Poverty

Introduction

Poverty is the scarcity or the lack of a certain (variant) amount of material possessions or money.

Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic, and political elements. Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or destitution refers to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

The threshold at which absolute poverty is defined is considered to be about the same, independent of the person’s permanent location or era.

On the other hand, relative poverty occurs when a person who lives in a given country does not enjoy a certain minimum level of “living standards” as compared to the rest of the population of that country. Therefore, the threshold at which relative poverty is defined varies from country to another, or from one society to another.

Providing basic needs can be restricted by constraints on government’s ability to deliver services, such as corruption, tax avoidance, debt and loan conditionalities and by the brain drain of health care and educational professionals. Strategies of increasing income to make basic needs more affordable typically include welfare, economic freedoms and providing financial services.

Poverty reduction is still a major issue (or a target) for many international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development, Oxfam, CARE, World Vision International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Red Cross among a plethora of others.

Poverty is a family concept—all persons in the same family have the same poverty status.

Poverty is widespread but dynamic; its pattern changes over time.

Poverty deprives people of the freedom to decide over and shape their own lives.

Poverty is manifested in different ways: hunger, ill health, denial of dignity, etc.

Fundamentally, poverty is the inability of having choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity.

It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to cr.

It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. – United Nations

Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life. – World Bank

Don’t ask me what poverty is because you have met it outside my house. Look at the house and count the number of holes. Look at my utensils and the clothes that I am wearing. Look at everything and write what you see. What you see is poverty.  A poor man, Kenya 1997

Absolute / Extreme Poverty

Extreme poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, was originally defined by the United Nations in 1995 as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.

Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or abject poverty is “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.”

Robert McNamara, the former president of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as, “a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.”

Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. First introduced in 1990, the dollar a day poverty line measured absolute poverty by the standards of the world’s poorest countries.

The World Bank defined the new international poverty line as USD1.25 a day in 2008 for 2005 (equivalent to USD1.00 a day in 1996 US prices). In October 2015, they reset it to USD1.90 a day.

Relative Poverty

Relative deprivation is the lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities, and amenities that an individual or group are accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved in the society to which they belong.

Measuring relative deprivation allows an objective comparison between the situation of the individual or group compared to the rest of society.

Relative deprivation may also emphasize the individual experience of discontent when being deprived of something to which one believes oneself to be entitled, however emphasizing the perspective of the individual makes objective measurement problematic.

It is a term used in social sciences to describe feelings or measures of economic, political, or social deprivation that are relative rather than absolute.

The term is inextricably linked to similar terms poverty and social exclusion.

The concept of relative deprivation has important consequences for both behavior and attitudes, including feelings of stress, political attitudes, and participation in collective action.

Causes of Poverty

Poverty is reflected in the manifold dimensions of society and is caused by many and varying aspects of that society.

Peace is a basic prerequisite for sustainable development. Conflicts always lead to poverty.

Democratic governance empowers people and increases security. It makes governments more accountable, transparent and predictable, broadening opportunities for increased employment, as well as acquiring capital for investment.

Economic and social development is another prerequisite for poverty reduction. An institutional environment for economic development is a sine qua non for sustained poverty alleviation: institutions, including the market, must be made to work for the poor. In order to be effective, policies must be pro-poor, with a clear focus on the need to strengthen capacities and increase the opportunities of the poor.

Sustainable use of the environment is necessary to maintain long term efficiency in poverty reduction.
The option is not to ‘fence off ’ natural resources but to ensure that their sustainable use and management provides a livelihood for poor people.

Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent on them, and of being forced to accept rudeness, insults, and indifference when we seek help.  Latvia 1998

Global prevalence

In 2012 it was estimated that using a poverty line of USD1.25 a day, 1.2 billion people lived in poverty. Given the current economic model, built on GDP, it would take 100 years to bring the world’s poorest up to the poverty line of USD1.25 a day. UNICEF estimates half the world’s children (or 1.1 billion) live in poverty.

The World Bank forecasted in 2015 that 702.1 million people were living in extreme poverty, down from 1.75 billion in 1990. Extreme poverty is observed in all parts of the world, including developed economies. Of the 2015 population, about 347.1 million people (35.2%) lived in Sub-Saharan Africa and 231.3 million (13.5%) lived in South Asia.

According to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty fell from 37.1% to 9.6%, falling below 10% for the first time.

The People’s Republic of China accounts for over three-quarters of global poverty reduction from 1990 to 2005. Though, as noted, China accounted for nearly half of all extreme poverty in 1990. In public opinion around the world people surveyed tend to incorrectly think extreme poverty hasn’t decreased.

During the 2013 to 2015 period The World Bank reported that extreme poverty fell from 11% to 10%, however, they also noted that the rate of decline had slowed by nearly half from the 25-year average with parts of sub-Saharan Africa returning to early 2000 levels.

The World Bank attributed this to increasing violence following the Arab Spring, population increases in Sub-Saharan Africa, and general African inflationary pressures and economic malaise were the primary drivers for this slowdown.