short case study on poverty

Poverty and Social Exclusion

Defining, measuring and tackling poverty, latest articles, home page featured articles, buenos aires 2017.

A recent report form the city of Buenos Aires measuring multi-dimensional poverty, using the consensual method, has found that in 2019, 15.3% of households were multi-dimensionally  poor, rising to  25.7% for households with children under 18 years of age. The method established will be used to measure nu,ti-dimensional poverty on an ongoing basis.

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We are now delighted to offer you the presentation slides and video recordings of sessions across the three days, featuring formal presentations, interactive Q&As, networking opportunities and much more.

Child deprivation in EU member states, 2018

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Steering Group on Measuring Poverty and Inequality has been tasked with producing a guide on Measuring Social Exclusion which references a lot of our PSE work.

Households in poverty: five case studies

Find out what it really means to miss out on what others take for granted and the deep impact this has on lives and opportunities. The PSE team have filmed with five families living in London, north-east England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Between them, they represent each of the following key groups vulnerable to poverty:

• single parents on benefits
• the young unemployed
• low-paid workers supporting a family
• adults who are disabled
• single pensioners .

All lack a range of the necessities selected by the public as essential for a minimum living standard in the UK today (see the full list of child and adult necessities in explore the data ). They are all also living on a low income. Using the consensual method for defining poverty that underpins the PSE: UK research, each household is living in poverty.

The following series of short films were recorded between late 2011 and early 2012.  The PSE team is very grateful to all the families who are sharing their experiences with us.

Living in poverty featured articles

Featured case studies, the johnsons story.

Renée is 40 and works long hours for low pay to try to provide for her four children, aged 3 to 14, and her 80-year-old mother.

Jennie's story

Jennie is 39 and unemployed. She lives with her three sons, all of whom have disabilities, in Redbridge, outer London.

Marc's Story

Marc is 19 and lives in Redcar in north-east England, a town where there are twelve times as many people claiming job seeker’s allowance as there a

The burden of the downturn that followed the 2008 economic crash was borne by those on the lowest incomes (see Burden of economic downturn taken by the low paid ). In addition, the Coalition government’s austerity measures and changes to the tax and benefit system will impact heavily on those on lowest incomes. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the net effect will be a rise in both child and adult poverty levels (see UK poverty set to rise in next three years ). The government’s plans include cuts of £18 billion to the welfare budget between 2011 and 2014. While the introduction of Universal Credit should, in principle, increase the benefit entitlements of some households, these improvements are more than offset by other changes to personal taxes and state benefits, such as linking benefits to the Consumer Price Index rather than to the Retail Price Index (see Child and adult poverty set to rise by 2015 ). In addition, Universal Credit risks making certain groups significantly worse off, in particular single working mothers (see Welfare reforms could push 250,000 children deeper into poverty ).

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Robert Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, is one of the researchers studying the link between poverty and social mobility.

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Unpacking the power of poverty

Peter Reuell

Harvard Staff Writer

Study picks out key indicators like lead exposure, violence, and incarceration that impact children’s later success

Social scientists have long understood that a child’s environment — in particular growing up in poverty — can have long-lasting effects on their success later in life. What’s less well understood is exactly how.

A new Harvard study is beginning to pry open that black box.

Conducted by Robert Sampson, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, and Robert Manduca, a doctoral student in sociology and social policy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the study points to a handful of key indicators, including exposure to high levels of lead, violence, and incarceration as key predictors of children’s later success. The study is described in an April paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“What this paper is trying to do, in a sense, is move beyond the traditional neighborhood indicators people use, like poverty,” Sampson said. “For decades, people have shown poverty to be important … but it doesn’t necessarily tell us what the mechanisms are, and how growing up in poor neighborhoods affects children’s outcomes.”

To explore potential pathways, Manduca and Sampson turned to the income tax records of parents and approximately 230,000 children who lived in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, compiled by Harvard’s Opportunity Atlas project. They integrated these records with survey data collected by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, measures of violence and incarceration, census indicators, and blood-lead levels for the city’s neighborhoods in the 1990s.

They found that the greater the extent to which poor black male children were exposed to harsh environments, the higher their chances of being incarcerated in adulthood and the lower their adult incomes, measured in their 30s. A similar income pattern also emerged for whites.

Among both black and white girls, the data showed that increased exposure to harsh environments predicted higher rates of teen pregnancy.

Despite the similarity of results along racial lines, Chicago’s segregation means that far more black children were exposed to harsh environments — in terms of toxicity, violence, and incarceration — harmful to their mental and physical health.

“The least-exposed majority-black neighborhoods still had levels of harshness and toxicity greater than the most-exposed majority-white neighborhoods, which plausibly accounts for a substantial portion of the racial disparities in outcomes,” Manduca said.

“It’s really about trying to understand some of the earlier findings, the lived experience of growing up in a poor and racially segregated environment, and how that gets into the minds and bodies of children.” Robert Sampson

“What this paper shows … is the independent predictive power of harsh environments on top of standard variables,” Sampson said. “It’s really about trying to understand some of the earlier findings, the lived experience of growing up in a poor and racially segregated environment, and how that gets into the minds and bodies of children.”

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The study isn’t solely focused on the mechanisms of how poverty impacts children; it also challenges traditional notions of what remedies might be available.

“This has [various] policy implications,” Sampson said. “Because when you talk about the effects of poverty, that leads to a particular kind of thinking, which has to do with blocked opportunities and the lack of resources in a neighborhood.

