Development assistance to reduce poverty : defining and measuring progress

This paper summarizes current thinking on how poverty is defined and measured and explores different perspectives on how to alleviate it. The paper reviews a variety of measurement devices, focusing on composite indices (headcount index, poverty gap, human development index) as well as single variable indicators (regarding consumption, income, food consumption and ratio, bodily measurement, basic needs, adult illiteracy, primary school enrollment, and life expectancy at birth). Seven views on means for alleviating poverty are also discussed, which include: (1) labor-intensive economic growth, (2) investments in human resources, (3) integration of economic growth and poverty reduction, (4) short-term income transfers and safety nets, (5) grassroots initiatives, (6) improvements in natural resources management, and (7) combining human and capital development. Poverty reduction, it is concluded, is a complex process and not a simple, one-time event.