Extreme Poverty

Extreme poverty is the severe lack of material possessions or money. In 2005 the World Bank defined extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 a day. This meant living on the equivalent of US$1.25 a day, in the US, buying US goods. In 2011, this means surviving on the equivalent to US$1.50, A$2 or £1 per day.

Extreme poverty was defined in 1996 by Joseph Wresinski, the founder of ATD Fourth World as:

the absence of one or more factors enabling individuals and families to assume basic responsibilities and to enjoy fundamental rights. The situation may become widespread and result in more serious and permanent consequences. The lack of basic security leads to chronic poverty when it simultaneously affects several aspects of people’s lives, when it is prolonged and when it severely compromises people’s chances of regaining their rights and of reassuming their responsibilities in the foreseeable future.

This definition was adopted by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in The Despouy Report on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty.

The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger was the first Millennium Development Goal, as set by 179 United Nations Member States in 2000. Economists and activists consider epidemic diseases (AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis) as crucial factors in and consequences of extreme poverty.

Extreme poverty is most common in Sub-Saharan Africa.