U1: Poverty

• Poverty is the lack of resources to ensure basic needs are met
• Basic needs include healthcare, food, education, shelter/housing, sanitation/hygiene (including clean water), education, and internet
• Absolute poverty is a constant way of measuring poverty around the world by looking at how many people earn $1.90 or less daily and are therefore unable to meet their basic needs. These criteria are not influenced by economic growth/difficulties
• Lowest absolute poverty rates are in Europe and East Asia
• Highest absolute poverty rates are in Central and Sub-Saharan Africa (LIC's)
• An advantage of absolute poverty is that it is a standardized poverty line that allows people to compare poverty across time, place, and space and form a judgement on for who and where poverty is prevalent
• A disadvantage of absolute poverty is that $1.90 allows for different amounts of basic needs to be acquired. For example, in Thailand a lot more resources can be afforded with this amount than in Switzerland
• Relative poverty is a way of measuring poverty that considers the inability for people in their respective country to afford basic needs with their income in comparison to others in that country. The criteria will change with economic growth/decline
• Below the poverty line is when someone earns less than a certain percentage of the average income in an area (usually country)
• An advantage of relative poverty is that it is more accurate based on costs in a certain country and takes into account the economic situation of the country
• A disadvantage of relative poverty is if the poverty line changes, then the amount of people in poverty will also fluctuate, which may hinder data collection through time and create a different impression in poverty in the country. Corrupt governments could also use this to hide the level of poverty in their country
• The Multidimensional Poverty Index a form of absolute poverty that considers the living standards based on vital indicators such as health (nutrition, child mortality), education (amount of years and attendance) and living standards (sanitation, drinking water, electricity, flooring, cooking fuels, assets) to fully understand true poverty. It considers both basic standards of living and basic necessities
• 1.3 billion people are multidimensionally poor
• More than 67% of those considered multidimensionally poor live in middle income countries
• 644 million (half of the total) of those considered multidimensionally poor are children under 18 years
• 556 million people (85% of total) considered multidimensionally poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia
• More than 1/3 of people are considered multidimensionally poor according to global standards