Outlooks on poverty: a conceptual
approximation
Planteamientos sobre la
pobreza: una aproximación conceptual
Abordagens sobre a pobreza: uma abordagem conceitual
Bertha Lucía Martínez Bernal*
Research article
Date of reception: 26 jan 2015
Date of
approval: 25 jun 2015
Abstract
In this article several definitions or concepts are presented for the understanding,
measuring and analyzing of poverty.
For this, the written productions of different
scholars and researchers who have
made valuable contributions to
the subject are returned to. In addition to these
concepts, the different perspectives used to approach the study of poverty are analyzed, although these
are not theories or explanations of its causes, but rather views of poverty that reflect these approaches. Likewise,
the study develops a review of the methodologies
most used in the identification and
aggregation processes. Finally, public
policies in the social sectors are interpreted.
Keywords: poverty, social equity, social policy, inequality,
measurement methods, basic needs.
JEL: D60, I31, I32, I38.
Resumen
En el presente artículo se presentan varias definiciones o conceptos para la comprensión, medición y el análisis de la pobreza. Para
ello se retoma la producción escrita de diferentes estudiosos e investigadores
que han hecho aportes valiosos sobre el tema. Al lado de estos conceptos se
analizan los diferentes enfoques que se utilizan para aproximarse al estudio de
la pobreza, aunque estas no son teorías ni explicaciones de sus causas, sino
perspectivas sobre pobreza que denotan dichos enfoques. Así mismo se desarrolla
una revisión de las metodologías más utilizadas en los procesos de
identificación y agregación. Finalmente se interpretan las políticas públicas
en los sectores sociales.
Palabras clave: pobreza, equidad social, política social, desigualdad,
métodos de medición, necesidades básicas.
Resumo
Neste artigo várias definições ou conceitos
para a compreensão, medição e análise
da pobreza, pois é a produção literária
de diferentes estudiosos e pesquisadores
que fizeram contribuições valiosas sobre
o tema, ao lado desses conceitos
são apresentados currículos onde são
analisadas as diferentes abordagens utilizadas para abordar o estudo da pobreza, não sendo estas teorias ou explicações sobre as suas causas, mas as perspectivas sobre a pobreza que denota essas abordagens, igualmente uma revisão das
metodologias utilizadas nos processos de
identificação e agregação. Finalmente,
a ação da política
pública é interpretada nos
sectores sociais.
Palavras-chave: pobreza, igualdade
social, política social, desigualdade, desenvolvimento, necessidades básicas.
INTRODUCTION
This article seeks to provide
evidence of the study carried out in the thesis La equidad social y la evolución
de la pobreza en Boyacá y su
capital para el período
1993-2005 (Social equity and the evolution of poverty in Boyacá and its
capital for the period 1993-2005) and with which the economics of poverty was
studied, specifically, so as to detect the number of citizens in our department
who are affected by this scourge and the policies of the government to reduce
poverty in the specific case of Boyacá and its capital.
High rates of poverty and inequality in a region may
be associated with low levels of economic activity whereas regions with more
economic participation present lower poverty rates. Although the behavior of
the Indigence Line (IL) exhibits different dynamics which reflect gradual
reductions due to the existence of insecure jobs, which allow the population remain
above the indigence line, but not the poverty line; this fact makes the topic a
priority for national, departmental, and municipal governments.
In fact, the first Millennium Development Goal urges
committed countries to reduce by half the level of poverty by 2015. Many public
policies have been oriented to reduce the percentage of people in precarious
living conditions, with particular specifications in each country, department,
or municipality. In fact, this is a topic of great relevance that continues to
give rise to advances in terms of academic as well as practical development. By
the end of the last century, there was an emphasis on the literature about
poverty and different thinkers contributed with concepts and ways of measuring it.
In truth, an individual can face deprivation in many dimensions of life, such
as education, the ability to get work, as well as health and living conditions,
which should be taken into account when measuring poverty. Even when there are
measurements that go beyond income, such as those based on unsatisfied basic
needs (UBN), in general, the official estimations and political goals are fixed
in terms of reducing the percentage of individuals (or households) with incomes
below a certain threshold. Despite this, there is a consensus that poverty is
multidimensional and that future measurements should be oriented towards expanding
the notion of poverty.
Naturally, the theme of poverty is a broad one, which
gives rise to advances in terms of academic and practical development. With the
passing of time, the multidimensional aspect has been emphasized in the
literature about poverty. It is widely accepted that the traditional
estimations of poverty, based solely on income deprivation or unsatisfied basic
needs (UBN) are limited, given that poverty goes beyond these definitions.
Actually, individuals can face deprivations in different dimensions of their
lives, such as in their education, ability to get a job and conditions of
health, which are not considered in any of the traditional measurements of
poverty.
Because of the above mentioned, the study carried out
in this article is framed within the concepts of poverty established by
different authors and entities, and the ways of measuring it, along with
certain social policies of the government that aim to eliminate or at least
reduce levels of poverty. In this sense, this document will focus on the
proposals of different authors that reflect the levels of poverty.
Proposals aimed at the reduction of poverty
Carrying
out a historical review it can be noted that during the last fifty years, as a
better understanding of the complexity of the development process has been
reached, scholars of this topic have considered that making large investments
in physical capital and infrastructure was the most effective way of propelling
this development process.
Thus, as from
1970 it became clearer that it was not sufficient to only create physical
capital, and that improvements in health, education,
and housing were very important. These
new ideas were embodied in the World Development Report of 1980, in which it
was stated that it was important to improve the levels of health and education,
not only for their intrinsic significance, but also as an instrument for
increasing the income of the poor population.
