From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Low-income)
Jump to: navigation, search
An example of urban poverty in this slum in Jakarta, Indonesia

Poverty is general scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.[1] Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.[2][3]




The word poverty comes from old French poverté (Modern French: pauvreté), from Latin paupertās, from pauper (poor).[7]


Measuring poverty


Percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day, 2009.
Percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2008
The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, 2009.



Copenhagen Declaration: Absolute poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to social services.[10] The term 'absolute poverty' is sometimes synonymously referred to as 'extreme poverty.'[11]


Absolute poverty

Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. First introduced in 1990, the dollar a day poverty line measured absolute poverty by the standards of the world’s poorest countries. The World Bank defined the new international poverty line as $1.25 a day for 2005 (equivalent to $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices).[12] but have recently been updated to be $1.25 and $2.50 per day.[13] Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or abject poverty is "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." [14] The term 'absolute poverty', when used in this fashion, is usually synonymous with 'extreme poverty': Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as, "...a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency".[15][notes 1][16] Australia is one of the world's wealthier nations. In his article published in Australian Policy Online, Robert Tanton notes that, "While this amount is appropriate for third world countries, in Australia, the amount required to meet these basic needs will naturally be much higher because prices of these basic necessities are higher."

Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. Australia ranks very high with many OECD countries.

However as the amount of wealth required for survival is not the same in all places and time periods, particularly in highly developed countries where few people would fall below the World Bank's poverty lines, countries often develop their own National poverty lines.


For a few years starting 1990, The World Bank anchored absolute poverty line as $1 per day. This was revised in 1993, and through 2005, absolute poverty was $1.08 a day for all countries on a purchasing power parity basis, after adjusting for inflation to the 1993 U.S. dollar. In 2005, after extensive studies of cost of living across the world, The World Bank raised the measure for global poverty line to reflect the observed higher cost of living.[19] Now, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty[citation needed] as less than $2 or $5 a day (but note that a person or family with access to subsistence resources, e.g. subsistence farmers, may have a low cash income without a correspondingly low standard of living – they are not living "on" their cash income but using it as a top up). 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."[20] A dollar a day, in nations that do not use the U.S. dollar as currency, does not translate to living a day on the equivalent amount of local currency as determined by the exchange rate.[21] Rather, it is determined by the purchasing power parity rate, which would look at how much local currency is needed to buy the same things that a dollar could buy in the United States.[21] Usually, this would translate to less local currency than the exchange rate in poorer countries as the United States is a relatively more expensive country.[21]

The poverty line threshold of $1.25 per day, as set by The World Bank, is controversial. Each nation has its own threshold for absolute poverty line; in the United States, for example, the absolute poverty line was US$15.15 per day in 2010 (US$22,000 per year for a family of four),[22] while in India it was US$ 1.0 per day[23] and in China the absolute poverty line was US$ 0.55 per day, each on PPP basis in 2010.[24] These different poverty lines make data comparison between each nation's official reports qualitatively difficult. Some scholars argue that The World Bank method sets the bar too high, others argue it is low. Still others suggest that poverty line misleads as it measures everyone below the poverty line the same, when in reality someone living on $1.2 per day is in a different state of poverty than someone living on $0.2 per day. In other words, the depth and intensity of poverty varies across the world and in any regional populations, and $1.25 per day poverty line and head counts are inadequate measures.[23][25][26]

The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[20] Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia.[27] 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."[28] In Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty went up from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001,[29] which combined with growing population increased the number of people living in extreme poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[30]

In the early 1990s some of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income.[31] 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%.[32][33]


Region $1 per day $1.25 per day[36]
1990 2002 2004 1981 2008
South Asia 35.04% 33.44% 30.84% 61.1% 36%
World 52.2% 22.4%

According to Chen and Ravallion, about 1.76 billion people in developing world lived above $1.25 per day and 1.9 billion people lived below $1.25 per day in 1981. The world's population increased over the next 25 years. In 2005, about 4.09 billion people in developing world lived above $1.25 per day and 1.4 billion people lived below $1.25 per day (both 1981 and 2005 data are on inflation adjusted basis).[37][38] Some scholars caution that these trends are subject to various assumptions, and not certain. Additionally, they note that the poverty reduction is not uniform across the world; economically prospering countries such as China, India and Brazil have made more progress in absolute poverty reduction than countries in other regions of the world.[39]


Relative poverty



Relative poverty is the "most useful measure for ascertaining poverty rates in wealthy developed nations."[42][43][44][45][46] Relative poverty measure is used by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Canadian poverty researchers.[42][43][44][45][46] In the European Union, the "relative poverty measure is the most prominent and most–quoted of the EU social inclusion indicators."[47]






Children of the Depression-era migrant workers, Arizona, 1937





Other aspects




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.[62][63][64] Such social exclusion can be minimized through strengthened connections with the mainstream, such as through the provision of relational care to those who are experiencing poverty.



