Changes in Poverty-fighting Tools: From “Traditional” to “New Tendencies”

Poverty is a complex issue that involves more than just income levels, affecting various aspects of life such as health, education, and living conditions. The ongoing discussion about how to measure poverty, whether through absolute or relative terms, reflects the challenges in assessing it. Absolute poverty is based on a set standard that focuses on meeting basic needs for survival, while relative poverty looks at income disparities within a society. This study explores existing research on multidimensional poverty and examines the debate between absolute and relative poverty measures, considering their respective advantages and disadvantages. A notable conclusion from the research is that multidimensional poverty indices (MPIs), like the Multidimensional Poverty Index, provide a broad view of deprivation by including multiple factors. MPIs help policymakers design more targeted interventions in areas such as education, healthcare, and living standards. However, absolute poverty measures, such as the World Bank’s $1.90-per-day threshold, are still essential for tracking extreme poverty in developing nations, offering a clear benchmark for international comparisons. In contrast, relative poverty measures are particularly relevant in wealthier nations, where inequality and social exclusion are more prominent factors in poverty. This study highlights gaps in how these different approaches are integrated and calls for further research to improve models that address both absolute and relative poverty. The findings suggest that combining multidimensional, absolute, and relative poverty measures is important for fully understanding poverty and creating effective strategies to reduce it, adapted to the needs of specific regions and contexts.

The article presents an analytical study of the problems of poverty and quality of life of the poor and the poorest of our planet. Basic information database of the research are materials of the UN and its constituent units. This article discusses and clarifies the concept of absolute and relative poverty, and presents an approach to the definition of deprivation poverty. The main indicators of poverty, according to the report of the UN World Development, are highlighted. The author links the indicators of availability of services with the provision of basic human needs according to Maslow´s theory. The article also examines the main economic causes of poverty, including in a number of Third World countries. Further, the author shows the contribution of the United Nations and the developed countries in addressing the problem of poverty and absolute poverty. In this regard, suggested is the poverty reduction strategy, the implementation of which should lead to the achievement of the goals by 2015, that is, to the present time. Almost all of the goals are related to the availability of socially important services for the poor and the poorest. It is proved that a regulatory role in this process should be undertaken by the state, and the process should be based on the mechanism of social partnership between government, service providers and major consumer groups. In the final part of the article highlighted are criteria for selecting suppliers and funding mechanisms for services for the populations concerned.

Poverty is rather high in contemporary Russia: every eighth Russian was poor according to the official statistics in 2018. Fighting poverty is among the top strategic development goals for the period till 2024. The paper studies gender disparities in poverty among Russian adults. Better understanding of gender structure of poverty in Russia would facilitate poverty reduction via better targeting and better tailoring of policy instruments. We utilize micro data of the Survey of income and social program participation by Rosstat as of 2017 for our statistical analysis. Two alternative poverty concepts are used: absolute income poverty (the official methodology of poverty measurement in Russia) and poverty risk and social exclusion index (the key component of poverty monitoring indicator in the EU). The latter index is a composition of relative poverty and deprivation poverty measures. Our results indicate that, on average, there is no gender poverty gap in Russia when absolute poverty concept is used: poverty rates among males and females are the same on average. Hence, we find no statistical support to the widely used by the media thesis of poverty feminization in Russia. Absolute poverty rate, however, is found to vary significantly across different gender-age groups: absolute income poverty among females is higher than among males in young and senior ages, while males are poorer in mid-age groups. When multiple criteria definition of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) is applied, we find clear signs of feminization of poverty in Russia. Multidimensional poverty is much higher among females, and this is observed in all age groups. The highest gender poverty gap is observed in senior ages. The age-gender poverty structure changes dramatically when we move from absolute poverty concept to the multidimensional one: we observe higher share of females in poverty, and higher share of senior people in poverty. The key determinants of higher multidimensional poverty of females is their relatively (to males) lower wages, and relatively lower pensions.