During the eighties there
was a new change of course caused by the debt crisis and the global recession
and because of the different experiences in the countries of East Asia on one
hand, and of Latin America, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa on the other.
The result was that more emphasis was made on improving economic management,
and giving freer rein to market forces. In the World Development Report of 1990,
in relation to poverty, “a double strategy is proposed: on one side, by
promoting growth based on the intensive use of labor through economic opening
and investment in infrastructure, and on the other, by improving access to
basic social services of health and education for the poorest populations”
(World Development Report 2000, p. 77). In this report a strategy to fight
against poverty was proposed, based on the adoption of measures in three
spheres: opportunity, empowerment and security.
In September of 1990 in Quito, Ecuador, the Regional Conference of Latin
American Countries on Poverty took place. The UN Regional Project for
Overcoming Poverty (its original name in Spanish is Proyecto Regional ONU de Superación de la Pobreza) estimated that there were 270 million
Latin-Americans in a situation of poverty, that is to say, close to 62% of the
population. This report indicated that when economic growth is central in
facing the social problem, in no way leads to social progress; there can be
growth, but inequalities and weak social policies lead to it not being spread
throughout the society and the social issue continues to get worse. The report
also questions the very schematic methods with which development is measured,
the final objective of which is that people live longer and improve their
quality of life. For this reason, these measurements, based on per capita
income, should be improved upon and include indicators such as life expectancy,
level of education, social participation, among others. There will be real
development when this set of indicators improves effectively.
In the World Conference on
Social Management in Copenhagen (July 1991) there was a total consensus on the
topic of basic human rights. It does not intend to provide charity, but instead
establish that society is responsible for guaranteeing its members work
possibilities and the satisfaction of their essential needs. In fact, at the World
Summit for Social Development , the UN (1995, p 45) defined absolute poverty as
“a condition characterized by the severe deprivation of basic human
necessities, which include food and drinking water, as well as conditions of
hygiene, health, housing, education and information.”
In the same way, it was
pronounced in the last meeting of the Club of Rome (1991) that we must recognize
poverty as a serious problem facing humanity, denounce economic differences,
such as extreme poverty versus excessive wealth and the lack of solidarity of
wealthy countries with the poor, and they also spoke of the necessity to combat
the different examples of selfishness that are manifested in the material as
well as the spiritual plane.
In the nineties it was recognized that compensatory
social programs constitute an unavoidably palliative instrument in extreme
situations, but that they do not represent a significant contribution to the
fight against poverty, as this requires programs that provide “tools” to poor
sectors for escaping poverty through their own efforts and governmental
programs that contribute to the creation of effective opportunities for social
integration.
Since these conferences, national governments
have implemented programs and policies directed towards the improvement of
social development. Thus, these conferences have resulted in the UN taking a
new direction in their activities.
Conceptualization of Poverty
In this section different concepts of poverty and extreme poverty are
described. There are various definitions of poverty, given the wide range of
literature on the subject, which means that there is
not a single concept, but rather there are several notions of it: one can begin
by defining poverty as a complex and multidimensional situation[1]. Due to this fact, there are multiple definitions and ways of measuring
it, and each country has a standard by which to calculate it. A very common
definition of poverty is material deprivation, measured through the income or consumption
of an individual or a family.
As well as the above concepts, ECLAC indicates that
under the term of “poverty”, diverse aspects of social and human life are
covered, valued negatively; two characteristics within the concept of poverty
are highlighted:
It is a multidimensional concept. This covers a situational syndrome with
which circumstances such as the following are associated: malnutrition, low
levels of education, unstable employment in production or in sectors linked to
the same, and squalid living and sanitary conditions.
From a wider perspective it does not solely refer to the failure to satisfy
basic material needs, but instead it extends to other needs, also basic,
although not of a material nature, such as, self-realization, freedom, human
rights, participation in social mechanisms of integration and decision-making,
and in cultural manifestations (ECLAC, 2001, p. 12).
“A person is
considered to be poor if he or she does not have access (or does not possess
the ability to access) a set of normatively established goods, services and
rights” (ECLAC, 1997).
It is a concept
relative to a determined historical and social context: it is based on value judgments
of the minimally acceptable levels of wellbeing for living a dignified life, of
basic needs, the satisfaction of which is essential, and of degrees of
deprivation that are considered to be intolerable. The assessment of poverty
evolves along with social progress and varies according to material and
cultural conditions.
The concept of poverty has moved towards a theoretical
framework as a relevant analytical concept. It is more suited to a descriptive
category that reveals an observable and measureable phenomenon. Its use is
informative in the description of social inequalities and has special relevance
when there is a political will to eradicate critical situations of unsatisfied
basic human needs.
One of the definitions of poverty of the World Bank
is, “the inability to achieve a minimum standard of living” (World Bank, 1990,
p. 27). This organization studies the contribution of public goods and services
to standards of living as well as a community’s property resources. It
establishes a level “based on consumption”, which includes two elements: the
first, “the necessary cost of reaching a minimum standard of nutrition and
other basic needs”; and the second, “an amount, which various from country to
country, which reflects the cost of participation in the daily life of
societies” (World Bank. 1990, p. 26).
In this way the World Bank asserts that the necessary
expense is “relatively basic”, because it can be calculated “observing the
prices of the foods that form the diets of the poor”. However, the second
element is “much more individual; in some countries access to plumbing in
households is a luxury, while in others it is a necessity’” (World Bank, 1990,
p. 27). With operational purposes, the
second element (previously mentioned) was left aside and the first was valued
as parity of purchasing power (PPP) (US$370 per annum per person, for all the
poorest developing countries). They are classified as “poor”, those individuals
whose income per capita is lower than 370 dollars, (the population that lives
on less than US$1.08 a day by 1993 international prices) while those with less
than 275 dollars per year were “extremely poor.”
