Poverty is the condition of lacking basic human needs such as nutrition, lean water, health care, clothing, and shelter because of the inability to afford them. It can result from the low wealth and productivity of the poor or, conversely, the shortage and inflation of the goods they consume.

An often cited major obstacle to development is the unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give their tenants full rights to access and use land.

Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty.

• Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It estimates that "in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day" ^ref. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28% in 1990 to 21% in 2001 - most occurring in East and South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa, extreme poverty rose from 41% in 1981 to 46% in 2001. World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the world since 1990 ^ref.

• Relative poverty measures income inequality with poverty seen as socially defined and dependent on social context,. Usually, it is is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other measures of income inequality such as the the Gini coefficient.

  Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such they measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the EU is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.

The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty, including:

• Precarious livelihoods
• Excluded locations
• Physical limitations
• Gender relationships
• Problems in social relationships
• Lack of security
• Abuse by those in power
• Dis-empowering institutions
• Limited capabilities
• Weak community organizations