Current Poverty Issues

Most people, whatever their social status, have a clear mental image of what it is to be poor. The simplest definition, that of a lack of money, is still one that is widely used – thus the UN Millennium Development Goals define people living on less than US $1 per day as poor (a figure revised upwards to US $1.25 per day by the World Bank in 2008). Yet even if this figure is adjusted to fit local contexts, it hides many important components of poverty.

This section of the website explores ways of measuring and analyzing poverty, and of understanding what it is to be poor in a holistic manner – taking into account social inequities and discriminatory practices. In particular, we seek to highlight relevant global debates and issues through short articles written by development practitioners, who reflect on the implications of such global trends for field practice and for Swiss development policy.