  • Abuse by those in power
  • Dis-empowering institutions
  • Excluded locations
  • Gender relationships
  • Lack of security
  • Limited capabilities
  • Physical limitations
  • Precarious livelihoods
  • Problems in social relationships
  • Weak community organizations


Ultra-poverty, a term apparently coined by Michael Lipton,[66] 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.[67]

Asset poverty is an economic and social condition that is more persistent and prevalent than income poverty.[68] It can be defined as a household’s inability to access wealth resources that are sufficient enough to provide for basic needs for a period of three months. Basic needs refer to the minimum standards for consumption and acceptable needs.[1] Wealth resources consist of home ownership, other real estate (second home, rented properties, etc.), net value of farm and business assets, stocks, checking and savings accounts, and other savings (money in savings bonds, life insurance policy cash values, etc.).[2] Wealth is measured in three forms: net worth, net worth minus home equity, and liquid assets. Net worth consists of all the aspects mentioned above. Net worth minus home equity is the same except it does not include home ownership in asset calculations. Liquid assets are resources that are readily available such as cash, checking and savings accounts, stocks, and other sources of savings.[2] There are two types of assets: tangible and intangible. Tangible assets most closely resemble liquid assets in that they include stocks, bonds, property, natural resources, and hard assets not in the form of real estate. Intangible assets are simply the access to credit, social capital, cultural capital, political capital, and human capital.[3]




A Somali boy receiving treatment for malnourishment at a health facility.

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.[69][not in citation given] Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease.[70][not in citation given] 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.[71] Almost 90% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world.[72][relevant? ]

Those who live in poverty have also been shown to have a far greater likelihood of having or incurring a disability within their lifetime.[73] 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.[74][75][76]



A reality of poverty

Rises in the costs of living making poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. 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[78] led to food riots in some countries.[79][80][81] The World Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty.[82] Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis.[83] Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields.[84] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[85][86] 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 United Nations University's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[87] Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night.[88]

According to the Global Hunger Index, Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest child malnutrition rate of the world's regions over the 2001-2006 period.[89]





Harmful spending habits mean that the poor typically spend about 2 percent of their income educating their children but larger percentages on alcohol and tobacco (For example, 6 percent in Indonesia and 8 percent in Mexico).[94]


Street child in Bangladesh
Homeless children in the US grew from 1.2 million in 2007 to 1.6 million in 2010. The United States defines homelessness per McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act.[95] The number of homeless children reached record highs in 2011,[96] 2012,[97] and 2013[98] at about three times their number in 1983.[97]

Poverty increases the risk of homelessness.[99] 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.[100]

There are over 100 million street children worldwide.[101] 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.[102] Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children's development by separating them from their families.[102] 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.[102]


Water utility subsidies tend to subsidize water consumption by those connected to the network, which typically includes the richer segment of the population. As a result, the price of water decreases to the extent that only 30%, on average, of the supplying costs in developing countries is covered.[103] This results in a lack of incentive to maintain delivery systems, leading to losses from leaks annually that is enough for 200 million people.[104] This also leads to a lack of incentive to invest in expanding the network, resulting in much of the poor population being unconnected to the network. Instead, the poor buy water from water vendors for, on average, about five to 16 times the metered price.[105] However, subsidies for laying new connections to the network rather than for consumption has shown more promise for the poor.[103]

Similarly, the poorest fifth receive 0.1% of the world’s lighting but pay a fifth of total spending on light, accounting for 25 to 30 percent of their income.[106] Indoor air pollution from burning fuels kills 2 million, with almost half the deaths from pneumonia in children under 5.[107] Fuel from Bamboo burns more cleanly and also matures much faster than wood, thus also reducing deforestation.[107] Additionally, using solar panels is promoted as being cheaper over the products' lifetime even if upfront costs are higher.[106]


According to experts, many women become victims of trafficking, the most common form of which is prostitution, as a means of survival and economic desperation.[108] Deterioration of living conditions can often compel children to abandon school to contribute to the family income, putting them at risk of being exploited.[109] For example, in Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to sex in return for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.[110]

