Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as

clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter.[1] [2] This is also referred to as absolute
poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income
than 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 of economic growth as increased levels of production, such as modern
industrial technology, made more wealth available for those who were otherwise too poor to
afford them.[5][4] Also, investments in modernizing agriculture and increasing yields is considered
the core of the antipoverty effort, given three-quarters of the world's poor are rural farmers.[6][7]
Today, continued economic development is constrained by the lack of economic freedoms.
Economic liberalization includes extending property rights, especially to land, to the poor, and
making financial services, notably savings, accessible.[8][9][10] Inefficient institutions, corruption
and political instability can also discourage investment. Aid and government support in health,
education and infrastructure helps growth by increasing human and physical 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
 ○ 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 economies
produced little, making wealth scarce.[3] In 18th century England, half the population was at least
occasionally dependent on charity for subsistence.[11] Food shortages were also common before
modern agricultural technology and in places that lack them today, such as nitrogen fertilizers,
pesticides and irrigation methods.[12][13] For example, Chinese mass production of goods has made
what was once considered luxuries, such as vehicles or computers, inexpensive and thus more
accessible 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 a
greater portion of their budgets on 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 Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into
poverty.[20] Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis.[21][22]
[23]
Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of
agricultural yields.[24] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.
[25][26]
In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed
just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural
Resources in Africa.[27]
Health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigrating
from impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000
Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006.[28] There are more Ethiopian doctors in
Chicago than in Ethiopia.[29]
Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods drive poverty[30][31][32] The world's
population is expected to reach nearly 9 billion in 2040.[33] However, the reverse is also true, that
poverty causes overpopulation as it gives women little power to plan childhood, have educational
attainment, or a career.[34]
[edit] Barriers to opportunities
Street children sleeping in Mulberry Street - Jacob Riis photo New York, United States of
America (1890)

Homeless people living in cardboard boxes in Los Angeles, California.

The unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give full-fledged property rights of land to
their tenants is cited as the chief obstacle to development.[35] This lack of economic freedom
inhibits entrepreneurship among the poor.[5] New enterprises and foreign investment can be
driven away by the results of inefficient institutions, notably corruption, weak rule of law and
excessive bureaucratic burdens.[4][5] Lack of financial services, as a result of restrictive
regulations, such as the requirements for banking licenses, makes it hard for hard for even
smaller microsavings programs to reach the poor.[36]
It takes two days, two bureaucratic procedures, and $280 to open a business in Canada while an
entrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20
procedures to do the same.[5] Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of small
enterprises, where most jobs are created.[5] In India before economic reforms, businesses had to
bribe government officials even for routine activities, which was a tax on business in effect.[4]
Corruption, for example, in Nigeria, led to an estimated $400 billion of the country's oil revenue
to be stolen by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.[37][38] Lack of opportunities can further
be caused by the failure of governments to provide essential infrastructure.[39][40].
Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away, leading to brain drains. Brain drain has cost
the African continent over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals
annually.[41] Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange
outflow of $10 billion annually.[42]
Poor health and education severely affects productivity. Inadequate nutrition in childhood
undermines the ability of individuals to develop their full capabilities. Lack of essential minerals
such as iodine and iron can impair brain development. 2 billion people (one-third of the total
global population) are affected by iodine deficiency. In developing countries, it is estimated that
40% of children aged 4 and younger suffer from anemia because of insufficient iron in their
diets. See also Health and intelligence.[43]
Similarly substance abuse, including for example alcoholism and drug abuse can consign people
to vicious poverty cycles.[44] Infectious diseases such as Malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate
poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria
decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African
growth by 0.3-1.5% annually.[45][46][47]
War, political instability and crime, including violent gangs and drug cartels, also discourage
investment. Civil wars and conflicts in Africa cost the continent some $300 billion between 1990
and 2005.[48] Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war that resulted in
minor border changes.[49] Shocks in the business cycle affect poverty rates, increasing in
recessions and declining in booms. Cultural factors, such as discrimination of various kinds, can
negatively affect productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping,[50] gender discrimination,
racial discrimination, and caste discrimination.[51]
Max Weber and the modernization theory suggest that cultural values could affect economic
success.[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 into
and out of poverty, as opposed to shifts in values.[54]
[edit] Effects of poverty

