• Defining poverty

Defining poverty

The Jordan Poverty Assessment was produced by the Government of Jordan and the World Bank in 2004. It uses a new poverty line to calculate that 14.7% of the population is poor. But how accurate is this figure? A paper brought out by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan claims that in adopting absolutist conceptions of poverty, the Poverty Assessment underestimates Jordan’s poverty. It argues that improved poverty analysis will require defining and measuring poverty more specifically in relation to the social and cultural norms of Jordanian society.

The Poverty Assessment uses a poverty line based on measurements of food and non-food poverty. Since the non-food poverty line is partly defined in relation to the food poverty line, it is the food poverty line that most influences the poverty incidence. The food poverty line is calculated as the minimum food expenditure needed to meet the metabolic rates of calorific requirements (BMR) of the bottom quintile of the population. This means that even the non-poverty level of food expenditure is based on the spending patterns of just 20% of the population most of whom are poor. According to the paper, this is an arbitrary measure of food spending which serves to underestimate actual rates of food poverty. This has implications for the calculation of the non-food poverty line too.

The paper also questions the way in which the Poverty Assessment conceptualises poverty. For instance, the food poverty line measures minimum food consumption in abstract terms although notions of food and eating preferences depend to a large extent on social and cultural norms. To be more accurate and relevant, poverty needs to be defined and measured in relation to specific social contexts incorporating local opinions as far as possible.

Debates about whether poverty is an absolutist or a relativist concept are not new. These days economists concede a middle ground that considers both kinds of poverty to be important. In view of rising inequalities in middle-income countries, interest in relative poverty has in fact increased. Recent income and expenditure data for Jordan confirm a rise in income inequality resulting in a growing “frustration of expectations” of the kind more commonly observed in Latin America countries. Left unaddressed, the paper suggests such conditions could lead to social unrest. It recommends that future Poverty Assessment exercises adopt a poverty line that is more sensitive to Jordanian standards of living in order to provide a fuller picture of actual conditions on the ground.

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