In one survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported witnessing a homicide.[111] 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).[112]

Poverty reduction


Increasing the supply of basic needs

Food and other goods

Agricultural technologies such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, new seed varieties and new irrigation methods have dramatically reduced food shortages in modern times by boosting yields past previous constraints.[113] The authors of one 2012 study into the potential beneficial impacts of new chickpea varieties concluded that further investments in the chickpea and other legume research in Ethiopia were justified as a means of poverty alleviation. The study assessed the potential economic and poverty impact of 11 improved chickpea varieties, released by the national agricultural research organization of Ethiopia in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, (ICRISAT). The researchers estimated using the varieties would bring about a total benefit of US$ 111 million for 30 years, with consumers receiving 39% of the benefit and producers 61%. The generated benefit is expected to lift more than 0.7 million people (both producers and consumers) out of poverty. [114]

Before the Industrial Revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economies produced little, making wealth scarce.[115] Geoffrey Parker wrote that "In Antwerp and Lyon, two of the largest cities in western Europe, by 1600 three-quarters of the total population were too poor to pay taxes, and therefore likely to need relief in times of crisis."[116] The initial industrial revolution led to high economic growth and eliminated mass absolute poverty in what is now considered the developed world.[115] Mass production of goods in places such as rapidly industrializing China has made what were once considered luxuries, such as vehicles and computers, inexpensive and thus accessible to many who were otherwise too poor to afford them.[117][118]

Even with new products, such as better seeds, or greater volumes of them, such as industrial production, the poor still require access to these products. Improving road and transportation infrastructure helps solve this major bottleneck. In Africa, it costs more to move fertilizer from an African seaport 60 miles inland than to ship it from the United States to Africa because of sparse, low quality roads, leading to fertilizer costs two to six times the world average.[119] Microfranchising models such as door to door businesses are used to sell basic needs to remote areas for below market prices.[120]

Health care and education

Hardwood surgical tables are commonplace in rural Nigerian clinics.

Nations do not necessarily need wealth to gain health.[121] For example, Sri Lanka had a maternal mortality rate of 2% in the 1930s, higher than any nation today.[122] It reduced it to 0.5–0.6% in the 1950s and to .06% today while spending less each year on maternal health because it learned what worked and what did not.[122] Cheap water filters and promoting hand washing are some of the most cost effective health interventions and can cut deaths from diarrhea and pneumonia.[123][124] Knowledge on the cost effectiveness of healthcare interventions can be elusive and educational measures have been made to disseminate what works, such as the Copenhagen Consensus.[121]

Strategies to provide education cost effectively include deworming children, which costs about 50 cents per child per year and reduces non-attendance from anemia, illness and malnutrition, while being only a twenty-fifth as expensive as increasing school attendance by constructing schools.[125] Schoolgirl absenteeism could be cut in half by simply providing free sanitary towels.[126]

Desirable actions such as enrolling children in school or receiving vaccinations can be encouraged by a form of aid known as conditional cash transfers.[127] In Mexico, for example, dropout rates of 16- to 19-year-olds in rural area dropped by 20% and children gained half an inch in height.[128] 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.[128]

Removing constraints on government services


Government revenue can be diverted away from basic services by corruption.[129][130] Funds from aid and natural resources are often sent by government individuals for money laundering to overseas banks which insist on bank secrecy, instead of spending on the poor.[131] A Global Witness report asked for more action from Western banks as they have proved capable of stanching the flow of funds linked to terrorism.[131]

Illicit capital flight from the developing world is estimated at ten times the size of aid it receives and twice the debt service it pays.[132] About 60 per cent of illicit capital flight from Africa is from transfer mispricing, where a subsidiary in a developing nation sells to another subsidiary or shell company in a tax haven at an artificially low price to pay less tax.[133] An African Union report estimates that about 30% of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP has been moved to tax havens.[134] Solutions include corporate “country-by-country reporting” where corporations disclose activities in each country and thereby prohibit the use of tax havens where no effective economic activity occurs.[133]

Developing countries' debt service to banks and governments from richer countries can constrain government spending on the poor.[135] For example, Zambia spent 40% of its total budget to repay foreign debt, and only 7% for basic state services in 1997.[136] One of the proposed ways to help poor countries has been debt relief. Zambia began offering services, such as free health care even while overwhelming the health care infrastructure, because of savings that resulted from a 2005 round of debt relief.[137]

