Unit 8 - Trends In Monetary Poverty And Hunger Flashcards
About half of the extremely poor people in the world live in countries that fall into one/both categories:
- Natural resource dependent (47%) (NR export >30% of total merchandise expert)
- Fragile and conflict affected states (12%) (WB classification)
MDG target on extreme poverty and the future…
Target was to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty from 1990 baseline by 2015.
This was achieved, proportion has fallen by 2/3 - however the absolute numbers only with 50%
Prediction is that for SSA the rate will be 15-25% by 2030 (IPL) while in other regions it will be eliminated.
What is SDG target 17.18?
By 2020 enhanced capacity building support to dev countries […] to increase significantly the availability of high quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant to national contexts.
The decline of underweight children in developing countries since 1990 is very similar to decline in the proportion of population suffering from malnurishment, but two important differences:
40% vs 45%
- undernourishment more severe in SSA / underweight children higher in south asia
- underweight children (progress) in South East Asia much slower than in East Asia - more than 5x higher (16.6 vs 2.7%) while proportion of population undernourished is the same 9.6%
What are the main determants of hunger/child malnutrition?
Food availability, accessibility and afforability.
Women’s Education levels
Women’s status (level of empowerment)
The number of children below 5yr
Micronutrient deficiency (infectious diseases)(VitA, zinc, iron)
Health and sanitation
Access:
- local prices,
- purchasing power,
- adequate infra for transportation, distribution and storage
Affordability:
- income (typically spend >50% on food for poor hh)
Definition of slum dwellers:
UN-Habitat: Population living in hh that lack either improved water, improved sanitation, sufficient living area (>3 people/room) or durable housing.
Why did the food price rise of end 2000’ed not effect the poor as much as expected?
- Rapid economic growth in Asia compoennsated the negative impact of the global food prices
- Domestic policies, especially in India and China, meant that the rising prices were not transmitted to the poor consumers.
Limited progress was made however in the early 2000’ed, with an additional estimated 40m unnourished people in South Asia. It is because the growth happening in India did not reach the poorest, while at later stage pro-active efforts did ensure the poor share in the benefits of growth.
How to measure acute and chronic malnutrition
Acute: wasting - low weight in relation to their height
Chronic: stunting - low height for their age
Proportion of underweight children combines both: low weight in relation to their age.
All for children under 5 as they are uniquely vulnerable to malnutrition > effect on physical and intellectual development.
How urban poverty differentiate from rural poverty
- Urban economies are highly monetised (land ownership/rent, water access/payment, even going to the toilet)
- Access to natural capital: few urban hh have access to land, common pool resources (fuel, medicine, safety nets)
- Social safety nets are weaker in urban areas
- Vulnerability of urban residents to unscrupulous landlords/eviction, destruction of homes by state authorities.
Hunger occurs in 3 forms:
- Acute (10%)
- Chronic
- Hidden - a lack of essential micronutrients
Chronic problem.
The urban poor difficulties:
- Employment - the lack off
»_space;> results in casualisation of labour
Decline in the amount of regular, protected work and an increase in self-employed work in the informal sector - Lack of reasonable housing - informal slum settlements
»_space;> transport costs or transportation time (walking) - Service provision can be either better or poor depending on local governance. Housing, water, sanitation, refuse collection, transportation, health care and education.
MDG1 - two complementary indicators
- proportion of the population below a minimum level of dietary energy consumption (food intake)
- prevalence of underweight children (under 5yr)
Interconnections between rural and urban economies and societites
succesful urban areas
- stimulate agri growth
- location for markets and services used by rural people
- remittances stimulate rural development
Dynamic rural production also stimulates and support local urban development.
Why is it difficult to answer the question how many hungry people are there in the world?
2 indicators:
One looks at whole population
One looks at children under 5
FAO, IFAD, WFP (2015) estimate 800m unnourished people (compared to 1b in 1990)
Chen and revallion (2007) differentiated poverty lines for urban and rural poor.
- 30% higher poverty line in Urban areas (larger differences in poorer countries, especially due to high transport costs for staple food)
- 100m additional people were poor with this new IPL (10% extra).
- 75% of worlds extreme poor still lived in rural area with new calculation, 71% if china was excluded
- Headcount poverty rates (% of relevant people below poverty line) still higher in rural areas than urban. However difference lower in South Asia and SSA (than east asia or LA)
