger and Economic Empowerment in Hungary is accepted

Table 1 Gender
Referring to table 1, 300 of the respondents were females, and 316 of the respondents were males.

Table 3
Educational Level Referring to table 3, the education level of 10 respondents holding a diploma, 231 respondents held Bachelor's degree, and 118 had a Doctorate level.However, 213 respondents have a Master's degree, and 44 have other educational groups.Referring to table 4, 300 respondents are from Hungary, and 316 are from Gaza Strip.

Table 7
Regression analysis one in Gaza Strip

Table 8
Regression analysis two in Gaza Strip

Table 11 Comparison
Table between Gaza Strip and Hungary