Again in a developed nation council houses in Seacroft, Leeds, UK have been deserted due to
poverty 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 a
result of poverty since 1990.[55] Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or
even starvation and disease.[56] Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to
the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the
world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present
in half of all cases.[57]
Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billion
people go to bed hungry every night.[58] Poverty increases the risk of homelessness.[59] There are
over 100 million street children worldwide.[60] Increased risk of drug abuse may also be
associated with poverty.[61]
According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of
world's regions.[62] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished,[63] one of the highest
rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.[64] Every year, more than
half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth.[65] Almost 90% of maternal deaths occur in
Asia 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 right
prenatal care. They may also suffer from disease that may be passed down to the child through
birth. 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 who
are from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins in primary
school 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 school’s
hours and even not completing their high school education.[67] There are indeed many
explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, the
risk factors are similar to excuses such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage
pregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents.[67]
Families and society who submit low levels of investment in the education and development of
less fortunate children end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life of
parental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearing with all the
connected risks to family, health and well-being are majorly important issues to address since
education from preschool to high school are both identifiably meaningful in a life.[67]
Poverty often drastically affects children’s success in school. A child’s “home activities,
preferences, mannerisms” must align with the world and in the cases that they do not these
students are at a disadvantage in the school and most importantly the classroom.[68] Therefore, it
is safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less success
educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal less
healthcare 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, ear
infections, flu, and colds.[68] These illnesses could potentially restrict a child or student’s focus
and concentration.
Elementary students who live in poverty are forced to move around a lot and attend low-funded
schooling systems.
[edit] Housing
See also: slums and orphanages
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 developing
world, according to a report by the United Nations.[69] Slums consists of run down housing with
lack of tendency and security. They are usually located in the bad parts of towns and are cheap to
own.
Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close
relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.[70] Experts and child
advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children’s development by
separating them from their families.[70] It is speculated that, flush with money, orphanages are
increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the
poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died.[70]
[edit] Violence
See also: slavery and human trafficking
According to a UN report on modern slavery, the most common form of human trafficking is for
prostitution, which is largely fueled by poverty.[71][72] In Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning
to prostitution for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.[73] In one survey, 67% of
children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33%
reported witnessing a homicide.[74] 51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for a
household: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% in
Washington, 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 abuse
occurs. Some results of drug abuse are stealing, killing, theft, assault, prostitution, poor grades in
school, and poor conduct at work. Some poverty is cause by people who have abused drugs and
have spent all of their money buying them. When they have no other way to support their
addiction, they result to other measures to obtain them. The urge for the drugs began to take over
their lives. People lose there their families, friends and homes leaving them alone and in poverty.
[edit] Poverty reduction
Main article: Poverty reduction
Historically, poverty reduction has been largely a result economic growth.[4][5] The industrial
revolution led to high economic growth and eliminated mass poverty in what is now considered
the developed world.[5][3] In 1820, 75% of humanity lived on less than a dollar a day, while in
2001, only about 20% do.[5] As three quarters of the world's poor live in the country side, the
World Bank cites helping small farmers as the heart of the fight against poverty.[7] Economic
growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a
country’s population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors.[76] However, aid is essential
in providing better lives for those who are already poor and in sponsoring medical and scientific
efforts such as the green revolution and the eradication of smallpox.[35][77]
[edit] Economic liberalization
Extending property rights protection to the poor is one of the most important poverty reduction
strategy a nation could take.[5] Securing property rights to land, the largest asset for most
societies, is vital to their economic freedom.[35][5] The World Bank concludes increasing land
rights is ‘the key to reducing poverty’ citing that land rights greatly increase poor people’s
wealth, in some cases doubling it.[10] It is estimated that state recognition of the property of the
poor would give them assets worth 40 times all the foreign aid since 1945.[5] Although
approaches varied, the World Bank said the key issues were security of tenure and ensuring land
transactions were low cost.[10]
In China and India, noted reductions in poverty in recent decades have occurred mostly as a
result of the abandonment of collective farming in China and the cutting of government red tape
in India.[78] However, ending government sponsorship of social programs is sometimes advocated
as a free market principle with tragic consequences. For example, the World Bank presses poor
nations to eliminate subsidies for fertilizer even while many farmers cannot afford them at
market prices.[79] The reconfiguration of public financing in former Soviet states during their
transition to a market economy called for reduced spending on health and education, sharply
increasing poverty.[80][81][82]
Trade liberalization increases total surplus of trading nations. Remittances sent to poor countries,
such as India, are sometimes larger than foreign direct investment and total remittances are more
than double aid flows from OECD countries.[83] Foreign investment and export industries helped
fuel the economic expansion of fast growing Asian nations.[84] However, trade rules are often
unfair as they block access to richer nations’ markets and ban poorer nations from supporting
their industries.[79][85] Processed products from poorer nations, in contrast to raw materials, get
vastly higher tariffs at richer nations' ports.[86] A University of Toronto study found the dropping
of duty charges on thousands of products from African nations because of the African Growth
and Opportunity Act was directly responsible for a "surprisingly large" increase in imports from
Africa.[87] However, Chinese textile and clothing exports have encountered criticism from
Europe, the United States and some African countries.[88][89]
Deals can also be negotiated to favor the developing country such as China, where laws compel
foreign multinationals to train their future Chinese competitors in strategic industries and render
themselves redundant in the long term.[90] In Thailand, the 51 percent rule compels multinational
corporations starting operations in Thailand give 51 percent control to a Thai company in a joint
venture.[91]
[edit] Capital, infrastructure and technology
World GDP per capita
Investments in human capital, in the form of health, is needed for economic growth. Nations do
not necessarily need wealth to gain health.[92] For example, Sri Lanka had a maternal mortality
rate of 2% in the 1930s, higher than any nation today.[93] It reduced it to .5-.6% in the 1950s and
to .06% today while spending less each year on maternal health because it learned what worked
and what did not.[93] Cheap water filters and promoting hand washing are some of the most cost
effective health interventions and can cut deaths from diarrhea and pneumonia.[94][95] Knowledge
on the cost effectiveness of healthcare interventions can be elusive but educational measures to
disseminate what works are available, such as the disease control priorities project.[5]
Human capital, in the form of education, is an even more important determinant of economic
growth than physical capital.[4] Deworming children costs about 50 cents per child per year and
reduces non-attendance from anemia, sickness and malnutrition and is only a twenty-fifth as
expensive 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 rural
telephones in African countries as part of its formula for economic development.[97] It was the
technology 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 place
overwhelming importance on having a safe place to save money, much more so than receiving
loans.[8] Also, a large part of microfinance loans are spent on products that would usually be paid
by a checking or savings account.[8] Mobile banking addresses the problem of the heavy
regulation and costly maintenance of saving accounts.[8] Mobile financial services in the
developing world, ahead of the developed world in this respect, could be worth $5 billion by
2012.[100] Safaricom’s M-Pesa launched one of the first systems where a network of agents of
mostly shopkeepers, instead of bank branches, would take deposits in cash and translate these
onto a virtual account on customers' phones. Cash transfers can be done between phones and
issued back in cash with a small commission, making remittances safer.[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 Spc
Luke Thornberry)
Main article: Aid
See also: Welfare, Development aid, and Debt relief
Aid in its simplest form is a basic income grant, a form of social security periodically providing
citizens with money. In pilot projects in Namibia, where such a program pays just $13 a month,
people were able to pay tuition fees, raising the proportion of children going to school 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 families that care for the
vast majority of orphans with simple allocations of cash than supporting orphanages, who get
most of the aid.[70]
Some aid, such as Conditional Cash Transfers, can be rewarded based on desirable actions such
as enrolling children in school or receiving vaccinations.[103] In Mexico, for example, dropout
rates of 16-19 year olds in rural area 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 to
collect benefits have proven to be unfounded. Instead, there is less excuse for neglectful behavior
as, for example, children stopped begging on the streets instead of going to school because it
could result in suspension from the program.[104]
Another form of aid is microloans, made famous by the Grameen Bank, where small amounts of
money are loaned to farmers or villages, mostly women, who can then obtain physical capital to
increase 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 an
inventory to sell, or help others set up small shops. While advancing the woman and her
household's position economically, microloans empower women and enable them to voice their
opinions in general household decisions.[105]
Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; this
may 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 by corrupt governments and officials, and that
higher aid levels erode the quality of governance. Policy becomes much more oriented toward
what 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 better auditing of how the aid is
used.[107] Immunization campaigns for children, such as against polio, diphtheria and measles
have save millions of lives.[77]
A major proportion of aid from donor nations is tied, mandating that a receiving nation spend on
products and expertise originating only from the donor country.[108] For example, Eritrea is forced
to spend aid money on foreign goods and services to build a network of railways even though it
is cheaper to use local expertise and resources.[108] US law requires food aid be spent on buying
food at home, instead of where the hungry live, and, as a result, half of what is spent is used on
transport.[109]
One of the proposed ways to help poor countries has been debt relief. Many less developed
nations have gotten themselves into extensive debt to banks and governments from the rich
nations and interest payments on these debts are often more than a country can generate per year
in 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-care
and education.[111] Many nations began offering services, such as free health care even while
overwhelming the health care infrastructure, because of savings that resulted from the rounds of
debt relief in 2005.[112]
[edit] Good institutions
Main article: Corruption
Efficient institutions that are not corrupt and obey the rule of law make and enforce good laws
that provide security to property and businesses. Efficient and fair governments would work to
invest in the long-term interests of the nation rather than plunder resources through corruption.[4]
Researchers at UC Berkely developed what they called a "Weberianness scale" which measures
aspects of bureaucracies and governments Max Weber described as most important for rational-
legal and efficient government over 100 years ago. Comparative research has found that the scale
is correlated with higher rates of economic development.[113] With their related concept of good
governance World Bank researchers have found much the same: Data from 150 nations have
shown 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 Nations
Development Program published a report in April 2000 which focused on good governance in
poor countries as a key to economic development and overcoming the selfish interests of wealthy
elites often behind state actions in developing nations. The report concludes that “Without good
governance, reliance on trickle-down economic development and a host of other strategies will
not work.” [115]
Examples of good governance leading to economic development and poverty reduction include
Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Vietnam, which tend to have a strong
government, called a hard state or development state. These “hard states” have the will and
authority to create and maintain policies that lead to long-term development that helps all their
citizens, not just the wealthy. Multinational corporations are regulated so that they follow
reasonable standards for pay and labor conditions, pay reasonable taxes to help develop the
country, and keep some of the profits in the country, reinvesting them to provide further
development. In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana,[116] and by 2008 it
was 17 times as high as Ghana's.[117]
Funds from aid and natural resources are often diverted into private hands and then sent to banks
overseas as a result of graft.[57] If Western banks rejected stolen money, says a report by Global
Witness, ordinary people would benefit “in a way that aid flows will never achieve”.[57] The
report asked for more regulation of banks as they have proved capable of stanching the flow of
funds linked to terrorism, money-laundering or tax evasion.[57]
[edit] Empowering women
Empowering women has helped some countries increase and sustain economic development.[118]
When given more rights and opportunities women begin to receive more education, thus
increasing the overall human capital of the country; when given more influence women seem to
act more responsibly in helping people in the family or village; and when better educated and
more in control of their lives, women are more successful in bringing down rapid population
growth because they have more say in family planning. [119]
[edit] Demographics
Percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. UN estimates 2000-2006.
Percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2006
Life expectancy.

