A groundbreaking study led by the University of Göttingen, in collaboration with Misereor, has introduced a new approach to measuring poverty by incorporating the cost of a healthy diet. This research highlights a crucial oversight in current poverty metrics, which often fail to account for the affordability of nutritious food.
The study reveals that while the World Bank defines 654 million people as extremely poor based on the $2.15 per day International Poverty Line (IPL), approximately 2 billion people globally suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity and micronutrient deficiencies. The new poverty measure, which takes into account the ability to afford a healthy diet alongside other basic needs, suggests that between 2.3 and 2.9 billion people lived in poverty in 2022.
The researchers combined dietary cost data from 145 countries with consumption data to assess global poverty more accurately. The findings also show significant regional disparities. Traditionally, sub-Saharan Africa is seen as home to two-thirds of the world’s poor. However, this new measure reveals that over one-third of the world’s poor reside in South Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa following closely behind.
In addition, regions like East Asia and the Pacific, typically not considered as heavily affected by poverty in traditional metrics, account for 10% to 19% of the world’s poor using this new method. Overall, countries that are often overlooked in global poverty statistics make up between 29% and 35% of the world’s impoverished population when using the new approach.
Jonas Stehl, Ph.D. Researcher at Göttingen University’s Development Economics Research Group and the study’s lead author, emphasized that millions of people who are not classified as extremely poor according to traditional standards still cannot afford food that meets their nutritional needs, putting them at risk for long-term health issues. He calls for the World Bank to reassess its poverty metrics to better target resources and address the global issue of malnutrition.
The study is published in Food Policy and provides a compelling argument for broadening the definition of poverty to include access to adequate nutrition, which has long-term implications for public health and economic development.
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