This scheme is simple and easy to apply. It does not
depend on the continuous and inflexible collection and compilation of data
concerning the types and amounts of resources, the changing standards of needs
and the variable estimations of standards of living. Moreover, it is not truly
“global”, given that it is only adaptable to the poorest countries. If the
World Bank has acknowledged the necessity of an international poverty line that
is “based on more than consumption”, it has neither developed it nor estimated
the cost for the second “participative” element of the definition.
In the same report, there is also a definition of
poverty based on the calculation of the gross domestic product per capita
(GDP), completed by other criteria such as consumption per capita, child
mortality in infants under 5 years of age , life expectancy at birth, and
primary school registration.
The World Bank has started a series of evaluations on
poverty in some specific countries and conceptualizes poverty in a quantitative
way by affirming that a person is poor when they have less than two dollars per
day. The data is collected quantitatively and qualitatively through surveys
carried out in households, poverty profiles, participative
studies, evaluations of beneficiaries, analysis of public expenditure, national
economic analysis, and sectorial analysis.
The rates of poverty are important in order to
identify the difficulties for each country and account for the different
definitions of poverty.
The concepts on poverty
previously mentioned have been changing, poverty as a multidimensional
phenomenon refers to the phenomenon of poverty from a much more complex
approach, given that it includes other factors, in addition to those which are
merely monetary (income), such as: the state of housing, health, education,
employment, as well as shortcomings related to human development, such as
freedom, dignity, self-esteem, that is to say, first, second and, third
generation rights, where all the elements are related to one another.
The
Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has developed an index
of multidimensional poverty (IMP), as an indicator which reflects the degree of
deprivation of people in a set of dimensions. Its measurement allows for the
determination of the nature of the deprivation –according to the dimensions
selected- and their intensity. The IMP is the combination of the percentage of
people considered to be poor and the proportion of dimensions in which the
households are, on average, poor (Direction of Social Development – DDS, by its
acronym in Spanish, 2011, p11).
EXTREME POVERTY
Although there is no universal definition for the
term, for ECLAC, “extreme poverty” or “indigence” is understood as the
situation in which there are no available resources with which to satisfy at
least basic food needs. In other words, the extremely poor are those who live
in households with an income that is insufficient for acquiring a basic food
basket, even if the whole of the income was used to that end. At the same time,
“total poverty” is understood as the situation in which the income is below the
value of a basic basket of goods and services, alimentary as well as
non-alimentary.
Authors such as Boltvinik
(1990), refer to this term as the situation of those households that although
they spend all their income on food, cannot satisfy their basic needs.
Extreme or absolute poverty is described as the lack of the necessary
income to satisfy basic food needs, nevertheless, one of the concepts with greater
acceptance is that proposed by Amartya Sen, who expresses that:
The first requisite for conceptualizing poverty is to have a criterion
which allows the definition of who should be the focus of our interest.
Specifying some “norms of consumption” or a “poverty line” can facilitate the
task: the poor are those whose levels of consumption are below these norms or
whose income is below that line. But this leads to another question: should the
concept of poverty be related to the interests of: 1) only the poor; 2) only
those who are not poor, or 3) both groups equally? (Sen,
2009, p. 21).
Likewise, the different approaches for overcoming
poverty are analyzed; one of which is based on income: which makes reference to
the study of poverty as seen from a lack of income. High rates of unemployment
have an influence on the levels of poverty, as this impedes a family from using
income to access essential goods and services and thus leading a dignified
life. Being unemployed can cause a reduction of assets and the consumption of a
household’s means against possible contingencies, such as savings, the home and
other assets, and can cause disaffiliation from social security in healthcare.
Other variables which have a direct relationship with
poverty levels are the increase in prices (against that of income), which
affects the possibility of acquiring a basket of goods and services and the
exchange rate which affects the income and the costs of imported and exported
goods, as well as the price of tradable goods, among them, food.
DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY
Within the dimensions taken
into consideration for the study of poverty, two which are fundamental can be
highlighted: the studies realized with a one-dimensional variable, referring to
the wellbeing attained by individuals, and those with variables of a multidimensional
nature, in which an indicator of resources, such as wealth, income or
expenditure is used, such as those carried out at present regarding poverty.
Therefore, and taking into account the studies made on poverty as a
multidimensional phenomenon, it is possible to question some of the limitations
of the one-dimensional methods, when said methods are the only practical
alternative for carrying out these studies.
Taking into account that in
the literature on poverty, the multidimensional phenomenon stands out (Boltvinik, 2010, p. 48), actually it has not been given enough
relevance so as to strictly and profoundly carry out studies that lead to
including each one of the dimensions.
Carrying out a review of the dimensions that have the
greatest influence on multidimensional poverty levels, the work situation
stands out. This refers to the educational level associated with the analysis
of the degree of qualification of the occupation and is related to the type of
contract that the individual has, a suitable state of health, and other
variables, which can be taken into account.
CAPABILITY-BASED APPROACH TO POVERTY
Amartya Sen (1996) suggested the capabilities approach (CA), which
is widely accepted in the area of development. There are questions relative to
the practical application of this approach within the limits in which
participants, professionals, and others interested in the study move, at the time
of designing and implementing programs to reduce poverty.
