BY: Charisse Anne P. Anislag
and
May Ann C. Mier
This is also referred to as absulute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages.
Before the industrial revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economies produced little while populations grew almost as fast making wealth scarce. Food strategies were common before modern agricultural technology and in places that lack them today, such as nitrogen fertilizers,pesticides andirrigation methods.
Rises in the costs of living make poor people poorer. Poor people spend a greater portion of thier budgets on food than richer people because . 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 grain led to food riots in some countries. The World Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty. Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crises. Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields. Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. 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 UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.
health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigrating from impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000 Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006.There are more Ethiopian doctors in chicago than in Ethiopia.
overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods.Note that population growth slows or even become negative as poverty is reduced due to the demographic condition.
Absolute poverty
Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the latter being actually an index of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. The World bank defines heavy poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. 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."Six million children die of hunger every year - 17,000 every day. Selective Primary Health Care has been shown to be one of the most efficient ways in which absolute poverty can be eradicated in comparison to Primary Health Care which has a target of treating diseases. Disease prevention is the focus of Selective Primary Health Care which puts this system on higher grounds in terms of preventing malnutrition and illness, thus putting an end to Absolute Poverty.
The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Most of this improvement has occurred in east and South asia. 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." In extreme poverty went up from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001, which combined with growing population increased the number of people living in poverty from 231 million to 318 million. In the early 1990s some of the transition economies of Europe and Asia experienced a sharp drop in income. 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% The World bank issued a report predicting that between 2007 and 2027 the populations will decrease by 17% and 24% respectively.
World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the world since 1990:
| Region | 1990 | 2002 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Asia and Pacific | 15.40% | 12.33% | 9.07% |
| Europe and Central Asia | 3.60% | 1.28% | 0.95% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 9.62% | 9.08% | 8.64% |
| Middle East and North Africa | 2.08% | 1.69% | 1.47% |
| South Asia | 35.04% | 33.44% | 30.84% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 46.07% | 42.63% | 41.09% |
Other human development indicators have also been improving. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world. The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water and electricity and basic consumer items.
There are various criticisms of these measurements. Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion note that although "a clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident ... with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and India has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor".
Since the world's population is increasing, a constant number living in poverty would be associated with a diminshing proportion. Looking at the percentage living on less than $1/day, and if excluding China and India, then this percentage has decreased from 31.35% to 20.70% between 1981 and 2004.
The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the number living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the Czech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the developing world and even if conditions there improve in absolute terms, the report warns, Africa in 2030 will be home to a larger proportion of the world's poorest people than it is today.
Relative poverty
Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other different income inequality metrix, for example the Ginni Coefficient or the t hail index.
Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.
Voluntary poverty
Among some individuals, such as ascetics, poverty is considered a necessary or desirable condition, which must be embraced in order to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual states. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element of in religions such as renunciation Buddhism (only for monks, not for lay persons] and Jainism, whilst in roman catholicism it is one of the evangelical consels. Certain religious orders also take a vow of extreme poverty. For example, the orders have traditionally forgone all individual and corporate forms of ownership. While individual ownership of goods and wealth is forbidden for FrnciscanBenedictines, following the Rule of st. Benedict, the monastery itself may possess both goods and money, and throughout history some monasteries have become very rich. In this context of religious vows, poverty may be understood as a means of self-denial in order to place oneself at the service of others; Pope horonios wrote in 1217 that the Dominicans "lived a life of voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation of others".
CAUSE and EFFECT of POVERTY
The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.
Poverty reduction
Historically, poverty reduction has been largely a resulteconomic growth. The industrial revelation led to high economic growth and eliminated mass poverty in what is now considered the developed world. Economic growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a country’s population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors. However,aid is essential in providing better lives for those who are already poor and in sponsoring medical and scientific efforts such as the green revolution and the eradication of smallpox.
The role of women in poverty have also contributed to the cause of household survival. Thus, poverty reduction can only be actively done by understanding the level of gender role and gender differences within households. This will help reduce factors of poverty aside from the obvious income disparities.
