Poverty Refers to the Condition of Not

8/14/2019 Poverty Refers to the Condition of Not

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Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to affordbasic human needssuch asclean water, nutrition,health care, clothing and shelter.[1][2] This is also referred to asabsolutepoverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less incomethan others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages.

Before the industrial revolution, poverty had mostly been the norm.[3][4]Poverty reduction has

historically been a result ofeconomic growthas increased levels of production, such as modernindustrial technology, made more wealthavailable for those who were otherwise too poor toafford them.[5][4] Also, investments in modernizingagriculture and increasing yields is consideredthe core of the antipoverty effort, given three-quarters of the world's poor are ruralfarmers.[6][7]

Today, continued economic development is constrained by the lack of economic freedoms.Economic liberalization includes extendingproperty rights, especially toland, to the poor, andmaking financial services, notablysavings, accessible.[8][9][10] Inefficient institutions,corruptionand political instability can also discourage investment. Aidand government support in health,education and infrastructure helps growth by increasing human andphysical capital.[4]

Contents

[hide] 1 Causes

1.1 Scarcity of basic needs

1.2 Barriers to opportunities

2 Effects of poverty

2.1 Health

2.2 Education

2.3 Housing

2.4 Violence 2.5 Drug abuse

3 Poverty reduction

3.1 Economic liberalization

3.2 Capital, infrastructure and technology

3.3 Aid

3.4 Good institutions

3.5 Empowering women

4 Demographics 4.1 Absolute poverty

4.2 Relative poverty

4.3 Other aspects

4.4 Voluntary poverty

5 See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_needshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_needshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_needshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_waterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_carehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruralhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruptionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruptionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_capitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_capitalhttp://tmp/sv73e.tmp/javascript:toggleToc()http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_waterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_carehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_reductionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruralhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruptionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_capitalhttp://tmp/sv73e.tmp/javascript:toggleToc()http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_needs


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5.1 Organizations and campaigns

6 References

7 Further reading

8 External links

[edit] Causes

[edit] Scarcity of basic needs

Hardwood surgical tables are commonplace in rural Nigerian clinics.

Before the industrial revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economiesproduced little, making wealth scarce.[3] In 18th century England, half the population was at leastoccasionally dependent on charity for subsistence.[11]Food shortages were also common beforemodern agricultural technology and in places that lack them today, such asnitrogen fertilizers,pesticidesand irrigationmethods.[12][13]For example,Chinesemass production ofgoods has madewhat was once consideredluxuries, such as vehicles orcomputers, inexpensive and thus moreaccessible to many who were otherwise too poor to afford them.[14][15]

Rises in the costs of living make poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend agreater portion of their budgetson food than richer people because . As a result poor households,and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices.For example in late 2007 increases in the price of grains[16] led to food riots in some countries[17][18][19]. The World Bankwarned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper intopoverty.[20]Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and thewater crisis.[21][22][23]Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion ofsoil fertility and decline ofagricultural yields.[24] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[25][26]In Africa, if current trends ofsoil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feedjust 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for NaturalResources in Africa.[27]

Health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigratingfrom impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006.[28] There are more Ethiopian doctors inChicago than in Ethiopia.[29]

Overpopulationand lack of access tobirth controlmethods drive poverty[30][31][32] The world'spopulation isexpected to reachnearly 9 billion in 2040.[33] However, the reverse is also true, thatpoverty causes overpopulation as it gives women little power to plan childhood, have educationalattainment, or a career.[34]

[edit] Barriers to opportunities
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Street children sleeping in Mulberry Street - Jacob Riis photoNew York,United States ofAmerica(1890)

Homelesspeople living in cardboard boxes in Los Angeles,California.

The unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give full-fledged property rights of land totheir tenants is cited as the chief obstacle to development.[35]This lack of economic freedominhibits entrepreneurship among the poor.[5] New enterprises and foreign investment can bedriven away by the results of inefficient institutions, notablycorruption, weakrule of law andexcessivebureaucratic burdens.[4][5] Lack offinancial services, as a result of restrictiveregulations, such as the requirements forbankinglicenses, makes it hard for hard for evensmaller microsavings programs to reach the poor.[36]

It takes two days, twobureaucraticprocedures, and $280 to open a business in Canada while anentrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20procedures to do the same.[5] Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of smallenterprises, where most jobs are created.[5] In India before economic reforms, businesses had tobribe government officials even for routine activities, which was a tax on business in effect.[4]

Corruption, for example, inNigeria, led to an estimated $400 billion of the country's oil revenueto be stolen by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.[37][38] Lack of opportunities can furtherbe caused by the failure of governments to provide essential infrastructure.[39][40].

Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away, leading tobrain drains. Brain drain has costthe Africancontinent over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionalsannually.[41]Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchangeoutflow of $10 billion annually.[42]

Poor health and education severely affectsproductivity. Inadequate nutrition in childhoodundermines the ability of individuals to develop their full capabilities. Lack of essential mineralssuch as iodine andiron can impairbrain development. 2 billion people (one-third of the totalglobal population) are affected byiodine deficiency. In developing countries, it is estimated that
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40% of children aged 4 and younger suffer from anemia because of insufficient iron in theirdiets. See also Health and intelligence.[43]

Similarly substance abuse, including for examplealcoholismanddrug abuse can consign peopleto vicious poverty cycles.[44]Infectious diseases such asMalaria and tuberculosiscan perpetuatepoverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria

decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDSdecreases Africangrowth by 0.3-1.5% annually.[45][46][47]

War, political instability and crime, including violent gangsanddrug cartels, also discourageinvestment. Civil wars and conflicts in Africa cost the continent some $300 billion between 1990and 2005.[48] Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on thewarthat resulted inminor border changes.[49]Shocks in thebusiness cycle affect poverty rates, increasing inrecessionsand declining in booms. Cultural factors, such asdiscrimination of various kinds, cannegatively affect productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping,[50]gender discrimination,racial discrimination, and caste discrimination.[51]

Max Weberand the modernization theory suggest that culturalvaluescould affect economicsuccess.[52][53]However, researchers[who?] have gathered evidence that suggest that values are not as

deeply ingrained and that changing economic opportunities explain most of the movement intoand out of poverty, as opposed to shifts in values.[54]

[edit] Effects of poverty

Again in a developed nation council housesin Seacroft, Leeds,UKhave been deserted due topoverty and high crime.See also: Malnutrition

The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle"operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.

[edit] Health

Main article:Diseases of poverty

One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as aresult of poverty since 1990.[55] Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hungeroreven starvation and disease.[56] Those living in poverty suffer lowerlife expectancy. According tothe World Health Organization, hungerand malnutrition are the single gravest threats to theworld's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, presentin half of all cases.[57]

Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billionpeople go to bed hungry every night.[58] Poverty increases the risk ofhomelessness.[59] There are
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over 100 million street childrenworldwide.[60]Increased risk ofdrug abuse may also beassociated with poverty.[61]

According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate ofworld's regions.[62] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished,[63] one of the highestrates in the world and nearly double the rate ofSub-Saharan Africa.[64] Every year, more than

half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth.[65]

Almost 90% ofmaternal deathsoccur inAsia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world.[66]

Women who have children born in poverty, cannot nourish the children efficiently with the rightprenatal care. They may also suffer from disease that may be passed down to the child throughbirth. Asthma is a common problem children acquire when born into poverty.

[edit] Education

Great Depression: man lying down on pier, New York City docks, 1935.

Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children whoare from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins inprimaryschool for some less fortunate children. In the US educational system, these children are at a

higher risk than other children for retention in their grade, special placements during the schoolshours and even not completing their high school education.[67] There are indeed manyexplanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, therisk factors are similar to excuses such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels ofteenagepregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents.[67]

Families and society who submit low levels ofinvestment in the education and development ofless fortunate children end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life ofparental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearingwith all theconnected risks to family, health and well-being are majorly important issues to address sinceeducation from preschool to high school are both identifiably meaningful in a life. [67]

Poverty often drastically affects childrens success in school. A childs home activities,

preferences, mannerisms must align with the world and in the cases that they do not thesestudents are at a disadvantage in the school and most importantly the classroom. [68] Therefore, itis safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less successeducationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal lesshealthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from the academic year. Additionally,poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger, fatigue, irritability, headaches, earinfections, flu, and colds.[68] These illnesses could potentially restrict a child or students focusand concentration.
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Elementary students who live in poverty are forced to move around a lot and attend low-fundedschooling systems.