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as primary holders of developing countries' debt, attach structural adjustment conditionalities in return for loans which generally include the elimination of state subsidies and the privatization of state services. For example, the World Bank presses poor nations to eliminate subsidies for fertilizer even while many farmers cannot afford them at market prices.[138] In Malawi, almost five million of its 13 million people used to need emergency food aid but after the government changed policy and subsidies for fertilizer and seed were introduced, farmers produced record-breaking corn harvests in 2006 and 2007 as Malawi became a major food exporter.[138]

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. [139] 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.[140]


Reversing brain drain

The loss of basic needs providers emigrating from impoverished countries has a damaging effect.[141] As of 2004, there were more Ethiopia-trained doctors living in Chicago than in Ethiopia.[142] Proposals to mitigate the problem by the World Health Organization include compulsory government service for graduates of public medical and nursing schools and creating career-advancing programs to retain personnel.[141]

Controlling overpopulation

Some argue that overpopulation and lack of access to birth control leads to population increase to exceed food production and other resources.[30][143][144] Better education for both men and women, and more control of their lives, reduces population growth due to family planning.[145]

Increasing personal income

The following are strategies used or proposed to increase personal incomes among the poor. Raising farm incomes is described as the core of the antipoverty effort as three quarters of the poor today are farmers.[146] Estimates show that growth in the agricultural productivity of small farmers is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a country’s population as growth generated in nonagricultural sectors.[147]

Income grants

Afghan girl begging in Kabul.

A guaranteed minimum income ensures that every citizen will live be able to purchase a desired level of basic needs. A basic income (or negative income tax) is a system of social security, that periodically provides each citizen, rich or poor, with a sum of money that is sufficient to live on. Studies of large cash-transfer programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi show that the programs can be effective in increasing consumption, schooling, and nutrition, whether they are tied to such conditions or not.[148][149][150] Proponents argue that a basic income is more economically efficient than a minimum wage and unemployment benefits, as the minimum wage effectively imposes a high marginal tax on employers, causing losses in efficiency. In 1968, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce a system of income guarantees.[151] Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics, with often diverse political convictions, who support a basic income include Herbert A. Simon,[152] Friedrich Hayek,[153] Robert Solow,[152] Milton Friedman,[154] Jan Tinbergen,[152] James Tobin[155][156][157] and James Meade.[152]

Income grants are argued to be vastly more efficient in extending basic needs to the poor than subsidies. This is largely because the beneficiaries of such subsidies are the general population, including the non-poor. Its effectiveness in poverty alleviation is diluted by the non-poor who enjoy the same subsidized prices.[158] In some countries, fuel subsidies are a larger part of the budget than health and education.[159][160] A 2008 study concluded that the money spent on in-kind transfers in India in a year could lift all India’s poor out of poverty for that year if transferred directly.[161] The primary obstacle argued to avoid direct cash transfers is the impractically for poor countries of such large and direct transfers. In practice, payments determined by complex iris scanning are used by war-torn Congo and Afghanistan,[162] while India is phasing out its fuel subsidies in favor of direct transfers.[163] Additionally, in aid models, the famine relief model increasing used by aid groups calls for giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers instead of buying food from donor countries, often required by law, as it wastes money on transport costs.[164][165]

Economic freedoms

In Canada, it takes two days, two registration procedures, and $280 to open a business,[166] while an entrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20 procedures to do the same. Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of small enterprises, where most jobs are created.[167] Often, businesses have to bribe government officials even for routine activities, which is, in effect, a tax on business.[168] Noted reductions in poverty in recent decades has occurred in China and India mostly as a result of the abandonment of collective farming in China and the ending of the central planning model known as the License Raj in India.[169][170][171] The World Bank concludes that governments and feudal elites extending to the poor the right to the land that they live and use is ‘the key to reducing poverty’ citing that land rights greatly increase poor people’s wealth, in some cases doubling it.[172] Although approaches varied, the World Bank said the key issues were security of tenure and ensuring land transactions costs were low.[172]

Greater access to markets brings more income to the poor. Road infrastructure has a direct impact on poverty.[173][174] Additionally, migration from poorer countries resulted in $328 billion sent from richer to poorer countries in 2010, more than double the $120 billion in official aid flows from OECD members. In 2011, India got $52 billion from its diaspora, more than it took in foreign direct investment.[175]