Sen (1996) refers to “capabilities” as all those things that allow a person
to be well nourished, to write, read and communicate, and to take part in
community life. Sen indicates that basic needs also
form part of these “capabilities,” which refer to something much broader. The number
of options that people have and the freedom of choice over these options
contribute to human well-being. In this way, from the capability approach, it
is affirmed that more freedom and more capability to choose has a direct effect
on well-being by constantly increasing it.
In the first place, it is
said that human well-being exists when people succeed in developing their
capabilities. For this reason, development can be spoken of when people are
capable of doing more things for themselves, not when they are capable of
acquiring more goods or services. Human development has been defined as a broad
approach the objective of which is to expand the range of freedoms and options
that people have. By giving priority to participative evaluation techniques
based on the capabilities approach during the design and implementation of
poverty reduction programs, the possibility of achieving far reaching effects
on the development ideas in which the focus resides in continually improving
the capabilities, freedoms, and the concept of individual capability is made
available.
Also, Sen established
that there are gender questions, which are an integral part of development
processes. He disregarded that low levels of economic development affect men
and women in the same way, and that development policies are neutral in terms
of gender.
“Hunger is not produced by the insufficient production
of food. Famines can be the result of insufficient production, but this is the
consequence of some poor or unjust mechanisms of distribution” (Sen, 1996, p.28). Thus, Sen indicates that problems of distribution are, to a
greater extent, the cause of hunger, contradicting the principles of
traditional economic theory.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been
developing a series of studies which led to the conceptualization of poverty
focused on the real lives of people, and elaborated a procedure for measuring
internationally the “poverty of capabilities” (UNDP, 1997). Given that this
attempt has not had a satisfactory response, due to the fact that it does not
provide a consistent list of basic human capabilities, nor minimum thresholds
of realization in each evaluation space. The problem of poverty is defined in
parallel to the denial of options and fundamental opportunities for human
development, such as: living a long,
healthy, and creative life and being able to enjoy a decent standard of living,
freedom, dignity, self-respect, and respect for others (UNDP, 1997). With all
of this, the studies developed by the UNDP end up resolving the problem in a
more traditional manner, combining methods of income or basic needs, accepting
the reality of relativity in the parameters of a deficit in the subject of
human development.
HUMAN CAPITAL AND HUMAN CAPABILITY
The investigative process regarding social topics
has been developing during the last years, taking a normative position in
relation to global justice that without disregarding the contributions provided
by the theory of needs and capabilities of human development, promotes an
approach towards poverty based on human rights. Due to the great importance
that human capital has, the principal objective of the economy is to assist and
help to alleviate poverty, implying a close relationship between the
government’s investments in human capital and the alleviation of poverty.
During the last century, education, skills, and other expertise have
become crucial factors and determinants of the productivity of a person and of
a nation. The twentieth century can be called, as well, the century of the age
of human capital, in the sense that the main determining factor of the quality
of life of a country was the measure of its success in the development and use
of the skills, expertise, health, and customs of its population (Becker, 1983,
p. 82)
From
this, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health
Organization (PAHO) have been carrying out studies that have established that
few countries of the region have the information, scientific, human, financial,
or institutional resources that are needed for adequately analyzing and
promoting health and environmental concerns when making development decisions.
These studies have examined the availability of tangible resources as well as
requisites such as laws, inter-sectorial mechanisms, the functional delegation
of authority to municipal governments, and the possibility of fulfilling norms
and regulations. One of the discoveries of critical importance that was made
was that of the effective incapability of nearly all the national health
authorities to participate in the analysis and control of health and
environmental problems on a sectorial or inter-sectorial level.
As well as these organizations, other authors have
made other contributions in this line, such as Pogge
(2005), who applies the human rights approach in his essay titled: Human
Flourishing and Universal Justice, in which he adopts a criterion of nuclear
justice, and maintains the convenience of a morally admissible criterion of
justice, based on “communal means”, the language of rights being especially
appropriate for this, and it is for this that there is total international
acceptance. He affirms that an essential principle of equity from the human
rights approach favors the attention and consideration of the diverse cultures
in the world and the development of a characteristic, although constructive
critique of the national and international institutional order, approaching the
war on poverty worldwide (Pogge, 2005, p. 72-73).
Equally, Nussbaum relates the function of the “grounds
for agreement” as that it acts as the language of human rights in the international
public discourse, while it continues to be argued about the type of analysis
that is appropriate on a more specific level (Nussbaum, 2002, p. 149).
Authors such as Amartya Sen, within their studies on poverty, make a reflection
directed towards the human development approach, in which the accumulation of
“human capital” is the center of their analysis and bases it in the
accumulation and expansion of “human capability”. The first concept is found in
the character of the agents (agency) of human beings, who through their
abilities, knowledge and efforts, increase the possibilities of production, and
the second is focused on the ability to lead the kind of life that they
consider to be valuable and increase their real possibilities of choice. Both perspectives are related because they
deal with the role of human beings and in particular the effective abilities that
they achieve and acquire.
THE DIFFERENT FACES OF POVERTY
In this aspect, Amartya Sen
shows that the protective power of democracy to provide security goes beyond
the prevention of famines. Perhaps the action of democracy is not always
particularly effective from the economic point of view, but it is truly
important when crises threaten and the economically dispossessed need direct
protection from it.
For this, in having a voice of hope in the future,
there is an increasing manifest demand for democracy in the world and,
therefore, a greater need for social justice. A sufficiently broad perspective
of poverty should be taken so as to be sure that the poor have a reason to have
hope.