“That doesn’t mean resources are unimportant,” he continued, “but what this study suggests is that environmental policy and criminal justice reform can be thought of as social mobility policy. I think that’s provocative, because that’s different than saying it’s just about poverty itself and childhood education and human capital investment, which has traditionally been the conversation.”

The study did suggest that some factors — like community cohesion, social ties, and friendship networks — could act as bulwarks against harsh environments. Many researchers, including Sampson himself, have shown that community cohesion and local organizations can help reduce violence. But Sampson said their ability to do so is limited.

“One of the positive ways to interpret this is that violence is falling in society,” he said. “Research has shown that community organizations are responsible for a good chunk of the drop. But when it comes to what’s affecting the kids themselves, it’s the homicide that happens on the corner, it’s the lead in their environment, it’s the incarceration of their parents that’s having the more proximate, direct influence.”

Going forward, Sampson said he hopes the study will spur similar research in other cities and expand to include other environmental contamination, including so-called brownfield sites.

Ultimately, Sampson said he hopes the study can reveal the myriad ways in which poverty shapes not only the resources that are available for children, but the very world in which they find themselves growing up.

“Poverty is sort of a catchall term,” he said. “The idea here is to peel things back and ask, What does it mean to grow up in a poor white neighborhood? What does it mean to grow up in a poor black neighborhood? What do kids actually experience?

“What it means for a black child on the south side of Chicago is much higher rates of exposure to violence and lead and incarceration, and this has intergenerational consequences,” he continued. “This is particularly important because it provides a way to think about potentially intervening in the intergenerational reproduction of inequality. We don’t typically think about criminal justice reform or environmental policy as social mobility policy. But maybe we should.”

This research was supported with funding from the Project on Race, Class & Cumulative Adversity at Harvard University, the Ford Foundation, and the Hutchins Family Foundation.

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Mozambique case study shows that poverty is about much more than income

Poverty is often defined by assessing income. But guest bloggers Sam Jones and Inge Tvedten say that using a wider lens can help to understand the social and political mechanisms that help to create and reproduce poverty.

Buying vegetables in Quelimane market in Mozambique (Photo: ILRI/Mann, Creative Commons via Flickr)

What does it mean to be poor? On the face of it, this may not sound like a very difficult question. In developed countries, almost all official and everyday definitions refer to poverty in income terms. In this sense, low consumption power (income) and poverty are essentially synonymous.

Outside of developed countries, a similar view of poverty frequently gets headlines. In its global comparisons, the World Bank has adopted the (in)famous poverty line of US$1.90 a day . So, people with daily real incomes below this amount form part of the global poor – thankfully, now a diminishing group.

One might dispute exactly how and where such a poverty line should be set. But the idea that being poor means not having an adequate income often seems uncontroversial.

Of course, among academics things are rarely so settled. Between economists, there is disagreement about whether poverty should be measured only in monetary terms. In other areas of social science, there is a tradition of scepticism that suggests standard quantitative definitions of poverty can be misleading .

I feel I am shouting in a room of deaf people. The extreme poverty line is set too low for many urban contexts. Look at what most informal settlement dwellers have to pay on rent, water, toilet use, fuel, transport, health care, keeping kids at school….. — David Satterthwaite (@Dsatterthwaite) October 17, 2018

Representing poverty as a kind of well-defined objective condition, like an infectious disease, focuses attention on the symptoms and immediate consequences of poverty. It risks diverting attention away from the underlying structural causes and diverse experiences of the poor.

Challenging official narratives

In a recent paper we explore contrasting views of wellbeing in Mozambique. Our interest reflects the country’s controversial track record. From the early 1990s until recently, Mozambique achieved one of the strongest sustained periods of aggregate economic growth of any country. Yet some argue this growth has largely not trickled down, leaving many behind.

Official poverty estimates undertaken by the government are of the classic quantitative or economic kind. Here a set of basic needs is identified and costed. Households consuming goods worth less than the cost of a minimal basket are deemed to be “poor”. Applying this definition, data from national surveys shows consumption poverty has declined over the past two decades at a steady, but not especially rapid, pace.

Today, almost half of all Mozambicans continue to live in absolute poverty. There are also large spatial gaps in wellbeing. For example, there is much lower poverty in the south of the country, around the capital city, reflecting widening levels of consumption inequality.

To provide perspective on this official narrative, a range of bottom-up studies of poverty , including our own, have been conducted by anthropologists in different parts of the country. These diverge in both form and content from the economic approach.

Indeed, the very starting point of this research has been distinctive. The intention was not to apply a pre-given or conceptually static definition of poverty, from which a count of the poor could proceed. Instead it was to probe local perspectives on wellbeing, the diverse forms of disadvantage, and the kinds of social relations in which disadvantage arises.

A main finding that emerges from the anthropological work is that we cannot see the poor without seeing the better-off. Local grammars of poverty – namely, the terms used to describe who are better- or worse-off – consistently distinguish between socially marginalised individuals and those with strong local social connections.

Perceptions of deprivation do highlight material deficiencies, such as a lack of food or clothes. But social relationships are vital to cope with vulnerability (shocks) and to facilitate social mobility. Being poor is intimately connected to one’s perceived “position” in a wider society and, through this, one’s scope for upward movement.

Self-reinforcing disadvantage

The anthropological view highlights the complex and often fairly localised ways in which the powerful, sometimes politically-connected, hoard opportunities for development. This reinforces existing divides and limits the social and economic mobility of the most disadvantaged.