The Human Development Index.

The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality.
Life expectancy has been increasing and converging for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa
has recently seen a decline, partly related to the AIDS epidemic. Graph shows the years 1950-
2005.

Main article: Poverty by country

See also: Poverty threshold
[edit] Absolute poverty
Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the latter being actually an
index of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over
time and between countries. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US
$1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It estimates that "in 2001, 1.1
billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a
day."[120] Six million children die of hunger every year - 17,000 every day.[121] Selective Primary
Health Care has been shown to be one of the most efficient ways in which absolute poverty can
be 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 on
higher grounds in terms of preventing malnutrition and illness, thus putting an end to Absolute
Poverty.[122]

The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell
from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[120] Most of this improvement has occurred in East
and South 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 percent
in 2006 and 69 percent in 1990."[124] In Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty went up from 41
percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001, which combined with growing population increased the
number of people living in poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[125] In the early 1990s some
of the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in
income.[126] The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in large declines in GDP per capita, of
about 30 to 35% between 1990 and the trough year of 1998 (when it was at its minimum). As a
result poverty rates also increased although in subsequent years as per capita incomes recovered
the poverty rate dropped from 31.4% of the population to 19.6%[127][128] The World Bank issued a
report predicting that between 2007 and 2027 the populations of Georgia and Ukraine will
decrease by 17% and 24% respectively.[129]
World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with
consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the
world since 1990:[130][131]

Region 1990 2002 2004

15.40 12.33
East Asia and Pacific 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%

 35.04 33.44 30.84
South Asia
% % %

46.07 42.63 41.09

Sub-Saharan Africa
% % %

Other human development indicators have also been improving. Life expectancy has greatly
increased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed
world. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[citation needed] The
proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less
than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below
10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water and
electricity 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 is
evident ... with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and India
has 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 be
associated 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 number
living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average
resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the
Czech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the rest
of 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 Asia is a result of their relative
backwardness, in a phenomenon called the convergence hypothesis or the conditional
convergence hypothesis. Because these economies began modernizing later than richer nations,
they could benefit from simply adapting technological advances which enable higher levels of
productivity 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 the
percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There
are several other different income inequality metrics, for example the Gini coefficient or the
Theil Index.
Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As
such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The
measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of
total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is 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 daily
living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be
understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic 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 of
resources 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 may
include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power.[139][140] Poverty
may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships,
experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to
develop meaningful connections with other people in society.[141][142][143]

Harlem, New York, USA. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the
highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American
minors living below the poverty threshold.[144]
The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23
countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty.[145] These
include:
• Precarious livelihoods
• Excluded locations
• Physical limitations
• Gender relationships
• Problems in social relationships
• Lack of security
 • Abuse by those in power
• Dis-empowering institutions
• Limited capabilities
• Weak community organizations
David Moore, in his book The World Bank, argues that some analysis of poverty reflect
pejorative, sometimes racial, stereotypes of impoverished people as powerless victims and
passive 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 poorest
of the poor in low-income countries. Lipton defined ultra-poverty as receiving less than 80
percent 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 called
Targeting 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 desirable

condition, which must be embraced in order to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual
states. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element of renunciation in religions such as
Buddhism (only for monks, not for lay persons] and Jainism, whilst in Roman Catholicism it is
one of the evangelical counsels. Certain religious orders also take a vow of extreme poverty. For
example, the Franciscan orders have traditionally forgone all individual and corporate forms of
ownership. While individual ownership of goods and wealth is forbidden for Benedictines,
following the Rule of St. Benedict, the monastery itself may possess both goods and money, and
throughout history some monasteries have become very rich.[citation needed] In this context of
religious vows, poverty may be understood as a means of self-denial in order to place oneself at
the service of others; Pope Honorius III wrote in 1217 that the Dominicans "lived a life of
voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation
of others". Following Jesus' warning that riches can be like thorns that choke up the good seed of
the word (Matthew 13:22), voluntary poverty is often understood by Christians as of benefit to
the individual – a form of self-discipline by which one distances oneself from distractions from
God.[citation needed]
[edit] See also

• Bottom of the • Food vs fuel • Life expectancy • Poverty trap

pyramid • Fuel poverty • Literacy • Reservation
• Countries by • Full • Migrant worker poverty
fertility rate employment • Rural ghetto
• Minimum wage
• Countries by • Great • Sadaqah
GDP (PPP) • Multinational
Depression corporation • Shanty town
• Countries by • Green
poverty rate • Population • Social
Revolution growth exclusion
• 2007–2008 • Home Children
world food price • Poor Law • Subsidized
crisis • Hunger • Poverty in India housing
• Cycle of poverty • Immiserizing and Below • Street children
growth Poverty Line • Theories of
• Development (India)
state • Income disparity poverty
• International • Poverty in the • Underclass
• Diseases of United States
poverty inequality • Welfare
• International • Poverty
• Distribution of reduction • Working poor
wealth Development
• Poverty • Zakat
• Economic • Least Developed
Countries threshold Sustainable
inequality development portal
• Feminization of
poverty
• Food First
• Food security

[edit] Organizations and campaigns

• Abahlali baseMjondolo - South African
Shack dwellers' organisation
• Appropedia
• Azafady
• Bridges of Hope International Network
of Development Agencies Inc.
• Brooks World Poverty Institute
• Catholic Charities USA [151]
• International Food Policy Research
Institute
• International Fund for Agricultural
Development
• Islamic Development Bank
• Islamic Relief
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• The Make Poverty History campaign
 • Center for Global Development • Microgiving Direct charitable giving
• Child Poverty Action Group • Mississippi Teacher Corps
• Compassion Canada • ONE campaign [152]
• End Poverty Now • Organization for Economic Cooperation
• Eurodad and Development
• Five Talents - Gives poverty stricken • United Nations Millennium Campaign
[153][154]
people another chance
• Free the Children • U.S. Agency for International
Development
• Grameen Bank A micro lending bank for
the poor. • World Bank
• Global Call to Action Against Poverty • World Congress of Muslim
(GCAP) Philanthropists
• Harlem Children's Zone • World Food Day
• 17 October: UN International Day for • World Food Program
the Eradication of Poverty (White Band
Day 4)