This paper has a twofold aim. On the one side, without the presumption of being exhaustive, it tries to give a general overview of the different approaches and measures of poverty, and, on the other side, it focusses the attention on the absolute poverty indicators, describing the most important innovations introduced in the Italian methodology by the Scientific Commission established at beginning of 2022. Therefore, after a general introduction, the second paragraph mainly discusses the multiple dimensions of poverty and the approaches to provide a measure of these dimensions (relative and absolute poverty, income and consumption-based measures, the role of wealth, the importance of investigating hard to reach population and the subjective poverty). In paragraph three, an overview of the Italian measures of poverty in the European context is given, by describing the European Union Statistics on Living Conditions (EU-SILC) indicators and those compiled relying on national Household Budget Survey (thereof those about absolute poverty). In the fourth paragraph the attention is addressed to describe the Italian methodology to estimate absolute poverty, focussing on the recent innovations introduced. Paragraph five discusses the use of income instead of consumption in the context of Italian methodology. Finally, some concluding remarks are traced, raising specifically the issue of the nonmonetary components in the estimation of absolute poverty and the related challenges for the future research work in the Italian context.

In this chapter I argue that the pressing issue that wealthy societies face today is not merely economic inequality, but rather prevalent and increasing relative poverty. I will first analyze the concept of poverty with a special focus on relative poverty and not, as is common in contemporary political philosophy, with an exclusive view on absolute poverty. It will be argued that poverty should be seen as problematic from a moral point of view because it undermines self-respect and thereby violates the dignity of persons. Self-respect depends on the ability to look after oneself in important matters and the ability to respect oneself as an equal member of society. For people living in relative poverty both are impossible or at least extremely hard. In a second section, I will argue that the normatively problematic character of relative poverty as a threat to human dignity gives us a strong reason to assign the responsibility for eradicating relative poverty to the appropriate agents. As we will see in this chapter, it is the state that bears primary responsibility for enabling people to escape relative poverty. In a third part, I will argue that it is not irrelevant which measures are used to help people to get out of their poverty. Different measures are humiliating to a different degree and respect for the dignity of relatively poor people demands the choice of the least humiliating measure. In the light of this normative background, I will argue that welfare is better than charity and a reorganization of the economic structure, as far as possible, even better than welfare.

This paper presents a methodology for the incorporation of poverty related concepts into the goal programming paradigm. The concepts of poverty line, absolute poverty and relative poverty are discussed in the context of their potential usage in the field of Operations Research. The synergy between goal programming and poverty lines is examined. Two additional meta-goals are proposed for inclusion in a meta-goal programming framework based around absolute and relative poverty respectively. The resulting poverty incorporating meta-goal programming model is compared against other goal programming variants over a test set of school budget allocation models. The results demonstrate how the incorporation of poverty principles allows for greater modelling flexibility in the goal programming framework. This in turn allows decision makers to avoid solutions that are below threshold levels for a subset of stakeholders in either a relative or absolute sense. Appropriate conclusions and suggestions for future research are given.

This research established a link that exists between climate smart agricultural practices and poverty in North-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The study was motivated by the increasing consequence of climate change and its impact on poverty status among farmers in the study area. Farming households changing agricultural practices as a result of global observation of climatic and environmental changes. It was based on this that the study examines the impact of climate smart agricultural practices on poverty status among farmers in North West Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling techniques was used to select two hundred and ninety four (294) farming households in the study area who provide the relevant primary data information for the study through a set of pre-tested structured questionnaires. The objective was to decompose poverty status for high-users and low-users of climate smart agricultural techniques in the study area. Foster Greer and Thorberk model, Watt’s index, Sen, Shorrocks and Thon index were used to ascertain the objective. Poverty head count according to the FGT index for the total population is 35.89% for absolute poverty and 9.12% for relative poverty. This means that the average climate smart agriculture farmers had about 36% deprivation of basic human needs such as food, safe drinking water, health, shelter, education and information. On the other hand, for the absolute poverty of 9%. It means the average climate smart agricultural farmers had 9% deprivation to maintain the average standard of living. It connotes that the average climate smart agricultural farmers had 33% deprivation of food and 13% deprivation of average standard of living. Analysis of health poverty reveals that the absolute poverty is 42.38% and relative poverty 27.64%. It implies that the average climate smart agricultural farmers were deprived of health by 42% and by average standard of living by 28%. Further, analysis on education poverty reveals the absolute poverty and relative poverty value of 47.10% and 28.26%. This signifies that about 47% of the climate smart agricultural farmers were deprived of basic education and about 28% of climate smart agriculture farmers were deprived of average standard of living. The study concludes that poverty is evident in the study area. It therefore reccommends that Government, Non-Governmental Organizations and farmer associations should create a conducive knowledge exchang enviroment to encourage the low-users of climate smart agriculture to improve on their performance. Spouses especially should develop interest in climate smart agricultural farming. women empowerment programme can be embarked upoun by government and private individual. Policy on formal education should be enriched and developed in the curriculm to meet the climate smart agricultural challenges.