For instance, the National District Development Fund in Niassa, Mozambique’s northern province, was seen as a main source of money for investment in (rural) economic activities. Formally, in allocating the funds, priority was to be given to agriculture rather than businesses, women rather than men, and associations rather than individuals.

But we found that the funds had been systematically co-opted by local influentes . These included traditional authorities, male entrepreneurs and the governing party elite through an intricate system of social relations of exclusion and bribes.

Other vignettes from the lives of the poor point to the diverse mechanisms through which disadvantage is reproduced. This is often linked to specific cultural practices that empower certain groups above others. They also point to the self-reinforcing nature of social and economic disadvantage.

For example, we met a single mother who had lost large parts of her harvest to drought two years in a row. She had struggled hard to put all her three children to school, but with no crops to sell and no well-placed family to support her, she could no longer pay the bribes necessary for her children to move up classes.

We also encountered instances where people cut themselves off from vital relationships to avoid exposing themselves to the embarrassment of having failed and so as to preserve their dignity.

Making sense of disciplinary divides

How can we make sense of different disciplinary perspectives on poverty? On the one hand, it is tempting to seek some reconciliation. Surely, metrics of social capital or even subjective wellbeing can be added to existing measures of consumption power to provide a more complete characterisation of the poor? Or perhaps qualitative follow-ups among the consumption poor could be used to add local context?

Certainly, combined qualitative-quantitative approaches to poverty research have become popular and often yield richer insights than any one method on its own. Yet, as we elaborate in our paper, this somewhat misses the point.

There are fundamental philosophical differences between standard quantitative (economic) and qualitative (anthropological) traditions, which do not admit any easy fusion. These include differences in understandings about the form of social reality, what can be known about poverty, and how poverty is produced and reproduced.

For this reason, it is vital to allow separate and diverse perspectives on poverty to flourish. Each methodological approach has distinct strengths, limitations and policy uses.

The economic approach is essential to track economic progress over time on a consistent basis and identify households at greatest risk of consumption poverty (for example, to target social policy). But to uncover – and even resist – the inherently relational and often political ways in which poverty emerges and is reproduced requires a deeper, local, ethnographic touch.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

About the author

Sam Jones is a research fellow at United Nations University .

Inge Tvedten is an anthropologist and senior researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute .

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The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S.

by The Federal Reserve System and the Brookings Metropolitan Policy program .

In 2006, the Community Affairs Offices of the Federal Reserve System partnered with the Brookings Institution to examine the issue of concentrated poverty. The resulting report, The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S. , profiles 16 high-poverty communities from across the country, including immigrant gateway, Native American, urban, and rural communities. Through these case studies, the report contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of poor people living in poor communities, and the policies that will be needed to bring both into the economic mainstream.

In the Richmond Fed District, this special report looks at the factors that give rise to high-poverty neighborhoods in West Greenville, NC and McDowell County, WV and the challenges they face.

Poverty data highlights include:

West Greenville, N.C.:

• The neighborhood poverty rate was more than 40 percent, twice as high as the poverty rate for the Greenville MSA.
• One in five households was headed by a single parent.
• Nearly 60 percent of children lived in poor households.

McDowell County, W.Va.:

• The poverty rate was 38 percent.
• One in every three residents aged 18 to 64 does not have health insurance – the lowest rate of coverage in West Virginia.
• Of the county’s working-age population, 40 percent claimed a disability of some kind.

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The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America

The World Bank Group is committed to fighting poverty in all its dimensions. We use the latest data, evidence and analysis to help countries develop policies to improve people's lives, with a focus on the poorest and most vulnerable.

Around 700 million people live on less than $2.15 per day, the extreme poverty line. Extreme poverty remains concentrated in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, fragile and conflict-affected areas, and rural areas.

After decades of progress, the pace of global poverty reduction began to slow by 2015, in tandem with subdued economic growth. The Sustainable Development Goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 remains out of reach.

Global poverty reduction was dealt a severe blow by the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of major shocks during 2020-22, causing three years of lost progress. Low-income countries were most impacted and have yet to recover. In 2022, a total of 712 million people globally were living in extreme poverty, an increase of 23 million people compared to 2019. 

We cannot reduce poverty and inequality without also addressing intertwined global challenges, including slow economic growth, fragility and conflict, and climate change.

Climate change is hindering poverty reduction and is a major threat going forward. The lives and livelihoods of poor people are the most vulnerable to climate-related risks.

Millions of households are pushed into, or trapped in, poverty by natural disasters every year. Higher temperatures are already reducing productivity in Africa and Latin America, and will further depress economic growth, especially in the world’s poorest regions.

Eradicating poverty requires tackling its many dimensions. Countries cannot adequately address poverty without also improving people’s well-being in a comprehensive way, including through more equitable access to health, education, and basic infrastructure and services, including digital.

Policymakers must intensify efforts to grow their economies in a way that creates high quality jobs and employment, while protecting the most vulnerable.

Jobs and employment are the surest way to reduce poverty and inequality. Impact is further multiplied in communities and across generations by empowering women and girls, and young people.

Last Updated: Apr 02, 2024

Closing the gaps between policy aspiration and attainment

Too often, there is a wide gap between policies as articulated and their attainment in practice—between what citizens rightfully expect, and what they experience daily. Policy aspirations can be laudable, but there is likely to be considerable variation in the extent to which they can be realized, and in which groups benefit from them. For example, at the local level, those who have the least influence in a community might not be able to access basic services. It is critical to forge implementation strategies that can rapidly and flexibly respond to close the gaps.

