Search Results

Measurements of poverty in terms of the principles of access to, and exercise of, a specific number of rights in areas like nutrition, safe drinking water, sanitation, housing, education and information show that 32 million children in Latin America were living in extreme poverty in 2007, and that the overall number of persons in poverty stood at almost 81 million. The chapter presents data on child poverty in Latin America, but explicitly measures it with a rights approach. This means considering children to be poor when at least one of their rights is unmet, or when they suffer at least one basic deprivation. Nonetheless, in child poverty, multiple deprivations occur simultaneously, reinforcing each other andundermining children's and adolescents’ development. The chapter reports findings from a study which measured child poverty using two traditional methodologies: (i) direct methods (unmet basic needs), which were adapted to measure several levels of deprivation among children, based on the proposal by the University of Bristol and the London School of Economics; and (ii) indirect methods, represented by the measurement of absolute poverty according to per capita household income. It also presents data sources, methodology and aggregation indexes (appendix).

This chapter examines how anti-poverty transfer programmes can drive global extreme poverty to zero. Current trends indicate that global poverty is a crucial issue not only in poor countries but also in low- and middle-income countries. Indeed, the majority of people in extreme poverty today live in middle-income countries and are likely to concentrate in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to reduce extreme poverty worldwide to zero, there is a need to pay special attention to policies facilitating the social and economic inclusion of groups in extreme poverty. The chapter first considers the interrelationships between antipoverty transfers, inclusion of disadvantaged groups, and human development before discussing the outcomes of existing antipoverty transfer programmes. It also highlights the main policy lessons and concludes with an analysis of the role of international aid in anti-poverty transfer programmes.

This chapter operationalises and tests out a number of possible measures of extreme poverty applied to the European Union countries, using the analysis of household survey data from EU- Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). It starts by reviewing developments in the conventional measurement of poverty in the EU. Then the concepts of absolute and extreme poverty are discussed. The bulk of the chapter presents the results of an analysis of the poverty rates, poverty gaps and poverty composition of five conceivable measures of extreme poverty. These are: The World Bank $ per day concept; poverty thresholds based on national minimum income schemes – social assistance; a threshold set on the basis of a minimal reference budget standard; a severe deprivation standard; and an overlaps measure based on severe deprivation and low income. The latter is the preferred option.

This chapter offers an empirical exploration of extreme poverty trends and patterns in the EU from a welfare regime perspective. Extreme poverty is operationalized as severe material deprivation, that is, the enforced inability to pay for a certain amount of goods and services. The empirical findings indicate that extreme poverty is low in the countries of the Social-democratic welfare regime and high in the countries of the South-European and the Liberal regime, whereas the countries of the Conservative-Corporatist welfare regime place themselves in-between.

This chapter examines the challenge of ending extreme poverty and attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in fragile and conflict-affected countries by 2030. It first describes the background context in which fragility and conflict exist before discussing the current state of lessons learned as well as policy agreement and divergence regarding international approaches to peace and security. It then considers the centrality of institutions both as constraints and as foundations to development. It also offers suggestions on what key elements are needed in laying institutional foundations for development in countries emerging from conflict, and how responsibilities for implementing the goals might be assigned in practice. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the impact of the MDGs in fragile and conflict-affected settings, along with the implications of current understandings of conflict and fragility for the objectives of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

This chapter traces the concept of absolute poverty in the developing EU social policy agenda from the beginning in the 1970s up to the EU 2020 process. Thereby it also scrutinizes whether the concept of absolute poverty or closely related concepts of extreme poverty or homelessness do trigger, accompany or frame distinct policy developments for tackling such severe forms of poverty. It shows that the European Commission is a key player in starting and promoting such policies. While the paradigm of relative poverty takes centre stage in most of the related concerns and developments it can be shown that absolute poverty repeatedly surfaces as a complementary concern, be it at the level of discourse, e. g. during the European Year Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion, or on the level of instruments, like the European Fund for the Most Deprived.

Chapter 10 examines the difficulty of living in poverty in the United States. Using the MIT living wage calculator, families in poverty are unable to meet monthly expenses. Furthermore, the distance between the poverty line and median income in the United States has been growing for the past 50 years. When compared with other OECD countries, the United States has higher rates of poverty and more severe levels of poverty. A major reason for this is the relatively weak social safety net found in the United States. In addition, the extent of social exclusion and deprivation is likely higher in the United States as a result of the considerable stigma attached to poverty.

This chapter delves into the dark market for juvenile sex work, which to a large extent was a function of Tonkin's extreme poverty. It discusses the multiple social safety nets of Vietnamese society and how despite the availability of such programs, children fall back on sex work for survival. It discusses how colonial authorities tried to regulate juvenile sex work through age restrictions. The chapter explores the operations of the market for adolescent sex workers, including the various ways that girls were recruited to sex work, who their managers were, how these managers kept their operations secret, and which industries served, in part, as fronts for juvenile sex work.