Global poverty: definitions and developments

Teppo Eskelinenteppo.eskelinen@uef.fi

Basics on global poverty (1)

• Roughly 1/3 of humanity live in material poverty (”three worlds”). For some, poverty is bearable, for some not

• Long-term concern of the international community

• Definitions of poverty vary, as do ideas about ”extreme” or ”acute” poverty

• For example, is ”extreme” an acute or an ongoing condition?

Basics on global poverty (2)

• Poverty is heavily concentrated in Africa, Asia and South America, but poverty of citizens does not equal poverty of a country

• Changing geography of global poverty: from low to middle income countries

• Global goals of alleviating poverty: the MDGs. Focus to poverty directly, not only economic growth

• Change of societal conditions crucial: urbanisation, resource depletion, climate change, migration.

Definitions of poverty (1): Economic

* Global ”poverty line”

* Measures inflation & purchasing power -adjusted income

* Defined at $1,25 a day and $2 a day

* Medians of national poverty lines of poor countries

* Does not correspond to basic needs

* Public services, subsistence production etc not calculated

Definitions of poverty (2): Ethical

* Poverty is an ethical problem, not a technical notion of low purchading power

* Death: ”one tsunami every two weeks”

* Human rights: social and economic

* Human dignity, possibility to self-respect

* Capability: possibility to function in a ”truly human” way

* Freedom: satisfaction of basic needs as a prerequisite for freedom

* Utilitarian: avoiding unnecessary suffering

Definitions of poverty (3): Multidimensional

* Meeting basic needs is relevant for capability, freedom etc

* Economic measurements can be seen as estimates of whether ethical concerns are met

→ Level of overlap? Reducability to economics?

→ Importance of context (need for money)

…continued

Problem of arbitrary poverty line

Perhaps poverty is a too complex phenomenon to be measured by one quantitative measure

On the other hand, documentation and policy relevance

Social human being

* Poverty lines: count only individually held value, not social ties, which can be the most important variable in one’s felt experience of deprivation

* The Kibera mystery

* The problem of the drunk

->People seem to often choose social ties over individual well-being, even in acute situations

Trends in poverty (1)

* $1,25 (billions of people)

Year world world excl. China

1980 1,9 1,1

1990 1,9 1,2

2000 1,7 1,2

2010 1,3 1,1

Latin America: strong decrease in 2000->, SSA strong increase, South Asia constant

Trends in poverty (2)

* $2 (billions of people)

Year world world excl. China

1980 2,5 1,6

1990 2,9 1,9

2000 2,9 2,1

2010 2,5 2,1

Latin America: decrease 2000->, South Asia increase, SSA strong increase, North Africa constant

Trends in poverty (3)

Poverty lines directly corresponding with basic needs: we do not know for sure.

Hunger: (FAO)

*Decrease until 2007, after 2007 steady

*Energy intake -based estimate for chronic hunger

*SSA increase, Asia decrease, China fairly constant

Trends in poverty (4)

The situation is better if we assess proportion of global population rather than number of poor

→ Which is morally more accurate?

->Might give a misleading idea on global goals