A MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS

The 2018 Poverty and Shared Prosperity

Report [World Bank, October 2018] shows figures of poverty around the world. The article published on October 17 [on www. batimes.com.ar] is mainly based on only one aspect of measuring poverty that is the monetary criteria (amount of money per day), but it is not the only one. Furthermore, in the same document, the World Bank is adding new ways to measure poverty that are worth to be mentioned.

Although income is fundamental regarding poverty analysis, it does not show the whole picture. It is also critical to consider other dimensions of poverty, besides how much money someone has that can make someone poor, and the World Bank is starting to do so.

I would like to particularly highlight the interconnected aspects included in the study related to education, health, electricity, water, sanitation, and physical and environmental security that are fundamental for welfare. In some cases, people would be deprived of some of them or even of all of them. The document also refers to a societal poverty line that is a variable instead of fixed value that rises as a nation grows wealthier because it measures increases in median consumption or income levels. Also the report addresses the fact that a certain level of poverty does not affect all the members of the household in the same way, especially women and children.

Having a more comprehensive analysis of poverty will hopefully contribute to having better policies to reduce and ideally end it. María Elisa Dugo Via email