In rich countries there is relative poverty — some are poor relative to others who are affluent. In poor countries there is absolute poverty — people do not have enough income to meet their basic needs for food, clean water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, health services and education. Millions of people in poor countries are absolutely poor. As a result, they suffer hunger and malnutrition, which cause vulnerability to disease, from which millions, especially children, die. Thus, poverty causes high infant mortality, shorter life expectancy, stunted child development, misery and premature death for millions of people in the world today. ‘Absolute poverty is probably the principal cause of human misery today.’2KeywordsPoor CountryRich CountryPoor FarmerRich StateAbsolute PovertyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This book examines absolute poverty in Europe, which is at the moment fairly neglected in academic and policy discourse. It opens with conceptual and methodological considerations that prepare the ground for an application of the concept of absolute poverty in the context of affluent societies and analyses shortcomings of social statistics as well as possibilities to include highly vulnerable groups. This includes thoughts on ethics of research in this particular field where people live under severe circumstances and research can make a difference. The book sheds light on crucial dimensions of deprivation and social exclusion of people in absolute poverty in affluent societies: access to health care, housing and nutrition, poverty related shame and violence. After conceptual and practical issues, the book investigates into different policy responses to absolute poverty in affluent societies from social policy concerns to civic organizations, e. g. food donations, and penalisation and “social cleansing” of highly visible poor. The book finally frames this discussion by profound ethical considerations and normative reasoning about absolute poverty and its alleviation, how it is related to concerns of justice/injustice as well as human dignity. Furthermore, it questions the power and importance of human rights and their judicial protection in regard of persons in absolute poverty.

The study aims to analyze the prevalence of absolute and relative care poverty among community-dwelling older adults with functional limitations in the Republic of Korea. Absolute care poverty is defined as the proportion of individuals who do not receive any formal or informal care despite needing assistance. Relative care poverty refers to the proportion of individuals who receive care but perceive the amount of care as insufficient. Data were drawn from the 2017 National Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons (n=2,608), the 2020 survey (n=1,233), and the 2023 survey (n=1,873), conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The care poverty rates were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. The results show an increasing trend in absolute care poverty, rising from 28.6% in 2017 to 45.0% in 2020 and 52.8% in 2023. Relative care poverty increased from 14.3% in 2017 to 23.8% in 2020, then slightly decreased to 18.3% in 2023. The findings suggest that expanding the coverage and adequacy of care services is necessary to alleviate care poverty among older adults in Korea.

The urban concentration of deprived masses is the basic mechanism for the reproduction of social disadvantage: space matters indeed. Although large areas of chronic rural poverty exist, especially in the less developed countries, it is the urban environment that has mostly attracted academic as well as political attention to poverty in industrialized countries. Moreover, it was in the urban context that the concept of absolute and relative poverty had been set as a universal standard by which to estimate the extension of the phenomenon. Social and economic transformations during the past few decades have led to the reemergence of severe forms of impoverishment in practically all cities of the industrialized world, helping to maintain this focus.