[edit] Housing

See also:slums andorphanages

Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a poverty no better,if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional focus of the poverty in the developingworld, according to a report by the United Nations.[69] Slums consists of run down housing withlack of tendency and security. They are usually located in the bad parts of towns and are cheap toown.

Most of thechildren living in institutions around the worldhave a survivingparent or closerelative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.[70] Experts and childadvocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm childrens developmentbyseparating them from theirfamilies.[70] It is speculated that, flush with money, orphanages areincreasing and push for children to join even thoughdemographicdatashow that even thepoorest extended families usually take in children whoseparents havedied.[70]

[edit] ViolenceSee also:slaveryandhuman trafficking

According to a UN report on modern slavery, the most common form ofhuman traffickingis forprostitution, which is largely fueled by poverty.[71][72] In Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turningto prostitution forfood to survive because of the increasing poverty.[73] In one survey, 67% ofchildren from disadvantaged inner citiessaid they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33%reported witnessing a homicide.[74] 51% of fifth graders fromNew Orleans(median income for ahousehold: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% inWashington, DC (mean income for a household: $40,127).[75]

[edit] Drug abuse

Further information:Drug abuse

Unemployment, underemployment, and distance from rural areas are where most drug abuseoccurs. Some results of drug abuse are stealing, killing, theft, assault, prostitution, poor grades inschool, and poor conduct at work. Some poverty is cause by people who have abused drugs andhave spent all of their money buying them. When they have no other way to support theiraddiction, they result to other measures to obtain them. The urge for the drugs began to take overtheir lives. People lose there their families, friends and homes leaving them alone and in poverty.

[edit] Poverty reductionMain article:Poverty reduction

Historically, poverty reduction has been largely a resulteconomic growth.[4][5] The industrialrevolution led to high economic growth and eliminated mass poverty in what is now consideredthe developed world.[5][3]In 1820, 75% of humanity lived on less than a dollar a day, while in2001, only about 20% do.[5] As three quarters of the world's poor live in thecountry side, theWorld Bankcites helping small farmers as the heart of the fight against poverty.[7]Economicgrowth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of acountrys population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors.[76] However, aid is essential
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in providing better lives for those who are already poor and in sponsoring medical and scientificefforts such as the green revolution and the eradication ofsmallpox.[35][77]

[edit] Economic liberalization

Extending property rights protection to the poor is one of the most important poverty reductionstrategy a nation could take.[5] Securing property rights to land, the largest asset for mostsocieties, is vital to their economic freedom.[35][5]The World Bankconcludes increasing landrights is the key to reducing poverty citing that land rights greatly increase poor peopleswealth, in some cases doubling it.[10] It is estimated that state recognition of the property of thepoor would give them assets worth 40 times all the foreign aid since 1945.[5] Althoughapproaches varied, theWorld Banksaid the key issues were security of tenure and ensuring landtransactions were low cost.[10]

In China and India, noted reductions in poverty in recent decades have occurred mostly as aresult of the abandonment ofcollective farming in China and the cutting of government red tapein India.[78] However, ending government sponsorship of social programs is sometimes advocatedas a free marketprinciple with tragic consequences. For example, theWorld Bankpresses poornations to eliminate subsidies forfertilizereven while many farmers cannot afford them at

market prices.[79] The reconfiguration of public financing in formerSoviet states during theirtransition to a market economycalled for reduced spending on health and education, sharplyincreasing poverty.[80][81][82]

Trade liberalization increases total surplus of trading nations. Remittancessent to poor countries,such as India, are sometimes larger than foreign direct investment and totalremittances are morethan double aid flows from OECD countries.[83]Foreign investment and export industries helpedfuel the economic expansion offast growing Asian nations.[84]However, trade rules are oftenunfair as they block access to richer nations markets and ban poorer nations from supportingtheir industries.[79][85] Processed products from poorer nations, in contrast to raw materials, getvastly highertariffs at richer nations' ports.[86] A University of Toronto study found the droppingof duty charges on thousands of products from Africannations because of theAfrican Growth

and Opportunity Actwas directly responsible for a "surprisingly large" increase in imports fromAfrica.[87]However, Chinese textile and clothing exports have encountered criticism fromEurope, the United States and some African countries.[88][89]

