Poverty and development

Few persons and agencies dedicated to and experienced in economic and social development would disagree that poverty and its alleviation is a fundamental purpose of all development programmes. Different dictionaries and social commentaries define ‘poverty’: ‘the condition of owning neither wealth nor material possessions’; ‘having insufficient income and resources to sustain healthy survival’; ‘suffering a lack of basic human needs: adequate food, clothing, housing, clean water, health services and hygienic sanitation’. These quotations define ‘absolute’ or ‘near-absolute’ poverty and destitution. Except for a few extreme cases, among affluent nations poverty exists as ‘relative’ rather than as ‘absolute’ poverty, where certain segments of society own less and receive lower incomes than the majority. The world's poorest people, most in Africa and Asia, are so poor they struggle to survive.

Defining poverty

To determine and agree upon a precise, internationally recognised definition of ‘poverty’ is a difficulty that confronts all development, government, non-government and social service agencies. If accepted that those classed as LICs are the poorest nations, in 1982 and 1995 respectively, people with less than $410 and $765 per cap/year would be considered below the poverty line. An enquiry addressed to several international development agencies in early 2004 revealed that, for some the poverty line is set at $1.00/Cap/day ($365/Cap/year) for others $2.00/Cap/day ($730/Cap/year). Several United Nations agencies now regard those whose income is less than $1.00 USD per day as poverty-stricken.

In the United States the ‘Official Poverty Line’ is an income level determined by the Bureau of Census: poverty classifications among US citizens depend upon in what degree their estimated incomes fall below the Official Poverty Line.