• BLOG SURF
KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 8
Poverty has been with us since the dawn of civilization, but the measurement of global poverty is a relatively new development.
A turning point came in 1990, when a team of economic researchers at the World Bank, Martin Ravallion, Gaurav Datt, and Dominique van de Walle, conceptualized the international poverty line. Since then, the international poverty line has been an indispensable tool in the fight against global poverty, allowing comparisons across time and space and rigorous evaluation of policies designed to reduce poverty.
To help focus the resources of development institutions on those in greatest need, Martin Ravallion and his colleagues revolutionized the measurement of one form of deprivation: those in "extreme absolute poverty." They quantified the number of people globally who had insufficient resources to meet basic human needs by analyzing the national poverty lines of the poorest countries.
Most national poverty lines of developing countries were set using the cost-of-basicneeds method. A government prices a basket of goods and services deemed necessary for a dignified lifestyle.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