Enhancing learning, improving data

From information gathered in household surveys to pixels captured by satellite images, data can inform policies and spur economic activity, serving as a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty. More data is available today than ever before, yet its value is largely untapped. Data is also a double-edged sword, requiring a social contract that builds trust by protecting people against misuse and harm, and works toward equal access and representation.

Investing in preparedness and prevention

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that years of progress in reducing poverty can quickly disappear when a crisis strikes. Prevention measures often have low political payoff, with little credit given for disasters averted. Over time, populations with no lived experience of calamity can become complacent, presuming that such risks have been eliminated or can readily be addressed if they happen. COVID-19, together with climate change and enduring conflicts, reminds us of the importance of investing in preparedness and prevention measures comprehensively and proactively.

Expanding cooperation and coordination

Contributing to and maintaining public goods require extensive cooperation and coordination. This is crucial for promoting widespread learning and improving the data-driven foundations of policymaking. It is also important for forming a sense of shared solidarity during crises and ensuring that the difficult policy choices by officials are both trusted and trustworthy.

Overall, with more than 60 percent of the world’s extreme poor living in middle-income countries, we cannot focus solely on low-income countries if we want to end extreme poverty. We need to focus on the poorest people, regardless of where they live, and work with countries at all income levels to invest in their well-being and their future.

The goal to end extreme poverty works hand in hand with the World Bank Group’s goal to promote shared prosperity. Boosting shared prosperity broadly translates into improving the welfare of the least well-off in each country and includes a strong emphasis on tackling persistent inequalities that keep people in poverty from generation to generation.

Our work at the World Bank Group is based on strong country-led programs to improve living conditions—to drive growth, raise median incomes, create jobs, fully incorporate women and young people into economies, address environmental and climate challenges, and support stronger, more stable economies for everyone.

We continue to work closely with countries to help them find the best ways to improve the lives of their least advantaged citizens.

Last Updated: Oct 17, 2023

How the Pandemic Drove Increases in Poverty | Poverty & Shared Prosperity 2022

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Find out what the World Bank Group's branches are doing to reduce poverty.

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COVID-19 Dealt a Historic Blow to Poverty Reduction

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Mozambique case study shows that poverty is about much more than income

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What does it mean to be poor? On the face of it, this may not sound like a very difficult question. In developed countries, almost all official and everyday definitions refer to poverty in income terms. In this sense, low consumption power (income) and poverty are essentially synonymous.

Outside of developed countries, a similar view of poverty frequently gets headlines. In its global comparisons, the World Bank has adopted the (in)famous poverty line of US$1.90 a day . So, people with daily real incomes below this amount form part of the global poor – thankfully, now a diminishing group.

One might dispute exactly how and where such a poverty line should be set. But the idea that being poor means not having an adequate income often seems uncontroversial.

Of course, among academics things are rarely so settled. Between economists, there is disagreement about whether poverty should be measured only in monetary terms. In other areas of social science, there is a tradition of scepticism that suggests standard quantitative definitions of poverty can be misleading .

Representing poverty as a kind of well-defined objective condition, like an infectious disease, focuses attention on the symptoms and immediate consequences of poverty. It risks diverting attention away from the underlying structural causes and diverse experiences of the poor.

Challenging official narratives

In a recent paper we explore contrasting views of well-being in Mozambique. Our interest reflects the country’s controversial track record. From the early 1990s until recently, Mozambique achieved one of the strongest sustained periods of aggregate economic growth of any country. Yet some argue this growth has largely not trickled down, leaving many behind.

Official poverty estimates undertaken by the government are of the classic quantitative or economic kind. Here a set of basic needs is identified and costed. Households consuming goods worth less than the cost of a minimal basket are deemed to be “poor”. Applying this definition, data from national surveys shows consumption poverty has declined over the past two decades at a steady, but not especially rapid, pace.

Today, almost half of all Mozambicans continue to live in absolute poverty. There are also large spatial gaps in well-being. For example, there is much lower poverty in the south of the country, around the capital city, reflecting widening levels of consumption inequality.

To provide perspective on this official narrative, a range of bottom-up studies of poverty , including our own, have been conducted by anthropologists in different parts of the country. These diverge in both form and content from the economic approach.

Indeed, the very starting point of this research has been distinctive. The intention was not to apply a pre-given or conceptually static definition of poverty, from which a count of the poor could proceed. Instead it was to probe local perspectives on well-being, the diverse forms of disadvantage, and the kinds of social relations in which disadvantage arises.

A main finding that emerges from the anthropological work is that we cannot see the poor without seeing the better-off. Local grammars of poverty – namely, the terms used to describe who are better- or worse-off – consistently distinguish between socially marginalised individuals and those with strong local social connections.

Perceptions of deprivation do highlight material deficiencies, such as a lack of food or clothes. But social relationships are vital to cope with vulnerability (shocks) and to facilitate social mobility. Being poor is intimately connected to one’s perceived “position” in a wider society and, through this, one’s scope for upward movement.

Self-reinforcing disadvantage

The anthropological view highlights the complex and often fairly localised ways in which the powerful, sometimes politically-connected, hoard opportunities for development. This reinforces existing divides and limits the social and economic mobility of the most disadvantaged.

For instance, the National District Development Fund in Niassa, Mozambique’s northern province, was seen as a main source of money for investment in (rural) economic activities. Formally, in allocating the funds, priority was to be given to agriculture rather than businesses, women rather than men, and associations rather than individuals.

