Related approaches, Etymology

Related approaches, taking their cue from the work of Amartya Sen, focus on 'capabilities' rather than consumption.


In the development discourse, the basic needs model focuses on the measurement of what is believed to be an eradicable level of poverty. Development programs following the basic needs approach do not invest in economically productive activities that will help a society carry its own weight in the future, rather it focuses on allowing the society to consume just enough to rise above the poverty line and meet its basic needs.


These programs focus more on subsistence than fairness. Nevertheless, in terms of "measurement", the basic needs or absolute approach is important. The 1995 world summit on social development in Copenhagen had, as one of its principal declarations that all nations of the world should develop measures of both absolute and relative poverty and should gear national policies to "eradicate absolute poverty by a target date specified by each country in its national context."

Etymology


From Middle English, Old French poverte, from Latin paupertās]], from pauper (“‘poor’”) + -tas (“‘noun of state suffix’”). Cognates include pauper, "poor", French pauvreté.
Pronunciation
• (RP) IPA: /ˈpɒvəti/, SAMPA: /"pQv@ti/
• (GenAm) IPA: /ˈpɑːvɚti/, SAMPA: /"pA:v@`ti/
Noun
poverty (plural poverties)
The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.
Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.