Deals can also be negotiated to favor the developing country such as China, where laws compelforeign multinationals to train their future Chinese competitors in strategic industries and renderthemselves redundant in the long term.[90]In Thailand, the 51 percent rule compels multinationalcorporations starting operations in Thailand give 51 percent control to a Thai company in a jointventure.[91]

[edit] Capital, infrastructure and technology

World GDP per capita

Investments in human capital, in the form of health, is needed foreconomic growth. Nations donot necessarily need wealth to gain health.[92]For example,Sri Lanka had a maternal mortalityrate of 2% in the 1930s, higher than any nationtoday.[93] It reduced it to .5-.6% in the 1950s andto .06% today while spending less each year onmaternal health because it learned what workedand what did not.[93] Cheapwater filtersand promotinghand washing are some of the most costeffective health interventions and can cutdeathsfromdiarrhea andpneumonia.[94][95] Knowledgeon the cost effectiveness of healthcare interventions can be elusive but educational measures todisseminate what works are available, such as the disease control priorities project.[5]
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Human capital, in the form of education, is an even more important determinant of economicgrowth than physical capital.[4]Deworming children costs about 50 cents per child per year andreduces non-attendance from anemia, sickness and malnutrition and is only a twenty-fifth asexpensive to increase school attendance as by constructing schools.[96]

UN economists argue that good infrastructure, such as roads and information networks, helps

market reforms to work.[97]

China claims it is investing in railways, roads, ports and ruraltelephones in African countries as part of its formula for economic development.[97] It was thetechnology of the steam engine that originally began the dramatic decreases in poverty levels.Cell phone technology brings the market to poor or rural sections.[98] With necessary information,remote farmers can produce specific crops to sell to the buyers that brings the best price.[99]

Such technology also makes financial services accessible to the poor. Those in poverty placeoverwhelming importance on having a safe place to savemoney, much more so than receivingloans.[8] Also, a large part ofmicrofinanceloans are spent on products that would usually be paidby achecking orsavings account.[8]Mobile banking addresses the problem of the heavyregulation and costly maintenance ofsaving accounts.[8] Mobile financial services in thedeveloping world, ahead of the developed worldin this respect, could be worth $5 billion by

2012.[100]

Safaricoms M-Pesa launched one of the first systems where a network of agents ofmostly shopkeepers, instead ofbankbranches, would take depositsin cash and translate theseonto a virtual account on customers'phones. Cash transfers can be done betweenphones andissued back in cash with a small commission, making remittancessafer.[9]

[edit] Aid

Local citizens from the Janabi Village wait their turn to gather goods from the Sons of Iraq(Abna al-Iraq) in a military operation conducted in Yusufiyah, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by SpcLuke Thornberry)Main article:Aid

See also: Welfare,Development aid, andDebt relief

Aid in its simplest form is abasic income grant, a form ofsocial security periodically providingcitizens with money. In pilot projects inNamibia, where such a program pays just $13 a month,people were able to pay tuitionfees, raising the proportion of children going toschool by 92%,child malnutrition rates fell from 42% to 10% and economic activity grew by 10%.[101][102]

Researchers say it is more efficient to support the families and extended familiesthat care for thevastmajority of orphans with simple allocations of cash than supportingorphanages, who getmost of the aid.[70]

Some aid, such as Conditional Cash Transfers, can be rewarded based on desirable actions suchas enrolling children in schoolor receiving vaccinations.[103] In Mexico, for example, dropoutrates of 16-19 year olds in ruralarea dropped by 20% and children gained half an inch in height.[104] Initial fears that the program would encourage families to stay at home rather than work tocollect benefits have proven to be unfounded. Instead, there is less excuse for neglectful behavior
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as, for example, children stopped begging on the streets instead of going to school because itcould result in suspension from the program.[104]