But we found that the funds had been systematically co-opted by local influentes . These included traditional authorities, male entrepreneurs and the governing party elite through an intricate system of social relations of exclusion and bribes.

Other vignettes from the lives of the poor point to the diverse mechanisms through which disadvantage is reproduced. This is often linked to specific cultural practices that empower certain groups above others. They also point to the self-reinforcing nature of social and economic disadvantage.

For example, we met a single mother who had lost large parts of her harvest to drought two years in a row. She had struggled hard to put all her three children to school, but with no crops to sell and no well-placed family to support her, she could no longer pay the bribes necessary for her children to move up classes. We also encountered instances where people cut themselves off from vital relationships to avoid exposing themselves to the embarrassment of having failed and so as to preserve their dignity.

Making sense of disciplinary divides

How can we make sense of different disciplinary perspectives on poverty? On the one hand, it is tempting to seek some reconciliation. Surely, metrics of social capital or even subjective well-being can be added to existing measures of consumption power to provide a more complete characterisation of the poor? Or perhaps qualitative follow-ups among the consumption poor could be used to add local context?

Certainly, combined qualitative-quantitative approaches to poverty research have become popular and often yield richer insights than any one method on its own. Yet, as we elaborate in our paper, this somewhat misses the point.

There are fundamental philosophical differences between standard quantitative (economic) and qualitative (anthropological) traditions, which do not admit any easy fusion. These include differences in understandings about the form of social reality, what can be known about poverty, and how poverty is produced and reproduced.

For this reason, it is vital to allow separate and diverse perspectives on poverty to flourish. Each methodological approach has distinct strengths, limitations and policy uses.

The economic approach is essential to track economic progress over time on a consistent basis and identify households at greatest risk of consumption poverty (for example, to target social policy). But to uncover – and even resist – the inherently relational and often political ways in which poverty emerges and is reproduced requires a deeper, local, ethnographic touch.

Bringing these different perspectives into a meaningful dialogue with each other remains the next challenge.

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Poverty Reduction: Concept, Approaches, and Case Studies

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The effect of rural development on poverty gap, poverty severity and local economic growth in indonesia, 21 references, poverty alleviation with economic growth strategy: prospects and challenges in contemporary nigeria, political space, pro-poor growth and poverty reduction strategy in honduras, poverty reduction within the framework of sdgs and post-2015 development agenda, the poverty reduction strategy initiative : findings from 10 country case studies of world bank and imf support, poverty reduction strategy papers: a new convergence, the prsp approach and the illusion of improved aid effectiveness: lessons from bolivia, honduras and nicaragua.

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China and SDG1: Efforts to alleviate poverty – a case study

Author: guest contributor.

Professor Xiaolin Wang, dean and professor at Fudan University, explores how China can be used as a case study for poverty alleviation efforts elsewhere and working towards achieving the aims of SDG1.

Could you share a brief overview of your book series? What were you hoping to achieve?

After attending the Rio+20 Conference (refer to United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development) in 2012, I realized there were still various challenges that need to be overcome before achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and that poverty and inequality continue to be the main issues developing countries need and have to face. Although the development experience from developed countries is precious, the new challenges of the current era caused by climate change, new technological revolution etc., are tremendous. Thus, it is difficult to solve the poverty problem in developing countries by following the experience of developed countries. China, as the largest developing country in the world, has made many new attempts and strategies in poverty reduction. Hopefully, these practical experiences could add value to other developing countries on poverty reduction.

How have you worked directly to address SDG1: No Poverty and how do this series contribute to this goal? 

I believe that the quality of a country’s economic growth is one of the most crucial things for addressing SDG1. That’s why the theme of the first book of this series is about the quality of the economic growth and poverty reduction of China. 

In my perspective, in fact, there are three pillars to promote poverty reduction in one country: the pro-poor economic growth, the inclusiveness of social development and multidimensional poverty alleviation and development. Relying only on income support plans cannot achieve the goal of poverty eradication. The public policy should promote this kind of growth, this is first pillar. The impoverished population benefits from economic growth above the average level of society, which is known as pro-poor economic growth. Meanwhile, poor people have more equitable access to public services, such as, education, health, and employment. The second pillar therefore, is inclusive social development. The third pillar is the delivery of multi-dimension targeted poverty alleviation.  

The framework for integrating this book series is based on the above three pillars of public policies for poverty reduction. Under this framework, this book series includes the practice of targeted poverty alleviation in China. 

I hope this book series could pass on a relatively logical and theoretical framework of the poverty governance knowledge system, which have been tested practically in China.

What is your motivation to focus your research and edit a book series on this particular topic? Is there a personal or professional reason that raised your interest? 

This book series reflects my working experience for the last 25 years. The first time I realized a huge knowledge gap in poverty alleviation was at the age of 28 when I took charge of the investment estimation work for Western China’s poverty alleviation project by the World Bank. At that time, I was keen on finding well-edited poverty reduction books that combined theories, methods and practical operations. Unfortunately, there were minimal materials that could fit my requirements. Thus, I started to think about why I did not do poverty reduction-related research by myself and then edited such a book.

When the time came to 2006, I joined the Social Policy Division of UNICEF China Office and started researching child development and the national financial budget. In 2009, I went on a research visit on multidimensional poverty measure approach to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), where I read a lot of poverty related literature,  including professor Amartya Sen’s great works, whose theory of welfare economics greatly expanded my understanding of poverty. Between 2009 to 2017, I worked at the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) and the State Council Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of China for 8 years, participating in the formulation of some poverty reduction policies by the Chinese government.