Financial services

Microloans, made famous by the Grameen Bank, is where small amounts of money are loaned to farmers or villages, mostly women, who can then obtain physical capital to increase their economic rewards. However, microlending has been criticized for making hyperprofits off the poor even from its founder, Muhammad Yunus, and in India, which has seen a growing wave of defaults and suicides.[176][177][178]

Those in poverty place overwhelming importance on having a safe place to save money, much more so than receiving loans.[179] Additionally, a large part of microfinance loans are spent not on investments but on products that would usually be paid by a checking or savings account.[179] Microsavings are designs to make savings products available for the poor, who make small deposits. Mobile banking utilizes the wide availability of mobile phones to address the problem of the heavy regulation and costly maintenance of saving accounts.[179] This usually involves 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.[180]

Dalit beggars in Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, India. An “untouchable” or Dalit is considered outside of the caste system.

Cultural factors to productivity

Cultural factors, such as discrimination of various kinds, can negatively affect productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping,[181] gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and caste discrimination. Max Weber and the modernization theory suggest that cultural values could affect economic success.[182][183] 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.[184]

Climate change


Voluntary poverty






See also



Organizations and campaigns

In documentary photography and film

Authors with significant work
Significant titles


  1. ^ Poverty. merriam-webster. Retrieved 2013-11-18. 
  2. ^ "Measuring Inequality". The World Bank. 2011. 
  3. ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (2009). "Poverty and its measurement - The presentation of a range of methods to obtain measures of poverty". pp. 2–3. 
  5. ^ "World Bank Sees Progress Against Extreme Poverty, But Flags Vulnerabilities". The World bank. February 29, 2012. 
  6. ^ "Poverty and Equity - India, 2010 World Bank Country Profile". Povertydata.worldbank.org. 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2013-07-26. 
  8. ^ "Indicators of Poverty & Hunger". United Nations. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  9. ^ "Poverty and Inequality Analysis". worldbank.org. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  10. ^ "World Summit for Social Development 1995 (see Annex II, Section 19)". Un.org. Retrieved 2013-07-26. 
  11. ^ "Mozambique: ACTION PLAN FOR THE REDUCTION OF ABSOLUTE POVERTY, 2001-2005, The World Bank" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-07-26. 
  12. ^ Ravallion, Martin; Chen, Shaohua; Sangraula, Prem (May 2008) (PDF). ﻿Dollar a Day Revisited﻿ (Report). Washington DC: The World Bank. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/09/02/000158349_20080902095754/Rendered/PDF/wps4620.pdf. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  13. ^ Ravallion, Martin; Chen, Shaohua; Sangraula, Prem. "Dollar a day" (PDF). The World Bank Economic Review 23 (2): 163–184. doi:10.1093wberlhp007. Retrieved 11 June 2013. 
  14. ^ UN declaration at World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995
  15. ^ "Poverty". World Bank. Retrieved 23 April 2010. 
  18. ^ Davidson, Peter (2012) (PDF). ﻿Poverty in Australia﻿ (Report). Strawberry Hills, NSW: Australian Council of Social Service. ISBN 978085871082. ISSN 7124 1326 7124. http://www.acoss.org.au/uploads/ACOSS%20Poverty%20Report%202012_Final.pdf. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  19. ^ Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen and Prem Sangraula (2008). "Dollar a Day Revisited". The World Bank. 
  20. ^ a b "The World Bank, 2007, Understanding Poverty". Web.worldbank.org. 2005-04-19. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  21. ^ a b c Devichand, Mukul (2007-12-02). "When a dollar a day means 25 cents". bbcnews.com. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  22. ^ "Poverty Definitions". US Census Bureau. 2011. 
  23. ^ a b "World Bank's $1.25/day poverty measure- countering the latest criticisms". The World Bank. 2010. 
  25. ^ "Poverty Measures". The World Bank. 2009. 
  26. ^ Amartya Sen (March 1976). "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement". Econometrica 44 (2): 219–231. doi:10.2307/1912718. JSTOR 1912718. 
  27. ^ "How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s?" Table 3, p. 28". worldbank.org. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  28. ^ "East Asia Remains Robust Despite US Slow Down". worldbank.org. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  30. ^ a b "Birth rates must be curbed to win war on global poverty". The Independent (London). 2007-01-31. Retrieved 2012-06-11. 
  31. ^ "Worldbank.org reference". Web.worldbank.org. 2005-04-19. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  32. ^ "World Bank, Data and Statistics, WDI, GDF, & ADI Online Databases". World Bank. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  33. ^ "Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries". The New York Times. 2000-10-12. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  34. ^ "World Bank, 2007, Povcalnet Poverty Data". World Bank. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  37. ^ Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallioniz (August 2008). "The Developing World Is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight against Poverty". 
