Forum 21 of 33

Summary : This discusses the limitations in the income-based poverty lines that are widely used to define poverty and to measure urban poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes a discussion of whether the poverty lines defined by international agencies and national governments are set at levels that are realistic in relation to the costs of living in the larger/more prosperous/more expensive cities and the prices that the urban poor have to pay for essential non-food items. The paper ends with a discussion of how the definition of poverty can be widened to include aspects other than income or consumption and how this helps identify many more possibilities for poverty reduction and much expanded roles in poverty reduction for local governments, community organizations and local NGOs. It also discusses the changes needed in defining and measuring urban poverty that are required to support this.    

This can be downloaded from www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=9322IIED

 

Forum 21 of 33