The SDC understands poverty as a multidimensional concept.

Health

Globally, 821 million people are undernourished. This means that one in nine people suffer from hunger and are not able to consume sufficient food to conduct an active and healthy life. (Source: SDG 2)

3 in 10 people around the globe lacked access to safely managed drinking water services and 2.4 billion people lacked access to improved sanitation with about 892 million people defacating in the open. (Source: SDG 6)

Education

617 million youth worldwide lack basic mathematics and literacy skills. 750 million adults still remain illiterate, of which two thirds are women. (Source: SDG 4)

Participation

Around 4 billion people do not use the Internet and 90 per cent of them are from the developing world. (Source: SDG 17)　

Globally, women's participation in single or lower houses of national parliaments stood at 24.2 per cent on average as at January 2019. Source: SDG 5)

Income

• In 2012, over 900 million people lived in extreme poverty (1.90$/PPP/day).
• Between 1990 and 2015, about one billion people escaped extreme poverty.
• In 2008, 360 million more people lived in relative poverty than in 1981.

Hence, while extreme poverty is reducing, relative poverty (see SDG 1.2 and SDG 10) is increasing globally.

To access the World Bank Data base on poverty, click here.

Poverty means discrimination, obstacles, and exclusion in satisfying the basic necessities of life; in the use and development of an individual’s physical and human potential, capacities, and creativity; in seizing the opportunities and choices for fashioning a fulfilling and dignified life; in the realisation of one’s aspirations; from participating in the formulation and decision-making stages of the social, political, and economic transformation processes.

Wellbeing implies being able to ensure one’s own subsistence in dignified conditions, with the ability to ensure one’s livelihood thanks to one’s own work; being an equal-footed and responsible member in the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of society; having equal access to resources, information, services, institutions, and decision-making structures; being protected from violence and arbitrariness; being able to count on assistance, security nets, and solidarity in the event of crises and disasters; enjoying a positive outlook towards the future for oneself and for the coming generations.

Creating the Prospect of Living a Life in Dignity: Principles guiding the SDC in its commitment to fighting poverty
Barbara del Pozo, SDC, 2004
The most recent SDC guidelines setting the framework for the agency’s approach to fighting poverty were published in 2004. They remain pertinent to this day.

Creating the Prospect of Living a Life in Dignity (PDF, 205 KB)

This understanding of poverty is based on concrete experience and is a basis for a people-centered approach to poverty reduction. It integrates the main issues of concern in the different departments of the SDC, notably:

• Strengthening framework conditions for market access and creating economic opportunities 
• Promoting innovative private sector initiatives to facilitate the creation of decent jobs
  
• Addressing climate change and its effects
  
• Ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources
  
• Providing emergency aid and ensuring the protection of civilians
  
• Preventing disasters and ensuring reconstruction and rehabilitation
  
• Strengthening equitable access to quality basic services
• Preventing conflicts, promoting peace and respect for international law
• Strengthening and promoting human rights and gender equality
• Promoting good governance and the rule of law and strengthening civil society
  

The SDC understands poverty as a multifaceted phenomenon that touches all aspects of life, undermining human dignity and well-being. As a member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the SDC subscribes to the DAC definition of poverty encompassing five inter-linking dimensions, with gender as a transversal issue since globally, women are more likely to experience poverty than men. The five dimensions of poverty are: economic, human, political, socio-cultural and protective – as shown in DAC's multidimensional poverty framework below.

What is Poverty?
The widening meaning of poverty. The concept of poverty includes different dimensions of deprivation. In general, it is the inability of people to meet economic, social and other standards of well-being. The multidimensionality of poverty is now widely accepted. It is based solidly on research that includes major participatory studies of what poor people mean by poverty.

Defining Poverty: The Core Dimensions
An adequate concept of poverty should include all the most important areas in which people of either gender are deprived and perceived as incapacitated in different societies and local contexts. It should encompass the causal links between the core dimensions of poverty and the central importance of gender and environmentally sustainable development.
• Economic capabilities mean the ability to earn an income, to consume and to have assets, access to productive resources: land, animals, forests and decent employment.
• Human capabilities are based on health, education, nutrition, clean water and shelter.
• Political capabilities include human rights, a voice and some influence over public policies and political priorities. Powerlessness aggravates other dimensions of poverty.
• Socio-cultural capabilities concern the ability to participate as a valued member of a community. They refer to social status, dignity and other conditions for belonging to a society which are highly valued by the poor themselves. Social isolation is the main meaning of poverty for people in many societies.
• Protective capabilities enable people to withstand economic and external shocks. Insecurity and vulnerability are crucial dimensions of poverty with strong links to all other dimensions. To a large extent, poverty is experienced intermittently in response to seasonal variations and external shocks – natural disasters, economic crises and violent conflicts. Dynamic concepts are needed because people move in and out of poverty.

"An adequate concept of poverty should include all the most important areas in which
people of either gender are deprived and perceived as incapacitated in different societies
and local contexts. It should encompass the causal links between the core dimensions of
poverty and the central importance of gender and environmentally sustainable development"
(DAC Guidelines: Poverty Reduction, p. 38).

Source: DAC Guidelines: Poverty Reduction

OECD, 2001

Executive Summary: In the Face of Poverty, Meeting the global challenge through partnership (PDF, 493 KB)

DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction (PDF, 800 KB)

Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

Statement of commitment for action to eradicate poverty adopted by administrative committee on coordination

United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), May 20, 1998
http://www.unesco.org/most/acc4pov.htm