Could you share your thoughts on the future of poverty reduction efforts both in China and on a global scale? What trends or developments do you anticipate in this field in the coming years?

China has worked hard to alleviate absolute poverty and aims to alleviate relative poverty and narrow the uneven development by implementing national rural revitalization and regional balanced development strategies. There are of course numerous challenges we have to face in alleviating poverty globally, with conflict, the digital divide, platform monopoly, climate change, etc., which may lead to large-scale poverty returning for human society.

In your perspective, how can we contribute to addressing real-world issues like poverty in the Global South, and how has your series and its books aimed to bridge the gap between research and practical solutions?

To address real-world issues and achieve the goals of SDGs, there are three necessary things that need to be done. First, governments should consolidate consensus on addressing global poverty and other development goals of SDGs. Secondly, it should establish more inclusive partnerships and thus raise funds for the development goal. Lastly, guiding digital technology and digital platforms to become more inclusive and encouraging the digital technology to promote inclusive solutions. 

It is essential for the Global South to build unique knowledge systems based on their national conditions and international development experience. Secondly, it is necessary for countries belonging to the Global South to strengthen their relationship by sharing experience and knowledge, especially on the aspect of poverty reduction and development. Last but not least, as this book series is an open series, we hope it could include more research and information on poverty reduction from Africa, South Asia, Latin America etc., in the near future. 

Why did you choose to publish this book series with Springer Nature? What did you enjoy the most when you work with Springer Nature?  

The main reason for choosing Springer is due to its power of international influence and communication. This book series focuses on global poverty reduction, so I hope it could be shared in various countries worldwide. I believe this book series could be helpful for government officers, NGOs, universities and research institutions in low and middle-income countries. 

About the author

Dr WANG Xiaolin is the Deputy Dean and professor of the Institute for Six-sector Economy, Fudan University, professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University. He is the Executive Director of Shanghai (Fudan University) Institute for Cooperation and Development, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Government Cooperation and Exchange Expert Committee, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Soft Science Research Association, executive director of China Rural Development Research Association, and special expert of Shaanxi Province. He also serves as an advisory expert for the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, the United Nations World Food Programme and other international organizations. He was a former member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Leading Group on Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council, P. R. China.

Guest Contributors include Springer Nature staff and authors, industry experts, society partners, and many others. If you are interested in being a Guest Contributor, please contact us via email: [email protected] .

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Mental health effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and teens

Rising inflation and an uncertain economy are deeply affecting the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those living in low-income communities. It may seem impossible for a family of four to survive on just over $27,000 per year or a single person on just over $15,000, but that’s what millions of people do everyday in the United States. Approximately 37.9 million Americans, or just under 12%, now live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

Additional data from the Bureau show that children are more likely to experience poverty than people over the age of 18. Approximately one in six kids, 16% of all children, live in families with incomes below the official poverty line.

Those who are poor face challenges beyond a lack of resources. They also experience mental and physical issues at a much higher rate than those living above the poverty line. Read on for a summary of the myriad effects of poverty, homelessness, and hunger on children and youth. And for more information on APA’s work on issues surrounding socioeconomic status, please see the Office of Socioeconomic Status .

Who is most affected?

Poverty rates are disproportionately higher among most non-White populations. Compared to 8.2% of White Americans living in poverty, 26.8% of American Indian and Alaska Natives, 19.5% of Blacks, 17% of Hispanics and 8.1% of Asians are currently living in poverty.

Similarly, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children are overrepresented among children living below the poverty line. More specifically, 35.5% of Black people living in poverty in the U.S. are below the age of 18. In addition, 40.7% of Hispanic people living below the poverty line in the U.S. are younger than age 18, and 29.1% of American Indian and Native American children lived in poverty in 2018. In contrast, approximately 21% of White people living in poverty in the U.S. are less than 18 years old.

Furthermore, families with a female head of household are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with a male head of household. Twenty-three percent of female-headed households live in poverty compared to 11.4% of male-headed households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

What are the effects of poverty on children and teens?

The impact of poverty on young children is significant and long lasting. Poverty is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools. In addition, low-income children are at greater risk than higher-income children for a range of cognitive, emotional, and health-related problems, including detrimental effects on executive functioning, below average academic achievement, poor social emotional functioning, developmental delays, behavioral problems, asthma, inadequate nutrition, low birth weight, and higher rates of pneumonia.

Psychological research also shows that living in poverty is associated with differences in structural and functional brain development in children and adolescents in areas related to cognitive processes that are critical for learning, communication, and academic achievement, including social emotional processing, memory, language, and executive functioning.

Children and families living in poverty often attend under-resourced, overcrowded schools that lack educational opportunities, books, supplies, and appropriate technology due to local funding policies. In addition, families living below the poverty line often live in school districts without adequate equal learning experiences for both gifted and special needs students with learning differences and where high school dropout rates are high .

What are the effects of hunger on children and teens?

One in eight U.S. households with children, approximately 12.5%, could not buy enough food for their families in 2021 , considerably higher than the rate for households without children (9.4%). Black (19.8%) and Latinx (16.25%) households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, with food insecurity rates in 2021 triple and double the rate of White households (7%), respectively.

Research has found that hunger and undernutrition can have a host of negative effects on child development. For example, maternal undernutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of negative birth outcomes, including premature birth, low birth weight, smaller head size, and lower brain weight. In addition, children experiencing hunger are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 1.4 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food-secure children.