Another form of aid is microloans, made famous by theGrameen Bank, where small amounts ofmoney are loaned to farmers or villages, mostly women, who can then obtain physical capital toincrease their economic rewards. For example, the Thai government's People's Bank, makes

loans of $100 to $300 to help farmers buy equipment or seeds, help street vendors acquire aninventory to sell, or help others set up small shops. While advancing the woman and herhousehold's position economically, microloans empower women and enable them to voice theiropinions in general household decisions.[105]

Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; thismay be because it is better at reaching the poor and better controlled at the grassroots level.[106]

Critics argue that some of the foreign aid is stolen bycorruptgovernments and officials, and thathigher aid levels erode the quality of governance. Policy becomes much more oriented towardwhat will get more aid money than it does towards meeting the needs of the people.[107]

Supporters of aid argue that these problems may be solved with betterauditing of how the aid isused.[107] Immunization campaigns for children, such as againstpolio,diphtheriaandmeasles

have save millions of lives.[77]

A major proportion of aid from donor nations is tied, mandating that a receiving nation spend onproducts and expertise originating only from the donorcountry.[108] For example, Eritrea is forcedto spend aid money on foreign goods and services to build a network ofrailwayseven though itis cheaper to use local expertise and resources.[108]USlaw requires food aid be spent on buyingfood at home, instead of where the hungry live, and, as a result, half of what is spent is used ontransport.[109]

One of the proposed ways to help poor countries has been debt relief. Many less developednations have gotten themselves into extensive debt to banks and governments from the richnations and interest payments on these debts are often more than a country can generate per yearin profits from exports.[110] If poor countries do not have to spend so much on debt payments,

they can use the money instead for priorities which help reduce poverty such as basic health-careand education.[111] Many nations began offering services, such as free health care even whileoverwhelming the health care infrastructure, because of savings that resulted from the rounds ofdebt reliefin 2005.[112]

[edit] Good institutions

Main article: Corruption

Efficient institutions that are not corrupt and obey the rule of lawmake and enforce good lawsthat provide security to property and businesses. Efficient and fair governments would work toinvest in the long-term interests of the nation rather than plunder resources through corruption.[4]

Researchers atUC Berkelydeveloped what they called a "Weberianness scale" which measures

aspects ofbureaucracies and governments Max Weberdescribed as most important forrational-legaland efficient government over 100 years ago. Comparative research has found that the scaleis correlated with higher rates of economic development. [113]With their related concept of goodgovernance World Bankresearchers have found much the same: Data from 150 nations haveshown several measures of good governance (such as accountability, effectiveness, rule of law,low corruption) to be related to higher rates of economic development.[114] The United NationsDevelopment Program published a report in April 2000 which focused on good governance inpoor countries as a key to economic development and overcoming the selfish interests of wealthy
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elites often behind state actions in developing nations. The report concludes that Without goodgovernance, reliance on trickle-down economic development and a host of other strategies willnot work. [115]

Examples of good governance leading to economic development and poverty reduction includeThailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, andVietnam, which tend to have a strong

government, called a hard state ordevelopment state. These hard states have the will andauthority to create and maintain policies that lead to long-term development that helps all theircitizens, not just the wealthy. Multinational corporations are regulated so that they followreasonable standards forpay and labor conditions, pay reasonable taxes to help develop thecountry, and keep some of the profits in the country, reinvesting them to provide furtherdevelopment. In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDPthan Ghana,[116]and by 2008 itwas 17 times as high as Ghana's.[117]

Funds from aid and natural resources are often diverted into private hands and then sent tobanksoverseas as a result of graft.[57] If Westernbanks rejected stolen money, says a report byGlobalWitness, ordinary people would benefit in a way that aid flows will never achieve.[57] Thereport asked for more regulation of banks as they have proved capable of stanching the flow of

funds linked to terrorism, money-laundering ortax evasion.[57]

[edit] Empowering women

Empowering women has helped some countries increase and sustain economic development.[118]

When given more rightsand opportunities women begin to receive more education, thusincreasing the overall human capital of the country; when given more influence women seem toact more responsibly in helping people in the family or village; and when better educated andmore in control of their lives, women are more successful in bringing down rapid populationgrowth because they have more say in family planning.[119]

[edit] DemographicsPercentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. UN estimates 2000-2006.Percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2006Life expectancy.

