Poverty and Inequality

1. What is poverty and what does it mean to the poor?

Poverty is general scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. 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.

Poor people do not have enough food, clothing, education or healthcare; they live in areas that are prone to disease, crime and natural disasters. Their basic civil and human rights are often nonexistent By Mathilde Snel 

Being poor means being deprived economically, politically and socially. It means:

* few assets or opportunities;

* low achievement as a result of inadequate education, healthcare and other basic social services;

* higher vulnerability to natural disasters, conflict, crime, disease and other dangers;

* little to no power over decisions that affect people’s lives (1).

How do poor people describe poverty?

In Ethiopia they say it is “[living from] hour to hour”; in Jamaica “living in bondage, waiting to be free” (1); in Cambodia “working for more than 18 hours a day, but still not having enough to feed [yourself]” (2).

Poverty is multidimensional. It varies in scale and context (political, social, cultural, ecological, historical, economic). The rural poor face different challenges from those in urban areas: they are concerned with natural resources (access, quality), whereas the urban poor care about access to energy, housing and sanitation, and about the quality and availability of water.Poor people have few economic opportunities due to lack of jobs, limited or unaffordable access to credit and markets, inadequate education, and restricted access to land and water. The rural poor often subsist through agriculture, fishing and gathering forest products, while many urban...