According to Amartya Sen, poverty is
absolute on the plane
of capabilities and relative on the plane of basic products. In response to the
question about the redefinition of the poverty line so as to reflect a greater
balance between absolute and relative characteristics to give greater weight to
the measurement of capabilities, it was clarified that poverty is the failure
of an individual to achieve a set of resources relevant to adequate employment
(Sen, 2000, p.40)
Artya Sen sees the social
problem that comes from poverty as an interesting focus and proposes a dimension
of poverty that traditional methods and definitions do not take into consideration.
It is particularly interesting that a Nobel prize winning economist puts
forward this new dimension, which, is in fact an expansion of the capabilities
of individuals and that allows them to
do things and develop as individuals, and does not define them by the amount of
money that they or their family possess, which would allow them to buy a
certain number of goods or access certain services considered to be basic but
it will also allow us to go deeper into aspects such as the quality of
education and the level of intellectual development of the individual, and,
also, why not go beyond the simple bourgeois concept of “freedom and democracy”
so that the poor have the right not only to protest and vote for their
authorities in each election, but also to have a critical and reflective
capacity that allows them to actively participate in the decisions of the state
that affect their quality of life and developmental expectations.
From the above it can be asserted that poverty goes
beyond material and immediate needs, as aspects should be taken into account
that are as important as the development of capabilities and an individual’s defined
personality, which permits them to have a degree of consciousness that directs
them towards greater participation and the development of their abilities, that
puts them in the place where they achieve their maximum progress, which will be
reflected in an increase of individual and family productivity and also of the
society as a whole. However, it cannot be disregarded that, in order to achieve
this, certain minimum conditions should exist for the progress of individuals,
such as: access to quality education and health, and proper childhood
nutrition.
APPROACH TOWARDS POVERTY FROM SOCIAL CAPITAL
Under this approach it is more difficult to understand
the concept of poverty, attaching to this the importance of social
relationships. A person is poor when they do not succeed in the relationship
with their environment to improve their living conditions, access new
opportunities nor obtain benefits.
Social capital occupies a
central place in a set of assets such as human capital (assets that a person
possesses due to the innate characteristics of their human condition:
knowledge, health, skills, time and others), social capital (assets that are
derived from the relations between people and from their involvement in
organizations), productive capital (physical assets: land, properties, goods
and financial assets), natural capital (assets in the form of the quality and
quantity of natural resources to which access is had), cultural capital
(resources and symbols that are the result of the culture in question)
From the view of social capital, putting poverty in the center of the concerns
of public policies can strongly influence the possibilities of overcoming it, as
it allows for a change in the amplitude and nature of the relationships between
the poor sectors and those that are not. That is to say, it may modify the
amplitude of the social networks and the degree of associativity existing
between groups with a different type of social capital.
The importance of social capital is highlighted in the lifestyle of poor
people to the extent that it allows them to access other resources, fosters their
involvement in organizations, and helps them escape from their situation of
poverty, increasing their citizenship and social inclusion.
APPROACH
TOWARDS POVERTY BASED ON SOCIAL VULNERABILITY
The notion of vulnerability has the potential to contribute
towards the identification of individuals, households and communities that, due
to their lower endowment of assets and diversification of strategies, are
exposed to higher levels of risk because of significant alterations in the
social, political and economic plane, which affect their living conditions.
Presented in this way, the notion of vulnerability exceeds, at the same time
that it includes, the dimension of income that has traditionally been measured
from the notion of poverty. The concept of risk that is implicit in the idea of
poverty can be observed through deviations with respect to the average values
of a society, or else by coefficients of variation of some key variables such
as income, employment, consumption of goods and services. “The concept of
vulnerability is understood as a multidimensional process which converges on
the risk or probability of the individual, household or community of being
hurt, harmed or damaged by changes or prevalences of
external and/or internal situations” (ECLAC, 2001, p.56)
Under this concept of vulnerability poverty is
intended to be understood as a result of a process in which a household, an
individual or a community are affected by facing a particular situation that damages
their wellbeing. In order to understand the reach of this approach, it is demonstrated
that a family is more vulnerable if only one of its members works. Upon losing
this source of income the standard of living of the whole family is immediately
affected. At the same time, a person who works without a contract is prone to
falling into a situation of poverty if they suffer an accident, given that they
are not protected by social welfare labor laws.
All the above can express an idea of the world of
poverty, understanding from a rational point of view what authors talk about
when they refer to people who live in a situation of poverty. However, they
lose credibility if they are opposed to eliminating such a division in society,
if discrimination against “the poor” continues, believing them to be different.
For this reason, it is necessary to keep in mind those who live in poverty,
believe in their abilities, show interest in their dreams, get to know their
experiences through a real understanding of what it means to be poor[2], for which the following aspects have to be taken
into account: 1) the composition of the assets available to the household; 2)
the strategies in using these assets, 3) those who receive assistance from the
state or not.
And finally, some key aspects are considered that are
derived from the vulnerability approach. Firstly, the role that
public policies have in the strengthening or diversification of the physical,
financial, human, and social assets of the excluded poor, which represents the
highest social disadvantages. Secondly, the scenario that contributes to
generating the public sector for the access to a set of opportunities provided
by society, especially through policies of market regulation, distribution of
income, and economic incentives. In this sense, the origin of vulnerability is
the other face of the assets, that is to say, of the liabilities possessed by
diverse groups of the population. Liabilities contribute to augmenting risks,
exposing to a greater extent the households that possess them. Thus, public
policies that affect assets and liabilities can be identified, those that can
contribute to reducing poverty or not and that favor integration or not.