The first three years of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain development. Too little energy, protein and nutrients during this sensitive period can lead to lasting deficits in cognitive, social and emotional development . School-age children who experience severe hunger are at increased risk for poor mental health and lower academic performance , and often lag behind their peers in social and emotional skills .

What are the effects of homelessness on children and teens?

Approximately 1.2 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the National Center for Homeless Education (PDF, 1.4MB) . The report also found that students of color experienced homelessness at higher proportions than expected based on the overall number of students. Hispanic and Latino students accounted for 28% of the overall student body but 38% of students experiencing homelessness, while Black students accounted for 15% of the overall student body but 27% of students experiencing homelessness. While White students accounted for 46% of all students enrolled in public schools, they represented 26% of students experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness can have a tremendous impact on children, from their education, physical and mental health, sense of safety, and overall development. Children experiencing homelessness frequently need to worry about where they will live, their pets, their belongings, and other family members. In addition, homeless children are less likely to have adequate access to medical and dental care, and may be affected by a variety of health challenges due to inadequate nutrition and access to food, education interruptions, trauma, and disruption in family dynamics.

In terms of academic achievement, students experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent than non-homeless students , with greater rates among Black and Native American or Alaska Native students. They are also more likely to change schools multiple times and to be suspended—especially students of color.

Further, research shows that students reporting homelessness have higher rates of victimization, including increased odds of being sexually and physically victimized, and bullied. Student homelessness correlates with other problems, even when controlling for other risks. They experienced significantly greater odds of suicidality, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, risky sexual behavior, and poor grades in school.

What can you do to help children and families experiencing poverty, hunger, and homelessness?

There are many ways that you can help fight poverty in America. You can:

• Volunteer your time with charities and organizations that provide assistance to low-income and homeless children and families.
• Donate money, food, and clothing to homeless shelters and other charities in your community.
• Donate school supplies and books to underresourced schools in your area.
• Improve access to physical, mental, and behavioral health care for low-income Americans by eliminating barriers such as limitations in health care coverage.
• Create a “safety net” for children and families that provides real protection against the harmful effects of economic insecurity.
• Increase the minimum wage, affordable housing and job skills training for low-income and homeless Americans.
• Intervene in early childhood to support the health and educational development of low-income children.
• Provide support for low-income and food insecure children such as Head Start , the National School Lunch Program , and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) .
• Increase resources for public education and access to higher education.
• Support research on poverty and its relationship to health, education, and well-being.
• Resolution on Poverty and SES
• Pathways for addressing deep poverty
• APA Deep Poverty Initiative

Community Developments

The outreach blog : from the field.

Poverty in India: Real-Life Consequences & Sustainable Solutions

Over the last several decades, India has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But even with this impressive progress, poverty in India continues to be an enormous problem. A small percentage of people in India have benefitted from this growth, while the vast majority still struggle to meet their basic daily needs. This inequity is exacerbated by a long-standing social caste system in India that disproportionately affects women and children.

In this blog post, we’ll explain the complex causes of poverty in India, the consequences it has on so many of its people, and the work Outreach International is doing to help people lift themselves out of poverty, and into a life of prosperity and hope.

Understanding the Causes of Poverty in India

Poverty in India is a result of various overlapping factors , spanning a long history of social and economic issues. The social issues include a caste system that causes inequity among the citizens of India. People who are born into certain socioeconomic groups or ethnicities can find it more difficult than others to access education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. Economic issues include a history of financial pressure from foreign countries which makes the economy of India sensitive to external markets which are beyond its control.

Outreach Project: Sumita accessed an Usha School Program sewing machine from Outreach’s Program Partner, Outreach India, in Feb, 2023.

Statistics and Facts

• The September 2023 Global Poverty Update by the World Bank revealed that at the $3.65 poverty line, India accounts for 40% of the global poverty rate of 24.1%. ( The World Bank )
• Over a third of all people living in poverty in the world live in South Asia, which amounts to roughly 389 million people. ( The World Bank )
• In South Asia, the rate of extreme poverty, measured by the international poverty line of $2.15, increased by 1.9 percentage points to 10.5%. India accounts for almost 70% of this global change in extreme poverty. ( The World Bank )
• Between 2012 and 2021, 40% of the wealth created in India has been captured by just the wealthiest 1% of the population. ( BBC )

Factors Contributing to Poverty in India

The complex causes of poverty in India lead to equally complex factors that perpetuate the problem. These include:

Limited Access to Education

Despite making strides in improving literacy rates in general, access to adequate education remains out of reach for many groups in India, especially for those who live in remote areas.

Unemployment and Underemployment

The uneven distribution of economic growth creates limited job opportunities in many geographic areas, especially among young people who are actively seeking employment.

Inadequate Healthcare Infrastructure

The healthcare that the government provides for people who live in poverty in India is inadequate in many geographic areas. Serious health issues, often related to childbirth, can go undertreated, leading to overwhelming debt and feelings of hopelessness.

Social Inequality

Discrimination based on social caste, gender, and ethnicity make it harder for marginalized groups to experience basic socio-economic advancement. This creates a cycle of poverty that passes these issues on to the next generation.

Outreach Project: A new 4G cell tower benefits Sumita and everyone in Khambesu Village.

Historical, Economic, and Social Factors of Poverty in India

India has dealt with a long history of colonization that led to the export of wealth and resources for generations. Although this issue is a part of India’s past, the legacy of uneven trade continues to put financial pressure on India’s poorest citizens. Also, like many economies of the world, social disparity makes it almost impossible for people who live in poverty to climb out of it alone.