[edit] References
1. ^ http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?
lextype=3&search=poverty Encarta Poverty definition
2. ^ Sociology in out times
3. ^ a b c "Under traditional (i.e., nonindustrialized) modes of economic production, widespread
poverty had been accepted as inevitable. The total output of goods and services, even if equally
distributed, would still have been insufficient to give the entire population a comfortable standard
of living by prevailing standards. With the economic productivity that resulted from
industrialization, however, this ceased to be the case" Encyclopedia Britannica, "Poverty"
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Krugman, Paul, and Robin Wells. Macroeconomics. 2. New York City: Worth
Publishers, 2009. Print.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ending Mass Poverty by Ian Vásquez
6. ^ Obama enlists major powers to aid poor farmers with $15 billion
7. ^ a b World Bank report puts agriculture at core of antipoverty effort
8. ^ a b c d http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1918733,00.html Microfinance’s next
step: deposits
9. ^ a b http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8194241.stm Africa’s mobile banking revolution
10.^ a b c Land rights help fight poverty
11.^ "Why did the American Revolution take place?". Digital History.
12.^ http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm Forgotten benefactor of humanity
13.^ BBC Ethical Man
14.^ In Laos, Chinese motorcycles change lives
15.^ China boosts African economies, offering a second opportunity
16.^ The cost of food: Facts and figures
17.^ Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring
18.^ Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
19.^ Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits
20.^ 100 million at risk from rising food costs
21.^ Global Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages
22.^ Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion
23.^ Big melt threatens millions, says UN
24.^ Exploitation and Over-exploitation in Societies Past and Present, Brigitta Benzing, Bernd
Herrmann
25.^ The Earth Is Shrinking: Advancing Deserts and Rising Seas Squeezing Civilization
26.^ Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land
27.^ Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025
28.^ Philippine Medical Brain Drain Leaves Public Health System in Crisis - VoA News, retrieved
29 May 2008
29.^ "Out of Africa - health workers leave in droves". Telegraph. November 2, 2004.
30.^ "Population growth driving climate change, poverty: experts". Agence France-Presse.
September 21, 2009.
31.^ "Birth rates 'must be curbed to win war on global poverty". The Independent. January 31, 2007.
32.^ "Another Inconvenient Truth: The World's Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma".
Scientific American. October 2, 2009.
33.^ "World Population Clock — Worldometers".
34.^ http://www.henrygeorge.org/popsup.htm
35.^ a b c How to spread democracy
36.^ Savings revolution
37.^ "Anti-Corruption Climate Change: it started in Nigeria". United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC).
38.^ "Nigeria: The Hidden Cost of Corruption". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
39.^ Global Competitiveness Report 2006, World Economic Forum, Website
40.^ Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction: Cross-country Evidence Hossein Jalilian and John Weiss.
2004.
41.^ Brain drain in Africa
42.^ Students’ exodus costs India forex outflow of $10 bn: Assocham, Thaindian News, January 26,
2009
43.^ Hunger and Malnutrition paper by Jere R Behrman, Harold Alderman and John Hoddinott.
44.^ ""U.S. Chamber of Commerce Fact Sheet "".
http://www.uschamber.com/sb/screening/0512_quest6.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
45.^ Economic costs of AIDS
46.^ The economic and social burden of malaria
47.^ Poverty Issues Dominate WHO Regional Meeting
48.^ "Wars cost Africa $18 billion US a year: report". CBC News. October 11, 2007.
49.^ "Will arms ban slow war?". BBC News. May 18, 2000.
50.^ Ending Poverty in Community (EPIC)
51.^ UN report slams India for caste discrimination
52.^ Moore, Wilbert. 1974. Social Change. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hill.
53.^ Parsons, Talcott. 1966. Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
54.^ Kerbo, Harold. 2006. Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical,
Comparative, and Global Perspective, 6th edition New York: McGraw-Hill.
55.^ The World Health Report, World Health Organization (See annex table 2)
56.^ Rising food prices curb aid to global poor
57.^ a b c d Malnutrition The Starvelings
58.^ 1.02 billion people hungry. FAO, 2009.
59.^ Study: 744,000 homeless in United States
60.^ Street Children
61.^ Health warning over Russian youth
62.^ "2008 Global Hunger Index Key Findings & Facts". 2008.
http://www.ifpri.org/media/200610GHI/GHIFindings.asp.
63.^ "Half of India's children malnourished, says NGO report". Calcutta News. October 15, 2009.
64.^ "India: Undernourished Children: A Call for Reform and Action". World Bank.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentM
DK:20916955~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html.
65.^ "Maternal mortality ratio falling too slowly to meet goal". WHO. October 12, 2007.
66.^ "The causes of maternal death". BBC News. November 23, 1998.
67.^ a b c Huston, A. C. (1991). Children in Poverty: Child Development and Public Policy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
68.^ a b Solley, Bobbie A. (2005). When Poverty’s Children Write: Celebrating Strengths,
Transforming Lives. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Inc.
69.^ Report reveals global slum crisis
70.^ a b c d Aid gives alternatives to African orphanages
71.^ Experts encourage action against sex trafficking
72.^ Child sex boom fueled by poverty
73.^ Zimbabwean girls trade sex for food
74.^ Atkins, M. S., McKay, M., Talbott, E., & Arvantis, P. (1996). "DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct
disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Implications and guidelines for school mental health
teams," School Psychology Review, 25, 274-283. Citing: Bell, C. C., & Jenkins, E. J. (1991).
"Traumatic stress and children," Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 2, 175-
185.
75.^ Atkins, M. S., McKay, M., Talbott, E., & Arvantis, P. (1996). "DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct
disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Implications and guidelines for school mental health
teams," School Psychology Review, 25, 274-283. Citing: Osofsky, J. D., Wewers, S., Harm, D.
M., & Fick, A. C. (1993). "Chronic community violence: What is happening to our children?,"
Psychiatry, 56, 36-45; and, Richters, J. E., & Martinez, P (1993). "The NIMH community
violence project: Vol. 1. Children as victims of and witnesses to violence," Psychiatry, 56, 7-21.
76.^ Poverty- Climate change:Bangladesh facing the challenge
77.^ a b Why aid does work
78.^ Can aid bring an end to poverty
79.^ a b Ending famine simply by ignoring the experts
80.^ Transition: The First Ten Years – Analysis and Lessons for Eastern Europe and the Former
Soviet Union, The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002, p. 4.
81.^ "Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries". New York Times. October
12, 2000.
82.^ Child poverty soars in eastern Europe". BBC News. October 11, 2000.
83.^ Migration and development: The aid workers who really help
84.^ Vogel, Ezra F. 1991. The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
85.^ Market access
86.^ Make trade fair
87.^ Relaxed trade rules boost African development
88.^ "SOUTH AFRICA: Fallout as China sews up textile market". IRIN Africa. June 29, 2005.
89.^ Growth of China's textile industry slows". Chinadaily.com.cn. March 21, 2007.
90.^ http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,465007-3,00.html Does Communism work
after all?
91.^ Muscat, Robert J. 1994. The Fifth Tiger: A Study of Thai Development. Armonk, NY: M.E.
Sharpe.
92.^ Disease Control Priorities Project
93.^ a b Saving millions for just a few dollars
94.^ India's Tata launches water filter for rural poor
95.^ Millions mark UN hand washing day
96.^ How can we help the world’s poor
97.^ a b China becomes Africa's suitor
98.^ Give cash not food
99.^ Market approach recasts often-hungry Ethiopia as potential bread basket
100.^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8100388.stm Africa pioneers mobile bank push
101.^ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,642310,00.html A new approach to aid:
How a basic income program saved a Namibian village
102.^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm Namibians line up for free cash
103.^ Brazil becomes antipoverty showcase
104.^ a b Latin America makes dent in poverty with ‘conditional cash’ programs
105.^ Grasmuck, Sherri and Espinal, Rosario. 2000. Market Success or Female Autonomy?
Income,Ideology, and Empowerment among Microentrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic.
Gender and Society 14 (2):231-255.
106.^ Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Nongovernmental and Bilateral
Aid
107.^ a b MYTH: More Foreign Aid Will End Global Poverty
108.^ a b http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24509 Tied aid strangling nations, says UN
109.^ Let them eat micronutrients
110.^ World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 2001. Heavily Indebted Poor Countries,
Progress Report. Retrieved from Worldbank.org.
