In addition to a lack of material resources, being poor implies a lack of power and influence over one’s own life. Poverty deprives people of the freedom of deciding for themselves and shaping their lives, and can lead to a violation of human rights. It can also be about living in a state of insecurity and at a great risk to one’s own safety.

Swedish development cooperation takes a multidimensional view of poverty. It is about understanding how people simultaneously experience poverty in several and different ways.

Sida divides poverty into four dimensions:

  • Resources
    Many people do not have the resources they need to live a dignified life and meet their basic needs. Resources can be both material and non-material: it can be a question of income and capital, but also about having an education, professional skills, good health, or access to things needed to be able to earn a living, such as agricultural tools.
  • Opportunities and choices
    In order to lift themselves out of poverty, people must be able to develop or use their resources. For example, it may be a question of having access to work, education, health care, infrastructure, energy, markets and information.
  • Power and influence
    It is important to be able to formulate their concerns, needs and rights, and to participate in the decision-making processes that affect these problems. To do this requires knowledge and access to information. What power you have is influenced by such things as gender, age, class, religion, ethnicity and sexual identity.
  • Human safety
    Violence and insecurity limit the ability of both groups and individuals to exercise their human rights and to find ways out of poverty.

Why are people poor?

To understand why people live in poverty, one must look at the situation in the country or region in which they live.

  • The economic and social context is about the economy, growth, fiscal policy, market development, the labour market, exports, natural resources, educational systems, health systems and demographic development.
  • The political and institutional context is about the political institutions, norms, the rule of law and human rights that exist in a society.
  • The peace and conflict context deals, on the one hand, with factors such as violence, tension and conflict resolution and dialogue, and, on the other hand, with arms control and mine clearance.
  • The environmental context deals with such things as climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and the quality of water.