• Defining poverty

Defining poverty

The brief on ‘Understanding Poverty’ gives an overview of various definitional and measurement issues related to poverty that has emerged in the research field over time. It deals with the debates that revolve around the different approaches to the study of poverty: monetary, multidimensional, capability, participatory, social exclusion and the adverse incorporation approach.

The brief reiterates the need to look at the meanings of poverty as identified by the poor themselves. This would enable better understanding of poverty dimensions across socio-economic and cultural settings. However it notes that the participatory approach is not suitable for policy formulation at national level due to the problem of scaling-up and is most appropriate for localised development interventions.

Some consensus around poverty is found:

• any definition of poverty should take into account the specific social, cultural and historical context to which it applies
• the way poverty is defined influences the policy prescription
• the dimensions of poverty need to be understood at the individual level
• poverty is not static, persons move in and out of poverty
• poverty is multidimensional encompassing all important human requirements
• poverty rates vary depending on the approach used for estimating them
  

The brief suggests that poverty results in discrimination, obstacles and exclusion in:

• satisfying the basic necessities of life
• use and development of an individual’s physical and human potential and capacities
• seizing the opportunities and choices for leading a dignified life and realisation of aspirations
• participating in the formulation and decision making stages of the social, political and economic transformation process
  

The brief looks at both the merits and demerits of various approaches and concludes that there is no single ‘correct’ definition of poverty. It concludes that a strategy for sustainable and effective reduction of poverty should address the following aspects:

• monetary poverty through pro-poor economic growth
• capability deprivation through provision of basic social services for human
• development
• social exclusion through empowerment, rights and pro-poor governance
• the need to develop flexible and locally appropriate interventions through use of sustainable livelihood frameworks in poverty analysis
  

• Full text of document
• Send to a friend