  38. ^ "Fighting poverty in emerging markets - the gloves go on; Lessons from Brazil, China and India". The Economist. November 26, 2009. 
  39. ^ Reddy & Miniou (September 2007). "HAS WORLD POVERTY REALLY FALLEN?". Review of Income and Wealth 53 (3). 
  40. ^ "Levels and Trends in Child Mortality". UNICEF, World Health Organization, The World Bank and UN Population Division. 2011. 
  42. ^ a b Raphael, Dennis (June 2009. Poverty,Human Development, and Health in Canada: Research, Practice, and Advocacy Dilemmas). Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (CJNR) 41 (2): 7–18. 
  43. ^ a b ﻿Child poverty in rich nations: Report card no. 6﻿ (Report). Innocenti Research Centre. 2005.
  44. ^ a b "Growing unequal? Income distribution and poverty in OECD countries". Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2008. 
  45. ^ a b ﻿Human development report: Capacity development: Empowering people and institutions﻿ (Report). Geneva: United Nations Development Program. 2008.
  48. ^ a b Jonathan Bradshaw; Yekaterina Chzhen; Gill Main; Bruno Martorano; Leonardo Menchini; Chris de Neubourg (January 2012) (PDF). ﻿Relative Income Poverty among Children in Rich Countries﻿ (Report). Innocenti Working Paper. Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. ISSN 1014-7837. http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2012_01.pdf.
  49. ^ ﻿A League Table of Child Poverty in Rich Nations - Innocenti Report Card No.1﻿ (Report). Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.
  50. ^ Adam Smith (1776). An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 5 (22). 
  51. ^ a b c d Peter Adamson (2012). "Measuring child poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world’s rich countries - UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Report Card - number 10" (PDF). Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. 
  52. ^ Galbraith, J. K. (1958). The Affluent Society, Chapter 22: The Position of Poverty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 
  53. ^ ﻿Minority [Republican] views, p. 46 in U.S. Congress, Report of the Joint Economic Committee on the January 1964 Economic Report of the President with Minority and Additional Views﻿ (Report). Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. January 1964.
  54. ^ Friedman, Rose. D. (1965). "﻿Poverty: Definition and Perspective﻿". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Washington, D.C.).
  55. ^ Townsend, P. (1979). Poverty in the United Kingdom. London: Penguin. 
  56. ^ Callan, T.; Nolan; Whelan (1993). "Resources, Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty". Journal of Social Policy 22 (2): 141–172. doi:10.1017/S0047279400019280.  More than one of |author2= and |last2= specified (help); More than one of |author3= and |last3= specified (help)
  57. ^ Michael Blastland (2009-07-31). "Just what is poor?". BBC NEWS. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  58. ^ "A Glossary for Social Epidemiology". World Health Organization. March 2002. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  59. ^ "Journal of Poverty". Journal of Poverty. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  61. ^ ﻿Income Mobility in the U.S. from 1996 to 2005﻿ (Report). Department of the Treasury. Nov 13, 2007. http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Documents/incomemobilitystudy03-08revise.pdf.
  63. ^ G Simmel, The poor, Social Problems 1965 13
  64. ^ P Townsend, 1979, Poverty in the UK, Penguin
  68. ^ "Assets & Opportunity Scorecard". Assetsandopportunity.org. Retrieved 2013-07-26. 
  69. ^ "The World Health Report, World Health Organization (See annex table 2)". Who.int. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  70. ^ "Rising food prices curb aid to global poor". Csmonitor.com. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  71. ^ "The Starvelings". The Economist. 2008-01-24. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  72. ^ "The causes of maternal death". BBC News. 1998-11-23. Retrieved 2012-08-27. 
  73. ^ "Disability - Disability: Overview". Go.worldbank.org. 2013-03-28. Retrieved 2013-07-26. 
  74. ^ "Economic costs of AIDS". Globalpolicy.org. 2003-07-23. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  75. ^ "The economic and social burden of malaria". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. 2010-09-03. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  76. ^ "Poverty Issues Dominate WHO Regional Meeting". Wpro.who.int. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  77. ^ Mani, Anandi; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zhao, Jiaying (2013). "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function". Science 341 (6149): 976–980. doi:10.1126/science.1238041. PMID 23990553. 