111.^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4081220.stm African debt relief
112.^ Zambia overwhelmed by free health care
113.^ Evans, Peter, and James E. Rauch. 1999. "Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National
Analysis of the Effects of 'Weberian' State Structures on Economic Growth." American
Sociological Review, 64:748-765.
114.^ Kaufmann, D.; Kraay, A; Zoido-Lobaton, P.. "Governance Matters.". World Bank Policy
Research Working Paper no. 2196. Washington DC.
115.^ United Nations Development Report. 2000. Overcoming Human Poverty: UNDP Poverty
Report 2000. New York: United Nations Publications.
116.^ Leading article: Africa has to spend carefully. The Independent. July 13, 2006.
117.^ Data refer to the year 2008. $26,341 GDP for Korea, $1513 for Ghana. World Economic
Outlook Database-October 2008, International Monetary Fund. Accessed on February 14, 2009.
118.^ "Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?. Scientific American. July 29, 2009.
119.^ World Bank. 2001. Engendering Development--Through Gender Equality in Right, Resources
and Voice. New York: Oxford University Press.
120.^ a b The World Bank, 2007, Understanding Poverty
121.^ http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/17/italy.food.summit/
122.^ Walsh, Julia A., and Kenneth S. Warren. 1980. Selective primary health care: An interim
strategy for disease control in developing countries. Social Science & Medicine. Part C: Medical
Economics 14 (2):145-163.
123.^ Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, 2007, "How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the
Early 1980s?" Table 3, p. 28. [1]
124.^ World Bank, 14 November 2007, 'East Asia Remains Robust Despite US Slow Down' [2]
125.^ The Independent, 'Birth rates must be curbed to win war on global poverty', 31 January 2007
[3]
126.^ Worldbank.org reference
127.^ World Bank, Data and Statistics,WDI, GDF, & ADI Online Databases
128.^ "Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries". The New York Times.
October 12, 2000.
129.^ "East: 'If Countries Don't Act Now, It's Going To Be Too Late'".
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 2007. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/6/0E4DF063-
3807-420D-B551-B3D07F7AA84C.html. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
130.^ World Bank, 2007, Povcalnet Poverty Data
131.^ The data can be replicated using World Bank 2007 Human Development Indicator regional
tables, and using the default poverty line of $32.74 per month at 1993 PPP.
132.^ World Development Volume 33, Issue 1 , January 2005, Pages 1-19, Why Are We Worried
About Income? Nearly Everything that Matters is Converging
133.^ Institute of Social Analysis
134.^ Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, 2007, "How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the
Early 1980s?"[4]
135.^ World Bank has Good News About Future, by Andrew Cassel, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
December 30, 2006
136.^ Michael Blastland (2009-07-31). "Just what is poor?". BBC NEWS.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8177864.stm. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
137.^ Slums, Stocks, Stars and the New India. Spiegel Online. February 28, 2007.
138.^ Amartya Sen, 1985, Commodities and Capabilities, Amsterdam, New Holland, cited in
Siddiqur Rahman Osmani, 2004, Evolving Views on Poverty: Concept, Assessment, and
Strategy, ADB.org
139.^ A Glossary for Social Epidemiology Nancy Krieger, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health
140.^ Journal of Poverty
141.^ H Silver, 1994, social exclusion and social solidarity, in International Labour Review, 133 5-6
142.^ G Simmel, The poor, Social Problems 1965 13
143.^ P Townsend, 1979, Poverty in the UK, Penguin
144.^ "U.S. Government Does Relatively Little to Lessen Child Poverty Rates". Economic Policy
Institute.
145.^ Voices of the Poor
146.^ Chapter on Voices of the Poor in David Moore's edited book The World Bank: Development,
Poverty, Hegemony (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007)
147.^ Lipton, Michael (1986), ’Seasonality and ultra-poverty’, Sussex, IDS Bulletin 17.3
148.^ International Food Policy Research Institute, ”The World’s Most Deprived. Characteristics
and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger,” Washington: IFPRI Oct 2007
149.^ Matin, Imran, et al,, “Crafting a Graduation Pathway for the Ultra-poor: Lessons and
Evidence from a BRAC Programme,” Research and Evaluation Division Working Paper, BRAC,
2008: Research Papers in Economics
150.^ Simple Gifts
151.^ Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America
152.^ The ONE Campaign
153.^ United Nations Millennium Campaign
154.^ Stand Against Poverty
[edit] Further reading
• Agricultural Research, Livelihoods, and Poverty: Studies of Economic and Social Impacts in Six
Countries Edited by Michelle Adato and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (2007), Johns Hopkins University
Press Food Policy Report (Brief)
• World Bank, Can South Asia End Poverty in a Generation?
• "Educate a Woman, You Educate a Nation" - South Africa Aims to Improve its Education for
Girls WNN - Women News Network. Aug. 28, 2007. Lys Anzia
• Anthony Atkinson. Poverty in Europe 1998
• Betson, David M., and Jennifer L. Warlick "Alternative Historical Trends in Poverty." American
Economic Review 88:348-51. 1998. in JSTOR
• Brady, David "Rethinking the Sociological Measurement of Poverty" Social Forces 81#3 2003,
pp. 715–751 Online in Project Muse. Abstract: Reviews shortcomings of the official U.S.
measure; examines several theoretical and methodological advances in poverty measurement.
Argues that ideal measures of poverty should: (1) measure comparative historical variation
effectively; (2) be relative rather than absolute; (3) conceptualize poverty as social exclusion; (4)
assess the impact of taxes, transfers, and state benefits; and (5) integrate the depth of poverty and
the inequality among the poor. Next, this article evaluates sociological studies published since
1990 for their consideration of these criteria. This article advocates for three alternative poverty
indices: the interval measure, the ordinal measure, and the sum of ordinals measure. Finally,
using the Luxembourg Income Study, it examines the empirical patterns with these three
measures, across advanced capitalist democracies from 1967 to 1997. Estimates of these poverty
indices are made available.
• Buhmann, Brigitte, Lee Rainwater, Guenther Schmaus, and Timothy M. Smeeding. 1988.
"Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality, and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten
Countries Using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database." Review of Income and Wealth
34:115-42.
• Cox, W. Michael, and Richard Alm. Myths of Rich and Poor 1999
• Danziger, Sheldon H., and Daniel H. Weinberg. "The Historical Record: Trends in Family
Income, Inequality, and Poverty." Pp. 18–50 in Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change,
edited by Sheldon H. Danziger, Gary D. Sandefur, and Daniel. H. Weinberg. Russell Sage
Foundation. 1994.
• Firebaugh, Glenn. "Empirics of World Income Inequality." American Journal of Sociology (2000)
104:1597-1630. in JSTOR
• Gans, Herbert, J., "The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All", Social Policy, July/August 1971:
pp. 20–24
• George, Abraham, Wharton Business School Publications - Why the Fight Against Poverty is
Failing: A Contrarian View
• Gordon, David M. Theories of Poverty and Underemployment: Orthodox, Radical, and Dual
Labor Market Perspectives. 1972.
• Haveman, Robert H. Poverty Policy and Poverty Research. University of Wisconsin Press 1987.
• John Iceland; Poverty in America: A Handbook University of California Press, 2003
• Alice O'Connor; "Poverty Research and Policy for the Post-Welfare Era" Annual Review of
Sociology, 2000
• Osberg, Lars, and Kuan Xu. "International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity: Index
Decomposition and Bootstrap Inference." The Journal of Human Resources 2000. 35:51-81.
 • Paugam, Serge. "Poverty and Social Exclusion: A Sociological View." Pp. 41–62 in The Future
of European Welfare, edited by Martin Rhodes and Yves Meny, 1998.
• Pressman, Steven, Poverty in America: An Annotated Bibliography. University Press of America
and Scarecrow Press, 1994
• Rothman, David J., (editor). "The Almshouse Experience", in series Poverty U.S.A.: The
Historical Record, 1971. ISBN 0405030924
• Amartya Sen; Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation Oxford University
Press, 1982
• Amartya Sen. Development as Freedom (1999)
• Smeeding, Timothy M., Michael O'Higgins, and Lee Rainwater. Poverty, Inequality and Income
Distribution in Comparative Perspective. Urban Institute Press 1990.
• Stephen C. Smith, Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005
• Triest, Robert K. "Has Poverty Gotten Worse?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 1998. 12:97-
114.
• World Bank, "World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work For Poor People", 2004.
• Frank, Ellen, Dr. Dollar: How Is Poverty Defined in Government Statistics? Dollars & Sense,
January/February 2006
• Bergmann, Barbara. "Deciding Who's Poor", Dollars & Sense, March/April 2000
• Babb, Sarah (2009). Behind the Development Banks: Washington Politics, World Poverty, and
the Wealth of Nations. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226033655.
• Richard Wilson and Kate Pickett. "The Spirit Level", Allen Lane 2009