Relative child poverty rose sharply over the period 1979–97/98 and has since fallen by about half a million (4 percentage points). Absolute poverty changed little between 1979 and 1997/98 but has fallen sharply since then. Absolute poverty fell by 1.7 million between 1997/98 and 2001/02, with a half million fall in the last year alone. Changes in work patterns, wages and demographics all contributed to rising relative child poverty between 1979 and 1997/98. Demographics and work changes were responsible for the rise in absolute poverty. Benefit changes offset some of these increases. The absence of work was particularly severe on children in lone parent families. The Blair government’s welfare reforms raised work incentives and resulted in more work among low income families with children. These increases in work had modest effects in reducing child poverty and much of the reduction is attributable to benefit changes — work itself is not enough to pull many families over the poverty line. The Clinton administration introduced a range of welfare to work reforms in the US, increasing aid to those in work but cutting it to those out of work. Child poverty there has fallen but not as sharply. Increased work and demographic change have been the driving forces in poverty reductions. Median incomes, and hence the poverty line have increased rapidly and in conjunction further small increases in wage inequality and demographic shifts have meant that the government is making slower progress in reducing relative poverty than anticipated. While much progress has been made, current and planned policy reforms may not raise the incomes of the poor enough relative to median income to achieve the sort of poverty reductions needed to meet the stated poverty targets.

Globally, one of the challenges facing people is the issue of poverty. To eradicate poverty in all its forms, the United Nations member states integrated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-1 (No Poverty) in another set of 17 goals to be pursued until 2030 after the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals. The concept of poverty, which is a condition of non-availability of basic human needs, encompasses insufficient access to healthcare services. In a bid to provide sufficient access to healthcare services to the low-income earners, Nigerian governments, federal and states, have introduced various schemes. For instance, Kwara State government introduced the ‘KwaraCare’ scheme. However, the scheme is yet to yield desirable results particularly for women, as some of them, out of poverty, are still unable to settle their hospital bills. Thus, this chapter seeks to explore cash waqf as a viable mechanism to empower women and provide them with sustainable access to healthcare services in Ilorin-West, Kwara State. Nonetheless, this may prove difficult if there is no effective legal framework sanctioning cash waqf institution in the State. Therefore, the chapter seeks to bring forth an effective legal framework for empowering women through cash waqf in Ilorin-West, Kwara State, Nigeria. The study adopts a legal research methodology of content analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on selected persons in Ilorin-West.

This chapter operationalises and tests out a number of possible measures of extreme poverty applied to the European Union countries, using the analysis of household survey data from EU- Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). It starts by reviewing developments in the conventional measurement of poverty in the EU. Then the concepts of absolute and extreme poverty are discussed. The bulk of the chapter presents the results of an analysis of the poverty rates, poverty gaps and poverty composition of five conceivable measures of extreme poverty. These are: The World Bank $ per day concept; poverty thresholds based on national minimum income schemes – social assistance; a threshold set on the basis of a minimal reference budget standard; a severe deprivation standard; and an overlaps measure based on severe deprivation and low income. The latter is the preferred option.

Noting limited attention by international development agencies to inequalities compared to global poverty, we ask how these two challenges have been framed in agencies’ policy publications during the past several decades. Following a recent application of algorithmic analysis to health policy narratives in the UK, we use text-mining software to compare the frequency of two alternative conceptualisations of poverty and inequality in three different document categories: the World Bank's World Development Reports, the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Reports and a set of white papers by bilateral donor agencies. In a second step, we visualise each document's degree of contextual similarity in using the two conceptualisations of poverty and inequality with all documents in the same source category. We find that while references to poverty have, on average, been twice as prominent as references to inequality, conceptualisations of poverty and inequality as well as the textual contexts in which they appear differ both temporally and substantively between agencies included in our sample. We show how such agency-specific framing patterns can be leveraged politically to forge more effective social policy coalitions. We also outline follow-up research capable of capturing the politics of language underpinning our observations.