The Human Development Index.The Gini coefficient, a measure ofincome inequality.Life expectancy has been increasing and converging for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africahas recently seen a decline, partly related to theAIDS epidemic. Graph shows the years 1950-

2005.

Main article:Poverty by country

See also:Poverty threshold

[edit] Absolute poverty
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Poverty is usually measured as eitherabsoluteorrelative poverty (the latter being actually anindex of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent overtime and between countries. The World Bankdefines extreme povertyas living on less than US$1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It estimates that "in 2001, 1.1billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 aday."[120]Six million children die of hunger every year - 17,000 every day.[121] Selective PrimaryHealth Care has been shown to be one of the most efficient ways in which absolute poverty canbe eradicated in comparison to Primary Health Care which has a target of treating diseases.Disease prevention is the focus of Selective Primary Health Care which puts this system onhigher grounds in terms of preventing malnutrition and illness, thus putting an end to AbsolutePoverty.[122]

The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fellfrom 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[120] Most of this improvement has occurred in EastandSouth Asia.[123] In East Asia the World Bank reported that "The poverty headcount rate at the$2-a-day level is estimated to have fallen to about 27 percent [in 2007], down from 29.5 percentin 2006 and 69 percent in 1990."[124]In Sub-Saharan Africaextreme poverty went up from 41percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001, which combined with growing population increased thenumber of people living in poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[125] In the early 1990s someof the transition economies ofEastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop inincome.[126] The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in large declines in GDP per capita, ofabout 30 to 35% between 1990 and the trough year of 1998 (when it was at its minimum). As aresult poverty rates also increased although in subsequent years as per capita incomes recoveredthe poverty rate dropped from 31.4% of the population to 19.6%[127][128] The World Bankissued areport predicting that between 2007 and 2027 the populations ofGeorgia and Ukraine willdecrease by 17% and 24% respectively.[129]

World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households withconsumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the

world since 1990:[130][131]

Region 1990 2002 2004

East Asia and Pacific15.40%

12.33% 9.07%

Europe and Central Asia 3.60% 1.28% 0.95%

Latin America and the Caribbean 9.62% 9.08% 8.64%

Middle East and North Africa 2.08% 1.69% 1.47%
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South Asia35.04%

33.44%

30.84%

Sub-Saharan Africa 46.07% 42.63% 41.09%

Other human development indicators have also been improving. Life expectancy has greatlyincreased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developedworld. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[citation needed] Theproportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are lessthan 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water andelectricity and basic consumer items.[132]

There are various criticisms of these measurements.[133] Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion note

that although "a clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor isevident ... with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and Indiahas seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor".

Since the world's population is increasing, a constant number living in poverty would beassociated with a diminshing proportion. Looking at the percentage living on less than $1/day,and if excluding China and India, then this percentage has decreased from 31.35% to 20.70%between 1981 and 2004.[134]

The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the numberliving on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An averageresident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of theCzech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the restof the developing world and even if conditions there improve in absolute terms, the report warns,Africa in 2030 will be home to a larger proportion of the world's poorest people than it is today.[135]

The reason for the faster economic growth in East Asia and South Asiais a result of their relativebackwardness, in a phenomenon called the convergence hypothesis or the conditionalconvergence hypothesis. Because these economies began modernizing later than richer nations,they could benefit from simply adapting technological advances which enable higher levels ofproductivity that had been invented over centuries in richer nations.

[edit] Relative poverty

Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence

relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as thepercentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. Thereare several other differentincome inequality metrics, for example theGini coefficient or theTheil Index.

Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. Assuch these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. Themeasurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of
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total wealth. The mainpoverty line used in theOECDand the European Unionis based on"economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.[136]

[edit] Other aspects

Slum in Mumbai,India. 60% of Mumbai's more than 18 million inhabitants live in slums.[137]

Economic aspects of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of dailyliving, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may beunderstood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in thebasic needs for a

minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income.Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution ofresources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished"capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value.[138] The social aspects of poverty mayinclude lack ofaccess to information, education,health care, orpolitical power.[139][140]Povertymay also be understood as an aspect of unequal social statusand inequitable social relationships,experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or todevelop meaningful connections with other people in society.[141][142][143]