  78. ^ "The cost of food: Facts and figures". BBC News. 2008-10-16. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  79. ^ Jonathan Watts in Beijing (2007-12-04). "Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  80. ^ Mortished, Carl (2008-03-07). "Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?". The Times (London). Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  82. ^ "100 million at risk from rising food costs". Australia: ABC. 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  83. ^ "Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion". Planetark.com. 2007-06-05. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  85. ^ "The Earth Is Shrinking: Advancing Deserts and Rising Seas Squeezing Civilization". Earth-policy.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  87. ^ "Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025". News.mongabay.com. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  88. ^ "1.02 billion people hungry". fao.org. 2009-06-19. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  89. ^ "2008 Global Hunger Index Key Findings & Facts". 2008. 
  99. ^ "Study: 744,000 homeless in United States". USA Today. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  100. ^ "Report reveals global slum crisis". BBC News. 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  101. ^ "Street Children". Portal.unesco.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  102. ^ a b c Aid gives alternatives to African orphanages
  103. ^ a b Kristin Komives, Vivien Foster, Jonathan Halpern and Quentin Wodon (2005). Water, Electricity and the Poor: Who benefits from utility subsidies?. Washington D.C: The World Bank. ISBN 9780821363423. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  104. ^ Bill Kingdom, Roland Liemberger, Philippe Marin (2006). The challenge of reducing non revenue water (NRW) in developing countries. How the private sector can help: A look at performance based service contracting. Water supply and sanitation board discussion paper series. Washington D.C: The World Bank. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  105. ^ Marianne Kjellen and Gordon McGranahan (2006). Informal Water Vendors and the Urban Poor. Human settlements discussion paper series. London: IIED. ISBN 9781843695868. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  106. ^ a b Pope, Carl (2012-02-16). "Solar power: Cheap electricity for the world's poor". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  107. ^ a b Rosenberg, Tina (2012-03-13). "In Africa's vanishing forests, the benefits of bamboo". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  108. ^ "Experts encourage action against sex trafficking". .voanews.com. 2009-05-15. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  109. ^ "Child sex boom fueled by poverty". Globalpost.com. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  110. ^ Thomson, Mike (2009-06-12). "Zimbabwean girls trade sex for food". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  113. ^ "Forgotten benefactor of humanity". Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  114. ^ Macharia I, Orr A, Simtowe F and Asfaw, S., Potential economic and poverty impact of improved chickpea technologies in Ethiopia http://exploreit.icrisat.org/page/chickpea/685/107. ICRISAT. Downloaded 26 January 2014.
  115. ^ a b Poverty (sociology). britannica.com. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  117. ^ Fuller, Thomas (2007-12-27). "In Laos, Chinese motorcycles change lives". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  118. ^ "China boosts African economies, offering a second opportunity". Csmonitor.com. 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  119. ^ Dugger, Celia (March 31, 2006). "Overfarming African land is worsening Hunger Crisis". nytimes.com. Retrieved February 9, 2013. 
  120. ^ Rosenberg, Tina (October 10, 2012). "The 'Avon Ladies' of Africa". nytimes.com. Retrieved February 9, 2013. 
  121. ^ a b "Disease Control Priorities Project". dcp2.org. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  122. ^ a b Brown, David (2006-04-03). "Saving millions for just a few dollars". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  123. ^ "India's Tata launches water filter for rural poor". BBC News. 2009-12-07. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  124. ^ "Millions mark UN hand washing day". BBC News. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  125. ^ Kristof, Nicholas D. (2009-11-20). "How can we help the world's poor". NYTimes. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  126. ^ "Sanitary pads help Ghana girls go to school". BBC News. 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  127. ^ "Brazil becomes antipoverty showcase". csmonitor.com. 2008-11-13. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  128. ^ a b "Latin America makes dent in poverty with 'conditional cash' programs". csmonitor.com. 2009-09-21. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  129. ^ "Anti-Corruption Climate Change: it started in Nigeria". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  130. ^ "Nigeria: the Hidden Cost of Corruption". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2009-04-14. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  131. ^ a b "Banks, graft and development". The Economist. 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  132. ^ Kristina Froberg and Attiya Waris (2011). "Introduction". Bringing the billions back: How Africa and Europe can end illicit capital flight. Stockholm: Forum Syd Forlag. ISBN 9789189542594. Retrieved 2012-07-26. 