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Poverty

Look up poverty in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Poverty

• Disease control priorities project Studies the cost effectiveness of health care
interventions
• Human Rights Watch Tracks the abuse of people in less developed countries around the
world.
• Luxembourg Income Study Contains a wealth of data on income inequality and poverty,
and hundreds of its sponsored research papers using this data.
• Multinational Monitor Contains reports of corporate misbehavior around the world.
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Contains reports on economic
development as well as relations between rich and poor nations.
• Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Research to advance the
human development approach to poverty reduction.
 • Transparency International Tracks issues of government and corporate corruption around
the world.
• United Nations Hundres of free reports related to economic development and standards of
living in countries around the world, such as the annual Human Development Report.
• U.S. Agency for International Development USAID is the primary U.S. government
agency with the mission for aid to developing countries.
• World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists Association that helps Islamic donors
organize contributions.
• World Bank Contains hundreds of reports which can be downloaded for free, such as the
annual World Development Report.
• World Food Program Associated with the United Nations, the World Food Program
compiles hundreds of reports on hunger and food security around the world.
• Islamic Development Bank
• Islamic relief Largest Muslim relief organization.
• The Pulsera Project A US based non-profit Organization alleviating poverty in
Nicaragua, Central America's second poorest nation.
[hide]
v•d•e
Poverty in Asia

Afghanistan · Armenia1 · Azerbaijan1 · Bahrain · Bangladesh · Bhutan ·

Brunei · Burma2 · Cambodia · People's Republic of China · Cyprus1 · East
Timor3 · Egypt4 · Georgia4 · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Israel · Japan ·
Sovereign Jordan · Kazakhstan4 · North Korea · South Korea · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan ·
states Laos · Lebanon · Malaysia · Maldives · Mongolia · Nepal · Oman ·
Pakistan · Philippines · Qatar · Russia4 · Saudi Arabia · Singapore · Sri
Lanka · Syria · Tajikistan · Republic of China5 · Thailand · Turkey4 ·
Turkmenistan · United Arab Emirates · Uzbekistan · Vietnam · Yemen

Aceh · Adjara1 · Abkhazia1 · Akrotiri and Dhekelia · Altai · British Indian

Dependencies, Ocean Territory · Buryatia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands ·
autonomies, Guangxi · Hong Kong · Inner Mongolia · Iraqi Kurdistan · Jakarta ·
other Khakassia · Macau · Nagorno-Karabakh · Nakhchivan · Ningxia ·
territories Northern Cyprus · Palestine · Papua · Sakha · South Ossetia1 · Tibet ·
Tuva · West Papua · Xinjiang · Yogyakarta

Italics indicates an unrecognised or partially recognised country. 1 Sometimes included in Europe,

depending on the border definitions. 2 Officially known as Myanmar. 3 Sometimes included in
Oceania, and also known as Timor-Leste. 4 Transcontinental country. 5 Commonly known as
Taiwan.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty"
Categories: Poverty | Poverty by country
Hidden categories: All articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases | Articles with
specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from November 2009 | All articles with unsourced
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Poverty in China refers to people whose income is less than a poverty line of $1.25 per day
(PPP) set by the World Bank benchmark (see Measuring poverty). Poverty has affected all
aspects of the nation’s life, including the environment, health, education, housing, nutrition and
agriculture to name but a few. It has distorted the individual’s value, disrupted families and
communities, and sent millions from the poorer regions to the cities in a desperate search for
work.
Since the far changing economic reforms were made in the late 1970s, the growth fueled a
remarkable increase in per capita income and a decline in the poverty rate from 64% at the
beginning of reform to 10% in 2004. At the same time, however, different kinds of disparities
have increased. Income inequality has risen, propelled by the rural-urban income gap and by the
growing disparity between highly educated urban professionals and the urban working class.
There have also been increases in inequality of health and education outcomes. There have been
also reports of exaggeration by China on its poverty rate.[1]
Some rise in inequality was inevitable as China introduced a market system, but inequality may
have been exacerbated rather than mitigated by a number of policy features. Restrictions on
rural-urban migration have limited opportunities for the relatively poor rural population. The
inability to sell or mortgage rural land has further reduced opportunities. China has a uniquely
decentralized fiscal system that has relied on local government to fund basic health and
education. The result has been that poor villages could not afford to provide good services, and
poor households could not afford the high private costs of basic public services. Ironically, the
large trade surplus that China has built up in recent years is a further problem, in that it
stimulates an urban industrial sector that no longer creates many jobs while restricting the
government's ability to increase spending to improve services and address disparities. The
government has recently shifted its policy to encourage migration, fund education and health for
poor areas and poor households, and rebalance the economy away from investment and exports
toward domestic consumption and public services, to help reduce social disparities.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Overview
• 2 Poverty reduction
• 3 Increased inequality
• 4 Restrictions on migration
• 5 Land policy and corruption
• 6 Fiscal system and rural social services
• 7 See also
○ 7.1 Organizations and campaigns
 • 8 References
• 9 Further reading
• 10 External links
○ 10.1 Organizations
○ 10.2 Articles