The Cost of Poverty in India

The consequences of poverty in India are profound and far-reaching. These include:

Unequal Distribution of Wealth and Resources

The concentration of wealth among a small percentage of the population of India limits access to essential resources and opportunities for the majority of its citizens. According to the Harvard Business Review , the wealthiest 10% of people in India hold 77% of the nation’s wealth. It also states that as of 2023, there were 119 billionaires in India, whose wealth continues to grow at disproportionate rates.

Barriers to Receiving Healthcare

The social healthcare system in India ranks very low among other countries. Expert care and the most advanced treatments remain expensive, and so only those who can afford it have access to it. Those who live in poverty sometimes have to make the choice between health or debt. This can be especially difficult when it comes to the health of their children. This lack of access to quality healthcare is evident in the relatively high infant mortality rates .

Outreach International’s Impact in India: Community-Led Solutions to Change this Reality

It can be nearly impossible for people who live in poverty to solve their issues alone. Outreach International works tirelessly to empower people to help themselves. Our partners at Outreach India bring community groups together to learn to identify their unique poverty-related issues, and then mobilize to solve them.

Many people who live in remote areas in India must deal with a lack of adequate infrastructure. This means that there may be no central power grid, or regional sewage and water treatment system. People who live under these conditions must spend much time and effort fulfilling their basic daily needs. But with the help of Outreach facilitators, solutions can be found.

Solar Water Systems

Until 2010, the citizens of Nandibadi had to walk a kilometer each day to collect water from a river. That year, they had a single spout well installed, which was considered a significant improvement at the time. Even then, however, people had to wait in line and take turns using the hand pump from what was their only water source. With the help of Outreach facilitators, they had a solar-powered water well and storage system installed. This improvement not only made life easier, but it freed up large amounts of time for people to spend making progress in other areas of their lives. ( Read about the Nandibadi Solar Water System )

Solar Street Lights

In Lelibadi, people stayed home after dark because of fear of predatory animals and the possibility of crime. There were no streetlights or electric grid to power them. The community-based organization mobilized to have streetlights installed, each powered by an individual solar panel. Now, the nights are brighter, and the community can gather together, socialize, and travel safely. ( Read about the Lelibadi Solar Street Lights )

Safe Sanitation

Safe sanitation is a crucial factor in the health and wellbeing of a community. Illness from contaminated drinking water and unpleasant surroundings due to a lack of a sanitation system in a community would make life difficult for anyone. Community leaders in Kurumpeta successfully managed a latrine construction project that solved their sanitation issues. ( Read about Solving the Sanitation Crisis )

Disability Inclusion

In Kunjibadi Village, Naika lost his leg in a road accident in 2016. This left him and his wife dependent on her income alone, which placed them well below the poverty line. With help from Outreach India, Naika learned that he was eligible for disability benefits. He prepared his documentation, visited the government offices, and now receives benefits that cover basic daily needs for the family. Naika and his wife feel empowered, and able to look to the future with hope. ( Read about Disability Inclusion in Community-Led Development )

Help Outreach Break the Cycle of Poverty in india

Usha will finish school soon and hopes to work for the government so she can help people.

How to Help

Poverty in India is a multifaceted and pervasive issue that affects millions of people. By understanding its root causes, addressing its consequences, and supporting initiatives that promote socio-economic empowerment, we can all help India find truly equitable prosperity.

Make your donation to support our life-saving work today.

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Poverty Reduction: Concept, Approaches, and Case Studies

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• First Online: 10 January 2020
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Yakubu Aliyu Bununu 7  

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

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Definitions

Poverty is universally measured in monetary expenditure terms, and individuals that are considered poor are those living on less than US$1.25 per day. Poverty is however multifaceted as it includes the multitude of lack and deprivations that poor people are subjected to in their lives on a daily basis. These include but are not limited to disease and poor health conditions, illiteracy and lack of access to education, appalling living conditions, lack of access to economic opportunity and disempowerment, underemployment, vulnerability to violence, and exposure to hazardous environmental conditions (OPHI 2019 ). Thus, poverty reduction can be considered as the improvement of an individual’s or group’s monetary expenditure to an amount above the poverty line while improving access to education, healthcare, information, economic opportunities security of land-tenure, and all the other deprivations associated with it.

Introduction

The eradication of poverty is perhaps the only...

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Bununu, Y.A. (2020). Poverty Reduction: Concept, Approaches, and Case Studies. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Decent Work and Economic Growth. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71058-7_31-1

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Gnss time series analysis with machine learning algorithms: a case study for anatolia.

1. Introduction

2.1. data acquiring.

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2.2. Evaluation of GNSS Data

3. methodology, 3.1. data segmentation and feature extraction, 3.2. accuracy and evaluation metrics, 4.1. preprocessing of the time series, 4.2. residual analysis, 5. discussion, 6. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, abbreviations.

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Share and Cite

Özbey, V.; Ergintav, S.; Tarı, E. GNSS Time Series Analysis with Machine Learning Algorithms: A Case Study for Anatolia. Remote Sens. 2024 , 16 , 3309. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173309

Özbey V, Ergintav S, Tarı E. GNSS Time Series Analysis with Machine Learning Algorithms: A Case Study for Anatolia. Remote Sensing . 2024; 16(17):3309. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173309

Özbey, Volkan, Semih Ergintav, and Ergin Tarı. 2024. "GNSS Time Series Analysis with Machine Learning Algorithms: A Case Study for Anatolia" Remote Sensing 16, no. 17: 3309. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173309

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