  133. ^ a b Sharife, Khadija (2011-06-18). "='Transparency' hides Zambia's lost billions". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 2011-07-26. 
  134. ^ Mathiason, Nick (2007-01-21). "Western bankers and lawyers 'rob Africa of $150bn every year'". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  136. ^ "Third World Debt". worldcentric.org. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  137. ^ "Zambia overwhelmed by free health care". bbcnews.com. 2006-04-07. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  139. ^ "Tied aid strangling nations, says UN". ispnews.net. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  140. ^ "Let them eat micronutrients". Newsweek. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  141. ^ a b "Philippine Medical Brain Drain Leaves Public Health System in Crisis". voanews.com. 2006-05-03. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  142. ^ Blomfield, Adrian (2004-11-02). "Out of Africa – health workers leave in droves". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  144. ^ "Another Inconvenient Truth: The World's Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma". Scientific American. 2000-10-02. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  147. ^ "Climate Change: Bangladesh facing the challenge". The World Bank. 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  148. ^ Davis, Benjamin; Gaarder, Marie; Handa, Sudhanshu; Yablonski, Jenn (2012). "Special Section on Social Cash Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa". Journal of development effectiveness 4 (1): 1–187. doi:10.1080/19439342.2012.659024. Retrieved 23 January 2013. 
  149. ^ "A new approach to aid: How a basic income program saved a Namibian village". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  150. ^ "Namibians line up for free cash". bbcnews.com. 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  158. ^ Shikha Jha, Bharat Ramaswami (2010). How Can Food Subsidies Work Better? Answers from India and the Philippines. Manila: Asian Development Bank. ISSN 1655-5252. Retrieved 2013-01-23. 
  159. ^ "How to end fossil fuel subsidies without hurting the poor". Aljazeera. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2013. 
  160. ^ "India Aims to Keep Money for Poor Out of Others’ Pockets". New York Times. 5 January 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2013. 
  161. ^ Kapur, Devesh; Mukhopadhyay, Subramanian (April 12, 2008). "More for the Poor and Less for and by the State: The Case for Direct Cash Transfers". Retrieved 23 January 2013. 
  162. ^ "Biometrics, Identity and Development". Center for Global Development. 2010-10-14. Retrieved 2013-04-06. 
  163. ^ "India announces changes in subsidies, will hand out cash to its poor". Washington Post. 28 February 2011. Retrieved 2013-04-06. 
  164. ^ "UN aid debate: give cash not food?". csmonitor.com. 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  165. ^ "Cash roll-out to help hunger hot spots". World Food Program. 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  167. ^ "Ending mass poverty". cato.org. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  169. ^ Doyle, Mark (2006-10-04). "Can aid bring an end to poverty". bbcnews.com. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  170. ^ "India:the economy". bbcnews.com. 1998-12-03. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  171. ^ "Poor Little Rich Country". foreignpolicy.com. 2011-06-24. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  173. ^ "Global Competitiveness Report 2006, World Economic Forum". weforum.org. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  174. ^ "Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction: Cross-country Evidence". abdi.org. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  175. ^ "Migration and development: The aid workers who really help". The Economist. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  176. ^ Bajaj, Vikas (2011-01-05). "Microlenders, honored with Nobel, are struggling". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  178. ^ Yunus, Muhammad (2011-01-14). "Sacrificing microcredit for megaprofits". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  179. ^ a b c Kiviat, Barbara (2009-08-30). "Microfinance's next step: deposits". Time. Retrieved 2010-10-23. 
  180. ^ Greenwood, Louise (2009-08-12). "Africa's mobile banking revolution". bbcnews.com. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 
  181. ^ "Ending Poverty in Community (EPIC)". Usccb.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  185. ^ REPORT: Warmer world will keep millions of people trapped in poverty. Climate & Development Knowledge Network. Downloaded 31 July 2013.
  186. ^ "World Peace Day Address 2009". The Vatican. 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
  187. ^ "Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America". Catholiccharitiesusa.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  188. ^ "transforming slums". Homeless International. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  189. ^ "The ONE Campaign". One.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  190. ^ "United Nations Millennium Campaign". Endpoverty2015.org. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 
  191. ^ "Stand Against Poverty". Stand Against Poverty. Retrieved 2010-10-24. 

Further reading

  • Atkinson, Anthony. Poverty in Europe 1998

External links