[edit] Overview
China has been the most rapidly growing economy in the world over the past 25 years. This
growth has led to an extraordinary increase in real living standards and to an unprecedented
decline in poverty. The World Bank estimates that more than 60% of the population was living
under its $1 per day (PPP) poverty line at the beginning of economic reform. That poverty
headcount ratio had declined to 10% by 2004, indicating that about 500 million people have been
lifted out of poverty in a generation.
At the same time, the phenomenal rate of change has brought with it different kinds of stresses.
China faces serious natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation. It has also seen
growing disparities of different kinds as people in different parts of the country and with
different characteristics have benefited from the growth at different rates.
Starting from the pre-reform situation, some increase in income inequality was inevitable, as
coastal urban locations benefited first from the opening policy and as the small stock of educated
people found new opportunities, though particular features of Chinese policy may have
exacerbated rather than mitigated growing disparities. The household registration (hukou) system
kept rural-urban migration below what it otherwise would have been, and contributed to the
development of one of the largest rural-urban income divides in the world. Weak tenure over
rural land also limited the ability of peasants to benefit from their primary asset.
Aside from income inequality, there has also been an increase in inequality of educational
outcomes and health status, partly the result of China’s uniquely decentralized fiscal system, in
which local government has been primarily responsible for funding basic health and education.
Poor localities have not been able to fund these services, and poor households have not been able
to afford the high private cost of basic education and healthcare.
The large trade surplus that has emerged in China have exacerbated the inequalities and makes
them harder to address. The trade surplus stimulates the urban manufacturing sector, which is
already relatively well off. It limits the government’s scope to increase funding for public
services such as rural health and education. The government has been trying to rebalance China’s
production away from investment and exports and toward domestic consumption and services to
improve the country’s long-term macroeconomic health and the situation of the relative poor in
China.
Recent government measures to reduce disparities including relaxation of the hukou system,
abolition of the agricultural tax, and increased central transfers to fund health and education in
rural areas.
[edit] Poverty reduction
China has maintained a high growth rate for more than 25 years since the beginning of economic
reform in 1978, and this sustained growth has generated a huge increase in average living
standards. China had many characteristics in common with the rest of developing Asia 25 years
ago: large population, low per capita income, and resource scarcity on a per capita basis. In the
15 years from 1990-2005, China averaged per capita growth of 8.7%.
The whole reform program is often referred to in brief as the "open door policy". This highlights
that a key component of Chinese reform has been trade liberalization and opening up to foreign
direct investment, but not opening the capital account more generally to portfolio flows. China
improved its human capital, opened up to foreign trade and investment, and created a better
investment climate for the private sector.
After joining the WTO China’s average tariffs have dropped below 10%, and to around 5% for
manufactured imports. It initially welcomed foreign investment into "special economic zones",
but it is important to note that some of these were very large, amounting to urban areas of 20
million people or more. The positive impact of foreign investment in these locations led to a
more general opening up of the economy to foreign investment, with the result that China has
become the largest recipient of direct investment flows in recent years.[2]
The opening up measures have been accompanied by improvements in the investment climate.
Particularly in the coastal areas have cities developed their investment climates. In these cities
the private sector accounts for 90% or more of manufacturing assets and production. In 2005
average pretax rate of return for domestic private firms was the same as that for foreign-invested
firms.[3] Local governments in coastal cities have lowered loss of output due to unreliable power
supply to 1.0% and customs clearance time for imports has been lowered in Chinese cities to 3.2
days.[3]
China’s sustained growth fueled historically unprecedented poverty reduction. The World Bank
uses a poverty line based on household real consumption (including consumption of own-
produced crops and other goods), set at $1 per day measured at Purchasing Power Parity. In most
low-income countries this amount is sufficient to guarantee each person about 2000 calories of
nutrition per day, plus other basic necessities. In 2007, this line corresponds to about 900 RMB
per year. Based on household surveys, the poverty rate in China in 1981 was 64% of the
population. This rate declined to 10% in 2004, indicating that about 500 million people have
climbed out of poverty during this period.[4]
This poverty reduction has occurred in waves. The shift to the household responsibility system
propelled a large increase in agricultural output, and poverty was cut in half over the short period
from 1981 to 1987. From 1987 to 1993 poverty reduction stagnated, then resumed again. From
1996 to 2001 there was once more relatively little poverty reduction. Since China joined the
WTO in 2001, however, poverty reduction resumed at a very rapid rate, and poverty was cut by a
third in just three years.[5]
[edit] Increased inequality
China’s growth has been so rapid that virtually every household has benefited significantly,
fueling the steep drop in poverty. However, different people have benefited to very different
extents, so that inequality has risen during the reform period. This is true for inequality in
household income or consumption, as well as for inequality in important social outcomes such as
health status or educational attainment. Concerning household consumption, the Gini measure of
inequality increased from 0.31 at the beginning of reform to 0.45 in 2004. To some extent this
rise in inequality is the natural result of the market forces that have generated the strong growth;
but to some extent it is "artificial" in the sense that various government policies exacerbate the
tendencies toward higher inequality, rather than mitigate them. Changes to some policies could
halt or even reverse the increasing inequality.[6] (See List of countries by income equality.)
The Nobel Prize-winning economist Sir Arthur Lewis noted that "development must be
inegalitarian because it does not start in every part of the economy at the same time" in 1954.
China classically manifests two of the characteristics of development that Lewis had in mind:
rising return to education and rural-urban migration. As an underdeveloped country, China began
its reform with relatively few highly educated people, and with a small minority of the
population (20%) living in cities, where labor productivity was about twice the level as in the
countryside.
In pre-reform China there was very little return to education manifested in salaries. Cab drivers
and college professors had similar incomes. Economic reform has created a labor market in
which people can search for higher pay, and one result of this is that salaries for educated people
have gone up dramatically. In the short period between 1988 and 2003, the wage returns to one
additional year of schooling increased from 4% to 11%. This development initially leads to
higher overall inequality, because the initial stock of educated people is small and they are
concentrated at the high end of the income distribution. But if there is reasonably good access to
education, then over time a greater and greater share of the population will become educated, and
that will ultimately tend to reduce inequality.
The large productivity and wage gap between cities and countryside also drives a high volume of
rural-urban migration. Lewis pointed out that, starting from a situation of 80% rural, the initial
shift of some people from low-productivity agriculture to high productivity urban employment is
disequalizing. If the flow continues until the population is more than 50% urban, however,
further migration is equalizing. This pattern is very evident in the history of the U.S., with
inequality rising during the rapid industrialization period from 1870-1920, and then declining
thereafter. So, the same market forces that have produced the rapid growth in China predictably
led to higher inequality. But it is important to note that in China there are a number of
government policies that exacerbate this tendency toward higher inequality and restrict some of
the potential mechanisms that would normally lead to an eventual decline in inequality.[6]
[edit] Restrictions on migration
See also: Urbanization in China and Metropolitan Regions of China
Pre-reform China had a system that completely restricted people’s mobility, and that system has
only been slowly reformed over the past 25 years. Each person has a registration (hukou) in
either a rural area or an urban area, and cannot change the hukou without the permission of the
receiving jurisdiction. In practice cities usually give registration to skilled people who have
offers of employment, but have generally been reluctant to provide registration to migrants from