MEASUREMENTS OF
POVERTY (UBN, POVERTY LINE AND INDIGENCE LINE)
For evaluating poverty, methods are used that measure
the quality of life and the level of income required for survival are used,
but, even with these methods, it is not possible to set subjectivity aside,
which means that all measurement of poverty should be circumscribed to a place
and time; this, in accordance with the international standard established for
the level of poverty, is to live on less than two dollars a day. Certainly in
developed countries an individual with an income above the world average is
also considered poor.
Two types of
methods have been proposed to identify the poor and quantify them: the direct
method and the one based on income[3]. The former is founded on determining the multiple
human basic needs and establishing norms of minimum satisfaction for each one
of them, according to the effective consumption of the people or households. Those
who are in a situation of under-consumption, depending on the type and degree
of dissatisfaction of needs that affects them, are classified as poor.
In order to set
poverty lines, there are also different approaches. The first is the absolute,
which sets the normative limit from a minimum pattern of life, that is evaluated
in such a way that it allows for the satisfaction of basic needs: nutrition,
housing, health, clothing, etc. In general, the determination of a limit to reduce
the degree of arbitrariness, begins by clarifying the
normative budget for food that manages to cover the nutritional requirements
with a low cost basket (indigence line).
“In contrast with this absolute
approach, the relative derives from the idea that there is a relationship
between poverty and the distribution of income. The place the poor have within
a certain production and distribution context is highlighted. Its application
leads, however, to the proportion of poor people remaining constant throughout
time” (ECLAC 1997, p.13) To avoid this inconvenience, the “delimitation of the
poverty line in relation to some measurement of income distribution as an
average of income” has been attempted (Ministry for Agriculture, 1989, p. 15).
Quantification denotes the concept of poverty. It
identifies a group of people who belong to the poor category. The indicator of
unsatisfied basic needs (UBN), one of the most commonly used, was introduced by
the ECLAC in the 80s. It is the most basic measurements, indicating a lack or
insufficiency on the part of the household of one of the following five basic
needs: housing with adequate materials, access to public services of water and
sewerage, low level of overcrowding (less than three people per room), low
degree of dependence (less than three people in the charge of each worker in
the household, with education) and children between 7 and 10 years of age who
attend school. According to this indicator, if the household has one
unsatisfied need it is considered to be in conditions of poverty, and if it has
more than one it is considered to be in indigence. This indicator (UBN) belongs
to the neoclassic current with a materialistic, utilitarian, proceduralist viewpoint, the basic characteristics of which
are related to a lack of a resource or resources out of a reference of
resources that an individual, group or community possess.
The National Department of Planning (2002) assumes that the measurement
of the incidence of poverty through UBN has some limitations. It considers to be poor those who have one unsatisfied basic need, but
high levels of satisfaction in the remaining needs. In addition, three out of
the five variables considered depend on physical characteristics that can be
affected by the degree of urbanization more than by the particulars of the
standard of living, although they are defined in a different way for urban and
for rural areas. At the same time, the UBN only permits the calculation of the
percentage of people with one or more unsatisfied needs, and does not allow for
the consideration of how poor the poor are, nor what the degree of inequality
among them is, aspects that are important in the field of social policy.
In Colombia, they are considered to be a group with
unsatisfied basic needs (UBN), those households which respond to these five
simple indicators:
1. Inadequate housing: this indicator expresses the physical characteristics
of housing considered to be inappropriate for human habitation. Housing in
municipal capitals is classified separately to the rest, thus:
- Municipal Capitals: Mobile homes, natural shelters or bridges, those
without walls or with external walls made of fabric, scrap or with earthen
floors are included.
-The rest: for this area the types of housing previously mentioned are
also considered inadequate. With relation to the materials of the floor and
walls, only those that are semi-permanent or perishable (mud wall, bamboo,
sugar cane or wood), which also have earthen floors are considered.
2. Housing with critical overcrowding: this indicator seeks to capture
the critical levels of occupation of the resources of the household for the
group that inhabits it. Dwellings with more than three people per room are
considered to be in this situation.
3. Housing with inadequate services: this indicator expresses in a more
direct way the lack of access to minimum vital and sanitary conditions. The
conditions of municipal capitals are distinguished from the rest. In municipal
capitals, it includes dwellings without a bathroom or that due to the lack of piped
water make use of water from rivers, springs, water tank trucks or rainwater.
In the rest, given the rural conditions, dwellings that lack a bathroom and
piped water and that supply themselves with water from rivers, springs or
rainwater are included.
4. Housing with high economic dependence: is an indirect indicator of
the levels of income. They are classified here those dwellings in which there
are more than three people per employed person and that the head of the
household has a maximum of two years of primary education.
5. Dwellings with children of school age who do not attend school. It
measures the satisfaction of minimum educational needs for the child
population. It takes into account the dwellings with, at least, one child older
than six years of age and younger than twelve, who is a relative of the head of
the household and who does not attend a formal education institution.
In addition, other factors are taken into
consideration for this indicator, such as:
• Urbanization
• Demographic
change
• Evolution of
human capital
Given that each of the indicators refers to different types of basic
needs, from these a compound is constituted, which classifies as poor or with
UBN those households that are in, at least, one of the situations of lack
expressed by the simple indicators, and in a situation of indigence, those
households that have two or more simple indicators of unsatisfied basic needs.
To estimate the magnitude of poverty in relation to the population, it is
considered that people who live in homes with a UBN or those in indigence are
found in the same conditions as their respective household.
