The Human Development Reports have contributed to the understanding of the complexities of poverty by introducing the concept of human poverty. This is based upon the capabilities/entitlement approach which, expanding upon the insights of the income poverty approach, examines people’s ‘capabilities’ such as literacy and levels of health and nutrition, as well as their ‘entitlements’ to assets and resources.
From the perspective of human poverty, the question ‘are women poorer than men?’ gets a more complete answer. Yes women are indeed poorer when one considers such capabilities as health and education. In some societies, where girls and women are more likely to be undernourished and receive less health care, these disparities can be so great as to outweigh women’s expected advantage in life expectancy.
These disparities result from gender-based inequalities within households, and are reinforced and supported by gender biases outside the household, such as in labour markets, credit institutions and the legal system. They also result from various social norms that lead to women’s social exclusion or economic subordination.
The poor must take the lead
At the community level, the efforts to reduce poverty will be spearheaded by social mobilization. The poor have demonstrated repeatedly that they can organize themselves, produce their own leaders and come up with innovative solutions to the problems they confront. But community-led efforts are more likely to be sustained if the poor can identify viable economic opportunities, and if they have access to training and support services, whether from government or the private sector. In order to eradicate poverty, social empowerment, therefore, must go hand in hand with economic empowerment.
