End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Aspects of poverty

Based on research covering over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, the World Bank has identified a range of factors that poor people identify as part of poverty. These include: abuse by those in power; disempowering institutions; excluded locations; gender relationships; lack of security; limited capabilities; physical limitations; precarious livelihoods; problems in social relationships; weak community organisations; and discrimination.

Economic aspects – These concern material needs, typically including the necessities for daily life such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community lacks the basic means for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income.

Social aspect – Conditions of scarcity are linked to the distribution of resources and power within society, and poverty is recognised as the diminished "capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care or political power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.

Health aspect – This involves some alarming statistics: one-third of deaths — some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day — are due to poverty-related causes. People of colour, women and children are overrepresented among the global poor. Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease and have a lower life expectancy. They have also been shown to have a far greater likelihood of having or incurring a disability within their lifetime.

Hunger – The rising cost of living means that poor people are less able to purchase what they need. Poor people spend a greater part of their budget on food than wealthy people. As a result, poor households and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food price.

Education – There is a high risk of educational underachievement among children from low-income homes. The condition of schools in poverty-stricken areas may hinder children from learning in a safe environment. Children who live at or below the poverty line will have far less success educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have far less health care, which results in many absences from school. Additionally, poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger and fatigue.

Shelter – Poverty increases the risk of homelessness. Slum dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a state of poverty equivalent to, if not worse than, members of the rural population, who are the traditional focus of poverty in the developing world. In 2012, a total of 2.5 billion people lacked access to sanitation services and 15 percent practised open defecation. Indoor air pollution from burning fuels kills 2 million people a year, accounting for almost half the deaths from pneumonia among children under five years of age.

Violence – According to experts, many women become victims of trafficking, the most common form of which is prostitution, as a means of survival in a context of economic desperation. A deterioration in living conditions often forces children to abandon school in order to contribute to the family income, putting them at risk of exploitation. In Zimbabwe, for example, a number of girls are offering sex in return for food in order to survive in conditions of increasing poverty.

Gender – Women suffer from the highest rate of poverty after children. The fact that women are more likely to be caregivers, regardless of income level, to the generations before and after them, exacerbates the burden of their poverty.

Climate change and poverty – A report published in 2013 found that climate change was likely to hinder future attempts to reduce poverty. The impacts of a temperature rise of 2°C include: regular food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa; shifting rain patterns in South Asia leaving some parts under water and others without enough water for power generation, irrigation or drinking; the degradation and loss of reefs in South East Asia, resulting in reduced fish stocks; and the increasing vulnerability of coastal communities and cities to violent storms.