World Poverty: How to Define Poverty

Poverty is intuitively understood in the world but not so easily defined.  It is a complex phenomenon and sad reality of society.  Poverty is a difficult place where billions of people live and few leave.  

Haitian restaveks.

How poverty is understood determines how it is responded to.  “The problem goes well beyond the material dimension, so the solutions must go beyond the material as well” say Corbett and Fikkert . [When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself (Chicago: Moody Press, 2009), 54].  Using a medical analogy, they explain, “When a sick person goes to a doctor, the doctor could make two crucial mistakes: (1) Treating symptoms instead of the underlying illness; (2) Misdiagnosing the underlying illness and prescribing the wrong medicine.  Either one of these mistakes will result in the patient not getting better and possibly getting worse.  The same is true when we work with poor people.”

How best is “poverty” defined?  “Poverty continues to defy simplistic descriptions, definitions and easy solutions,” says Jayakumar Christian, a World Vision development practitioner in India.  “Essentially, poverty is about relationships.  It is a flesh-and-blood experience of a people within their day-to-day relationships.  Within these relationships, the poor experience deprivation, powerlessness, physical isolation, economic poverty and all other characteristics of poverty.” [“An Alternate Reading of Poverty,” in Bryant Myers, ed., Working With the Poor: New Insights and Learnings From Development Practitioners (Colorado Springs, CO: Authentic, 2008), 3].

A Biblical worldview sees people as multidimensional—having a material

nature (physical body) and an immaterial nature (soul) (1 Thess. 5:23). Christ acknowledged that humanity’s poverty came as a result of the fall and subsequent broken relationships with God and others.  Therefore, all are impoverished because of sin.  Jesus ministered to the poor “holistically.”  He challenged people to “repent and believe” (Mk.1:15). “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul” (Mk.8:36)?  Likewise he touched people physically and healed them of diseases and infirmities.  He fed the hungry and cared for the needy.  Graciously, the Lord Jesus Christ has provided forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and new life to all who believe in him (Jn.11:25-26; 2 Cor. 5:17-21).

Sudanese refugees.

            Jeffrey Sachs, one of the world’s leading economists, has a long history of working to alleviate world poverty.  He admits there has been much disagreement in defining poverty and determining how and where the poor live.  But, he has suggested, there is common ground where the discussion can begin.  Sachs explains,

"As a matter of definition, it’s useful to distinguish between three degrees of poverty: extreme (or absolute) poverty, moderate poverty, and relative poverty.  Extreme poverty means that households cannot meet basic needs for survival.  They are chronically hungry, unable to access health care, lack the amenities of safe drinking water and sanitation, cannot afford education for the children, and perhaps lack rudimentary shelter…and basic articles of clothing, such as shoes.  Unlike moderate and relative poverty, extreme poverty occurs only in developing countries.  Moderate poverty generally refers to conditions of life in which basic needs are met, but just barely.  Relative poverty is generally construed as a household income level below a given proportion of average national income.  The relatively poor, in high-income countries, lack access to cultural goods, entertainment, recreation, and to quality health care, education, and other perquisites for upward mobility" [Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Times (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 20.].