the countryside. Nevertheless, these migrants are needed for economic development, and large
numbers have in fact migrated. Many of these fall into the category of "floating population".
There are nearly 200 million rural residents who spend at least six months of the year working in
urban areas. Many of these people have for all practical purposes moved to a city, but they do not
have official registration. Beyond the floating population, there are tens of millions of people
who have left rural areas and obtained urban hukous.[5]
So, there is significant rural-urban migration in China, but it seems likely that the hukou system
has resulted in less migration than otherwise would have occurred. There are several pieces of
evidence to support this view. First, the gap in per capita income between rural and urban areas
widened during the reform period, reaching a ratio of three to one. Three to one is a very high
gap by international standards. Second, manufacturing wages have risen sharply in recent years,
at double-digit rates, so that China now has considerably higher wages than much of the rest of
developing Asia (India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh). This rise is good for the incumbent
workers, but they are relatively high up in China’s income distribution, so that the wage
increases raise inequality. It is hard to imagine that manufacturing wages would have risen so
rapidly if there had not been such controls on labor migration. Third, recent studies focusing on
migrants have shown that it is difficult for them to bring their families to the city, put their
children in school, and obtain healthcare. So, the growth of the urban population must have been
slowed down by these restrictions.[7]
Though, it should be noted that China’s urbanization so far has been a relatively orderly process.
One does not see in China the kinds of slums and extreme poverty that exist in cities throughout
Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Nevertheless, urbanization goes on: the urban share of China’s
population has risen from 20% to 40% during the course of economic reform. But at the same
time the hukou system has slowed and distorted urbanization, without preventing it. The system
has likely contributed to inequality by limiting the opportunities of the relatively poor rural
population to move to better-paying employment.[4]
[edit] Land policy and corruption
In the same way that people are either registered as urban or rural, land in China is zoned as
either rural or urban. Within both locations, property rights over land are mediocre. In urban
areas people can easily sell their land and buildings, or mortgage them to borrow. In rural areas,
peasants have long-term tenure as long as they sow the land, but they cannot mortgage or sell the
use rights. The biggest distortion, however, concerns moving land from rural to urban use. China
is a densely populated, water-scarce country whose comparative advantage lies more in
manufacturing and services than in agriculture. The fact that many peasants cannot earn a decent
living as farmers is a signal that their labor is more useful in urban employment, hence the
hundreds of millions of people who have migrated. But, at the same time, it is efficient to
alienate some of the land out of agriculture for urban use.
In China, that conversion is handled administratively, requiring central approval. Farmers are
compensated based on the agricultural value of the land. But the reason to convert land –
especially in the fringes around cities – is that the commercial value of the land for urban use is
higher than its value for agriculture. So, even if China’s laws on land are followed scrupulously,
the conversion does not generate a high income for the peasants. There are cases in which the
conversion is done transparently, the use rights over the land auctioned, and the revenue
collected put into the public budget to finance public goods. But still the peasants get relatively
poor recompense. One government study found that 62% of displaced peasants were worse off
after land conversion.[8]
Furthermore, one reads in the press[citation needed] of many cases where peasants complain and
demonstrate because the conversions have not been done in a transparent way, and there are
accusations of corruption lining the pockets of local officials. The government has published
statistics on violent protests involving more than 100 people, and that number grew steadily up to
2005 (84,000 incidents), before dropping a reported 20% in 2006. Up until 2006, the way in
which agricultural land was being converted to urban land probably contributed unnecessarily to
increasing inequality. It has been noted that compared to other developing countries, virtually all
peasants in China have land. If that asset could be used either as collateral for borrowing, or
could be sold to provide some capital before migrants moved to the city, then it would have been
helping those who were in the poorer part of the income distribution. The administrative, rather
than market-based, conversion of land essentially reduced the value of the main asset held by the
poor.
[edit] Fiscal system and rural social services
Market reform has dramatically increased the return to education, as it indicates that there are
good opportunities for skilled people and as it creates a powerful incentive for families to
increase the education of their children. However, there needs to be strong public support for
education and reasonably fair access to the education system. Otherwise, inequality can become
self-perpetuating: if only high-income people can educate their children, then that group remains
a privileged, high-income group permanently. China is at some risk of falling into this trap,
because it has developed a highly decentralized fiscal system in which local governments rely
primarily on local tax collection to provide basic services such as primary education and primary
health care. China in fact has one of the most decentralized fiscal systems in the world.[9]
China is much more decentralized than OECD countries and middle-income countries,
particularly on the spending side. More than half of all expenditure takes place at the sub-
provincial level. In part, the sheer size of the country explains this degree of decentralization, but
the structure of government and some unusual expenditure assignments also give rise to this
pattern of spending. Functions such as social security, justice, and even the production of
national statistics are largely decentralized in China, whereas they are central functions in most
other countries.
Fiscal disparities among subnational governments are larger in China than in most OECD
countries. These disparities have emerged alongside a growing disparity in economic strength
among the provinces. From 1990 to 2003, the ratio of per capita GDP of the richest to poorest
province grew from 7.3 to 13. In China, the richest province has more than 8 times the per capita
public spending than the poorest province. In the US, the poorest state has about 65 percent of
the revenues of the average state, and in Germany, any state falling below 95 percent of the
average level gets subsidized through the "Finanzausgleich" (and any receiving more than 110
percent gets taxed). In Brazil, the richest state has 2.3 times the revenues per capita of the poorest
state.[8]
Inequalities in spending are even larger at the sub-provincial level. The richest county, the level
that is most important for service delivery, has about 48 times the level of per capita spending of
the poorest county.[8] These disparities in aggregate spending levels also show up in functional
categories such as health and education where variation among counties and among provinces is
large.
These differences in public spending translate into differences in social outcomes. Up through
1990, there were only modest differences across provinces in infant survival rate, but by 2000
there had emerged a very sharp difference, closely related to the province’s per capita GDP. So
too with the high-school enrollment rate: there used to be small differences across provinces. By
2003, high-school enrollment was nearing 100% in the wealthier provinces while still less than
40% in poor provinces.[9]
There is some redistribution within China’s fiscal system, but not enough. Poor areas have very
little tax collection and hence cannot fund decent basic education and health care. Some of their
population will relocate over time. But for reasons of both national efficiency and equity, it
would make sense for the state to ensure that everyone has good basic education and health care,
so that when people move they come with a solid foundation of human capital.[9]
China’s highly decentralized fiscal system results in local government in many locations not
having adequate resources to fund basic social services. As a consequence, households are left to
fend for themselves to a remarkable extent. The average hospital visit in China is paid 60% out-
of-pocket by the patient, compared to 25% in Mexico, 10% in Turkey, and lower amounts in
most developed countries. Poor households either forego treatment or face devastating financial
consequences. In the 2003 National Health Survey, 30% of poor households identified a large
health care expenditure as the reason that they were in poverty.[4]
The situation in education is similar. In a survey of 3037 villages in 2004, average primary
school fees were 260 yuan and average middle-school fees, 442 yuan. A family living right at the
dollar-a-day poverty line would have about 900 yuan total resources for a child for a year;
sending a child to middle-school would take half of that. Not surprisingly, then, enrollment rates
are relatively low in poor areas and for poor families.[10]