Poverty is a state or condition in which a person, a household, or a community lacks the resources, capacities, and other essentials required to satisfy basic human needs or to meet a minimum standard of living.
There are many types of poverty, including absolute poverty, extreme poverty, relative poverty, transitory poverty, chronic poverty, and spiritual poverty.
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty. It is also referred to as absolute poverty and is defined by the United Nations as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs.” The World Bank describes it as a state or condition in which a person lives on less than $2.15 per day. This extremely low threshold (i.e., $2.15) is referred to as the ‘poverty line’ and is used to monitor and draw attention to the living conditions of the poorest around the world.
Relative poverty is a condition or state in which a person makes less than half the money an average person in his country or community earns in a year. Thus, he is relatively poor, a person who lives on less than $30,000 a year in a country where the average annual income is $ 60,000.
Relative poverty is based on societal standards and inequality, while absolute poverty focuses on a global threshold for basic survival needs.
Chronically poor people experience deprivation over many years, often over their entire lives, and frequently pass poverty on to their children. This is chronic or persistent poverty which differs from transitory poverty, a state of deprivation involving people who move in and out of poverty or only occasionally fall below the poverty line.
According to the latest UN statistics, approximately 9.2% of the global population, or about 700 million people, live in extreme poverty.
The poor in spirit are those who recognize that they must rely on God for the supply of all their needs. They are not proud, self-sufficient, or haughty in spirit. Essentially, they recognize that they are incapable of providing for themselves by their strength, goodness, or righteousness. They know themselves to be spiritually bankrupt of true goodness. They know that God is the giver of all things for, says the Lord, “You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power, but by my Spirit”.
Hunger is understood to refer to the distress associated with a lack of food or an insufficient intake of calories, proteins, vitamins, and minerals required for a healthy life and human development.
Poverty is the greatest or principal cause of hunger around the world. Most people who are hungry live in extreme poverty – on less than $2.15 per day.
There are many dimensions of hunger, including seasonal hunger, acute hunger, and chronic hunger.
Seasonal hunger results from seasonal lack of access to food, income, or adequate absorption of food nutrients by the body.
Acute hunger, also referred to as famine, is undernourishment over a definable period. It is the most extreme form of hunger and often strikes during crises such as wars, droughts, and other natural or man-made disasters.
Chronic hunger is a state of long-term undernourishment. It occurs when, for a long time, someone cannot afford food, cannot eat, refuses to eat, have metabolism issues preventing them from absorbing food nutrients, or for some other reason. Although acute hunger crises are reported mainly by the media, chronic hunger is by far the most widespread globally. People who live below the poverty line face chronic hunger.
Here are some definitions that are associated with hunger.
Undernutrition denotes insufficient intake of dietary energy and nutrients that are needed to meet an individual’s needs and to maintain good health. It manifests in many forms, including stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age), and micronutrient deficiencies. It can result from inadequate food intake, poor absorption of nutrients, or excessive loss of nutrients.
Starvation is the most severe form of undernutrition. It ensues when the fat reserves are completely exhausted, and protein is the only fuel source available to the body.
Malnutrition refers to an unbalanced diet due to excess or deficiency. It includes, in all its forms, undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight, inadequate vitamins or minerals) and overweight. In other words, it refers to all deviations from adequate and optimal nutritional status, including energy undernutrition and overnutrition. Obesity is a form of malnutrition.
Food security is defined by the World Food Summit in 1996 as a situation that exists “when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” This multifaceted definition has four pillars: availability (adequate food supply), affordability (low cost), stability (no food shortages or seasonal swings), and utilization. The absence of food security is referred to as food insecurity or “food poverty.”
Hunger is one of the significant aspects of food insecurity. Its leading cause is not a collective shortage of food but instead access to food, especially nutritious food.
According to FAO, which uses undernutrition as a significant indicator of hunger, 830 million people worldwide suffer from hunger every day, with the vast majority of the afflicted living in developing countries. The number of undernourished people is projected to reach 840 million by 2030.”