Harlem,New York,USA. In 2006 thepoverty rate for minors in the United States was thehighest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% ofAfrican Americanminors living below the poverty threshold.[144]

The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. [145]Theseinclude:

Precarious livelihoods

Excluded locations

Physical limitations

Gender relationships

Problems in social relationships

Lack of security
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Abuse by those in power

Dis-empowering institutions

Limited capabilities

Weak community organizations

David Moore, in his bookThe World Bank, argues that some analysis of poverty reflectpejorative, sometimes racial, stereotypes of impoverished people as powerless victims andpassive recipients of aid programs.[146]

Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the United States.Ultra-poverty, a term apparently coined by Michael Lipton,[147] connotes being amongst poorestof the poor in low-income countries. Lipton defined ultra-poverty as receiving less than 80percent of minimum caloric intake whilst spending more than 80% of income on food.Alternatively a 2007 report issued by International Food Policy Research Institute defined ultra-poverty as living on less than 54 cents per day.[148]BRAC (NGO)has pioneered a program calledTargeting the Ultra-Poor to redress ultra-poverty by working with individual ultra-poor women.[149]

[edit] Voluntary poverty

See also: Simple living

"'Tis the gift to be simple,'tis the gift to be free,'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,And when we find ourselves in the place just right,It will be in the valley of love and delight."

Shaker song.[150]

Among some individuals, such as ascetics, poverty is considered a necessary or desirablecondition, which must be embraced in order to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectualstates. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element ofrenunciationin religions such asBuddhism (only for monks, not for lay persons] and Jainism, whilst in Roman Catholicism it is

one of the evangelical counsels. Certain religious ordersalso take a vow of extreme poverty. Forexample, the Franciscanorders have traditionally forgone all individual and corporate forms ofownership. While individual ownership of goods and wealth is forbidden forBenedictines,following the Rule of St. Benedict, the monasteryitself may possess both goods and money, andthroughout history some monasteries have become very rich.[citation needed] In this context ofreligious vows, poverty may be understood as a means of self-denial in order to place oneself atthe service of others; Pope Honorius III wrote in 1217 that the Dominicans"lived a life ofvoluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvationof others". FollowingJesus' warning that riches can be like thorns that choke up the good seed of
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the word (Matthew 13:22), voluntary poverty is often understood by Christians as of benefit tothe individual a form ofself-discipline by which one distances oneself from distractions fromGod.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

Bottom of thepyramid

Countries byfertility rate

Countries byGDP (PPP)

Countries bypoverty rate

20072008world food pricecrisis

Cycle of poverty

Developmentstate

Diseases ofpoverty

Distribution ofwealth

Economicinequality

Feminization ofpoverty

Food First

Food security

Food vs fuel

Fuel poverty

Fullemployment

GreatDepression

GreenRevolution

Home Children Hunger

Immiserizinggrowth

Income disparity

Internationalinequality

InternationalDevelopment

Least DevelopedCountries

Life expectancy

Literacy

Migrant worker

Minimum wage

Multinationalcorporation

Populationgrowth

Poor Law Poverty in India

and BelowPoverty Line(India)

Poverty in theUnited States

Povertyreduction

Poverty

threshold

Poverty trap

Reservationpoverty

Rural ghetto

Sadaqah

Shanty town

Socialexclusion

Subsidizedhousing

Street children

Theories ofpoverty

Underclass

Welfare

Working poor

Zakat

Sustainable

development portal

[edit] Organizations and campaigns

Abahlali baseMjondolo - South AfricanShack dwellers' organisation

Appropedia

Azafady

Bridges of Hope International Networkof Development Agencies Inc.

Brooks World Poverty Institute

Catholic Charities USA[151]

International Food Policy ResearchInstitute

International Fund for AgriculturalDevelopment

Islamic Development Bank

Islamic Relief

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Make Poverty Historycampaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Matthewhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-disciplinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poverty&action=edit&section=21http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_of_the_pyramidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_of_the_pyramidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_fertility_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_fertility_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capitahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capitahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diseases_of_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diseases_of_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequalityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequalityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminization_of_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminization_of_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Firsthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_securityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_vs_fuelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_povertyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_employmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_employment

Documents

Poverty Refers to the Condition of Not