Poverty is the deprivation of common necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It also includes the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which help them to escape from poverty.
Life expectancy has been increasing for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has recently seen a decline, partly related to the AIDS epidemic.
About 1/2 of the human population suffers from poverty. Poverty can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty.
Absolute poverty – set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement is the percentage of the population eating less food than is required for the need of the human body .
Relative poverty – smallest level of income that is necessary to have a normal standard of living in a country.
Most of the improvement has been 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 Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty rose 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.
Other countries havn’t had much change. In the early 1990s Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a big drop in income. Poverty rose to 6 percent at the end of the 90’s.
Causes of poverty
To view the list of causes of poverty, I have put together a small summary of words.
Simply Click the link bellow.
a starving female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war. Her abdomen is swollen due to Kwashiorkor or severe protein malnutrition.
Urban poverty is common in developing countries. Shown here is Mumbai, India.
There are many things that influence poverty such as:
Click the link bellow
Numerous methods have been adduced to upgrade the situation of those in poverty, some contradictory to each other. Some of these mechanisms are:
- Subsidized housing development.
- Education, especially that directed at assisting the poor to produce food in underdeveloped countries.
- Family planning to limit the numbers born into poverty and allow family incomes to better cover the existing family.
- Subsidized health care.
- Assistance in finding employment
- Subsidized employment
- Encouragement of political participation and community organizing.
- Implementation of fair property rights laws.
- Reduction of regulatory burden and bureaucratic oversight.
- Reduction of taxation on income and capital.
- Reduction of government spending, including a reduction in borrowing and printing money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
To see some hearttrending pictures of people in poverty i have found a Youtube video.
Simply press play!
Natasha Khoury 