POVERTY
LINE
For the estimation of poverty, depending on the
concept and approach that is given, different methodologies have been
suggested. One of the most used by international organizations and statistics
offices is the poverty line method, based on which the results of statistical
studies on poverty have been supplied, obtained from the Encuesta de Hogares (Households survey). The
method is only applied to the households with known income and implies the
calculation of a poverty line that represents the minimum amount of income that
allows for a household to make use of sufficient resources to attend to basic
needs. For this it is necessary to take into account:
·
The cost of a
basic food basket (BFB), which is made up of a number of foods, the caloric and
protein content of which allows the satisfaction of a minimum level of
nutritional requirements per person per month.
Its cost in a certain period of time is equivalent to the minimum income
necessary to satisfy the alimentary needs of a person in that same period.
·
With the
estimation of the cost of the basic non-alimentary needs, according to ECLAC
(2001 p.211), “this estimation defines the normative basket, specifying each
satisfier in a similar way to BFB”.
·
With the per
capita income of the household
They are classified under the poverty line, those
people or households who do not have the minimum income established to satisfy
basic needs. In fact, for the analysts of the topic, the setting of a poverty
line ends up being an arbitrary decision; for this reason, different authors
and organizations use different poverty lines. Organizations such as the World
Bank propose international poverty lines in terms of dollars per day per person
adjusted by PPP. At the same time, the statistical institutions of each country
tend to publish national poverty lines (extreme and moderate). Both approaches
have their advantages: while national lines consider that there are differences
among countries that lead to identifying the poor in different ways,
international poverty lines are widely used because they allow for comparisons
between countries and over time, as well as regional and global estimations of
poverty.
The
poverty line is established from the cost of a basic food basket to which a
multiplying factor is applied.
Thus,
PL = k• BFB [1]
Where: PL is the poverty line, BFB is the basic food basket that is
defined as the group of foods expressed in basic quantities to satisfy, at
least, the caloric requirements (energy) of an average individual, for a
reference population. It is the cost of the basic food basket per person, or
indigence line, and k, the multiplying factor. Thus, the value of the poverty
line corresponds to twice the value of a basic food basket in an urban area and
to 1.75 times in a rural area.
The poverty line is studied by the neoclassic school
of thought with a utilitarian view, the basic characteristics of which are the
minimum level of reasonable consumption according to the standards of society.
This method is the most widely used in measuring poverty and is constituted
based on the measurement of the income and expenditure of households. This
leads to an investigation as to whether the households have sufficient income
for the acquisition of essential goods and services to satisfy basic needs. And
to define these needs a basic basket of goods and services that meet the
requirements of the satisfaction of basic needs is detailed. From this the cost
is obtained by evaluating the items at market prices. This cost defines the
line: if the income is below the line, the household is poor.
This way of measuring poverty has spread
internationally through what is known as the poverty line method (PL). With
this method it is assumed that those households or individuals whose income is
above the poverty line have their basic needs met.
It
is important to highlight that this method is appropriate for measuring poverty
as well as indigence or extreme poverty, the distinction between one and the
other being a normative variation of the basket used for that end. In summary,
generally, the indigence basket is defined from a selection of foods that would
contain the necessary nutrients to ensure the subsistence and avoid the death
of the individual by starvation, while the poverty basket includes these food
products as well as a series of complementary products that would theoretically
cover other non-alimentary needs, such as health, clothing, housing, education,
and transport.
Indigence Line
According to the World Bank, the poverty line (PL) and the indigence
line (IL) are proposed as measurement instruments. With this method the income
or consumption per capita is compared to the poverty line expressed in per
capita terms, for this reason the households with an income below the poverty
line are considered to be poor.
The indicator allows the calculation of the incidence
of poverty, that is to say, the percentage of the population whose income is
below the poverty line. It is calculated as the minimum income established per
person to satisfy food, nutrition, housing, health, clothing and other basic
needs. It corresponds to the monthly cost of a basic food basket per person,
the caloric and protein content of which permits satisfaction of the minimum
level of daily basic nutritional requirements (220 calories, 62g of protein,
calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin C) and that also
reflects the prevailing consumption habits. They are considered poor those
whose income is below the poverty line and indigents or in extreme poverty
those whose income is not even sufficient for acquiring the basket food basket.
In this way the method provides an indirect approximation of the magnitude of
poverty (Álvarez & Martínez, 2001).
For the ECLAC,
“extreme poverty” or “indigence” is understood as the situation in which the resources
are not available that would allow for the satisfaction of at least the basic
food needs. In other words, they are considered to be “extremely poor” those
people who reside in households whose income is not sufficient for acquiring a
basic food basket even if the income was
only used to that end. At the same time, it is understood as “total poverty”
the situation in which the income is inferior to the value of a basic basket of
goods and service, alimentary as well as non-alimentary.
Even though
this indicator shares its essence with the one employed officially for
monitoring the first goal of the millennium, it does not necessarily coincide
in its way of calculating it. The fundamental difference lies in that the
sufficiency threshold in the official indicator is defined in terms of a value
in dollars, identical for all countries in terms of parity of purchasing power
(PPP). In contrast, the basic baskets that give rise to the lines used by the
ECLAC are specific for each country and respect the consumption structures that
are prevalent in them (United Nations, 2010)
With reference to the indicators as such, the UBN
indicator is attributed with the problem that the five needs that it measures
have incidence mainly among those classified as poor rather than among the
population as a whole, for which the incidence among the people with low income
is not distressing. According to the World Bank (2000), 80% of the people
classified as poor have an income that is superior to that of those that are
poor according to the poverty line (PL), and this brings distributive
implications because in this way those individuals with less income will
receive less help.
