H U M A N R I G H T S D A Y 2 0 0 6
Fact Sheet 1
What is Poverty?
This seemingly simple question has a complex answer. Poverty is understood today to be more
than just a lack of income. Poverty is just as much about equity, or the lack of it. Living
in poverty means one is more likely to die from preventable diseases, a higher rate of child
mortality, not being able to get an education and a lack of adequate shelter. It also means more
vulnerability to crime and violence, inadequate or no access to justice and the courts, as well as
exclusion from the political process and the life of the community. Poverty is also about power:
who wields it, and who does not, in public life and behind closed doors. Getting to the heart of
complex webs of power relations in the political, economic and social spheres is key to
understanding and grappling more effectively with entrenched patterns of discrimination that
sentence individuals, communities and peoples to generations of poverty.
Absolute poverty, measured by income alone, has fallen since the 1980s, albeit slowly since the
mid-1990s. However, global inequality remains at extraordinarily high levels, within and between
countries. Most developing regions are falling behind, not catching up with, rich countries. And
even some of the world’s richest countries are still struggling with a stubborn problem of poverty,
even extreme poverty, owing in large part to deep seated patterns of discrimination and inequality.
Moreover, links between income and social progress are not automatic. Some of the strongest
performers in reducing income inequality are widely off-track on human development targets such as
maternal mortality and child mortality, frequently the result of entrenched patterns of
discrimination. This underscores the need to understand poverty from a human rights perspective.
Greater gender equity would act as a powerful force for reducing child mortality. Using cross-country data, the International Food Policy Research Institute has estimated that equalizing the access of men and women to education, nutrition, income and property rights could reduce the underweight rate among children less than three years old by 13 percentage points in South Asia, meaning 13.4 million fewer malnourished children vulnerable to early mortality. For Sub-Saharan Africa child malnutrition would fall by 3 percentage points, with 1.7 million fewer malnourished children.