Defining Poverty: An Introduction

Poverty is a complex and multifaceted issue that affects millions of people around the world. However, defining poverty can be a difficult task, as there are many different factors that contribute to it, and it can manifest in different ways depending on the context.

At its core, poverty can be described as a lack of access to resources, such as food, water, healthcare, and education. However, poverty can also refer to a lack of social and economic opportunities, as well as a lack of agency and voice. This can make it difficult to define poverty in a way that captures all of its different dimensions.

One way that poverty is often measured is through income-based measures. These measures typically use a poverty line, which is a specific income threshold below which individuals or families are considered to be living in poverty. However, this approach has been criticized for being too narrow and not capturing the full extent of poverty, particularly in developing countries where non-monetary factors such as access to basic services may be more important.