PUBLIC POLICIES FOR
OVERCOMING POVERTY
This topic of public policies is defined as the
essence of the actions that are executed by governing authorities whose
objective is to generate wellbeing for the whole of society. These policies are
geared towards offering a solution to a series of social needs, where the
concentration of efforts in sectors of vital importance for the state is
sought; for example, education, health, housing, and employment, given that
they allow for an individual to have some certainty with the objective of
leading them to collective wellbeing. For this, social policy includes other
aspects such as distribution, protection and social justice. However, and in
contrast to the above, public policies are frequently used by the elite and
powerful groups, who benefit disproportionately from them, pushing a large part
of the population below the poverty line of two dollars a day. The absence of
commitment in the management of public policies, the lack of opportunities for
the majority, and the great inequalities and poverty all cause social disintegration
and violence. It is understood that the capacity of a country to generate
greater income contributes to the improvement of the standards of living of a
population, but on its own it does not guarantee that there is equitable
distribution and favorable results that lead to a regions progress and that
favor all of the population. For the above to be achieved, an important role is
given to social policies, but for this they should be efficient and
sustainable. These policies should cover the support of the satisfaction of
basic needs of the population most in need, as well as the creation of better
opportunities of employment so as to produce income.
A comprehensive policy of the government should have
at least two objectives: the reduction of inequalities and economic growth,
focusing on the regions that show persistent poverty. Governments use social
policy as tool to organize and perfect market institutions and the social
system. Through the good use of social policies the vicious circle of poverty
can be eradicated, and a benign circle created in which human development and
employment generate greater internal demand and thus, economic growth.
In order to develop public policies, strategies based
on transparency, honesty and efficiency are needed, in which the general
interest in placed above the personal one. The recognition of this makes work
efficient and allows the fulfillment of its goal of reaching the most
vulnerable population within falling into the selfishness of satisfying the
interests of just a few. In order to avoid this, we should demand that the state
fulfills public policies, that they are carried out as they should be and we
should also demand the optimal management of resources. Only in this way will
we have the rule of law in which equality and freedom for all prevails.
Authors such as Meny and Thoenig
(1989), from the analytical perspective, conceptualize public policies as
“programs of action of a public authority in a sector of society or
geographical space” (Menyy & Thoenig,
1989, p. 19).
Additionally, Anderson offers a generic view: “An
orientation deliberately followed by an actor or a group of actors to deal with
a problem or a question that concerns them” (Anderson, 1990, p. 30).
The previous definitions indicate that the actor
that produces a public policy is (or is entitled to act as) a public actor and
thus, despite that another type of social actor can influence the actions of
governments, they cannot produce these policies. In addition they indicate that
a public policy can be the product of a decision as well as of the failure to
make a decision. Finally they express that public policies can range from
eradicating poverty to avoiding its increase, through a graduation of
objectives and the means to fulfill them.
In the case of Colombia, incumbent governments
establish programs of social policy in a
circumstantial way, to give a solution to the problem of poverty, but said
policies ignore the main problems – in a macroeconomic and political vision – such
as equity in the distribution of income, and access to the resources that drive
a society, which leads to maintaining inequities, mainly in matters concerning
the possibilities of individuals and families to have access to better resource
allocation (public goods), in this case: employment, human capital, housing,
health, among others, that help them to compete in the labor markets.
Government social programs are based on biased values
that distort the origin of poverty, and the social policy, as it has been
conceived, turns into a mitigating factor of the consequences, which on the
short term causes the application of macroeconomic adjustment measures.
CONCLUSIONS
There are many concepts of poverty that do not only make reference to
the lack of economic income, the deprivation of access to certain goods and
services, considered to be necessary for the society, but also include different
aspects such as, adequate housing, health, access to public services,
education, clothing, leisure, etc., also necessary for wellbeing.
The relation between the development theories, the
human rights approaches and the concrete problems that the concept of poverty
makes reference to, set up an interpretation framework
that is increasingly accepted by the international community. Nevertheless,
most of the efforts used to obtain measurements of poverty continue to be
restricted to the consideration of a group of economic indicators, such as that
of insufficient income.
In accordance with the measurement through unsatisfied
basic needs, the solution for the reduction of poverty would be to increment
social expenditure and increase the coverage of public services and education,
but this could be a fallacy, given that once the assistance programs are over,
individuals will return to a state of poverty shortly after, as measured by the
poverty line. For this reason, the best way to eradicate poverty is through a
policy that not only increases the coverage of social services, but that also
incentivizes people to improve themselves.
Real
importance should be given to the problem of poverty, studying it and
understanding it in order to be able to propose alternatives to the solution,
with the objective of eradicating it or at least reducing it, involving the
society and social institutions.
The public policies that governments apply, which
include different programs to give a solution to the problems of poverty,
bringing the population to a state of “wellbeing”, are directed towards the
reduction of a series of needs that afflict a part of the population.
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*
Candidate for a Master’s Degree in Economics, professional in
Associativity and Projects for the Ministry for Agriculture-UNAD lumar770@hotmail.com
[1] When
multidimensional aspects are mentioned, several factors are being referred to:
education: 1) low educative achievement, 2) illiteracy. Childhood and youth: 3)
school attendance, 4) school lag, 5) no access to long-term services, 8)
employment rate. Health: 9) no health insurance, 10) no access to health
services when necessary: 11) no access to clean water sources, 12) elimination
of sewer waste, 13) inadequate floors, 14) inadequate walls, 15) critical
overcrowding.
[2] The main approaches, methods and strategies for
overcoming poverty are taken into account.( Mideplan, 2002).
[3]The method based on income consists of calculating the level of income
necessary to reach certain minimum pattern of life and, on that basis, they are considered poor those who receive an income
that is below that threshold or poverty line.