Towards a Credible Poverty Framework: From Income Poverty to Deprivation

There have always been differences of view on what poverty means in conceptual terms, and even greater differences on how to measure it. These differences span a broad spectrum of normative and ideological positions and raise a number of technical issues surrounding the statistical measurement of poverty. This paper explains the role of poverty research and the value of a poverty line, while acknowledging that limitations exist with the current instruments. It argues that any poverty measure must include two key ingredients of poverty – the idea that resources are inadequate to meet basic needs and the notion that needs can only be defined relative to prevailing community attitudes and standards.