CPRC Research Themes

Conceptualisation of poverty dynamics and persistent poverty

About Concepts

The CPRC focuses on the ‘chronically poor’ in order to draw attention to those for whom emergence from poverty is most difficult. A rough interpretation of this term might be ‘people who have been poor over a long period and/or since birth’; but such broad concepts need clarification if they are to be useful in guiding research and action, and not simply throw up a host of further questions (e.g. how long is ‘a long period’?).

This initial research theme therefore seeks to deepen and sharpen our understanding of what we mean by ‘chronic poverty’, and develop frameworks for analysing and understanding it. The CPRC believes that the duration of poverty, and its influence on behaviour, capabilities and development outcomes has been neglected in past work. Much academic and policy analysis was concerned with two aspects of poverty:

• ‘depth’ - the severity of poverty; and
• ‘breadth’ – poverty as a multi-dimensional experience, involving not just low income, but also poor or no housing, ill health, lack of political power, etc.