COMCEC Poverty Outlook 2016:
Human Development in OIC
2
1. Poverty Status in the World and the OIC Member Countries
The basic definition of poverty is "the inability of [an individual to possess] sufficient resources
to satisfy [his or her] basic needs."2 The definition and range of basic needs depend on the
place and time, or even the source of the definition. Hence, there are several ways to
investigate the poverty situation of the countries. One of the most frequently used methods is
to define poverty in monetary terms, like the US$1.90 a day poverty line of the World Bank3 or
the value of a minimum calorie requirements. Another frequently used method is to
investigate poverty relatively by examining the income level of the population, such as 60
percent of the median income level like the Eurostat utilizes. Poverty is a complicated
phenomenon that goes beyond the monetary terms. From this standpoint, poverty arises not
only when people have inadequate income, but also when they lack key capabilities or
education, have poor health or insecurity, or when they experience the absence of rights.4 In
this sense, poverty is also investigated in non-monetary terms from a multidimensional
viewpoint. The widely used non-monetary poverty indices are Human Development Index,
Multidimensional Poverty Index and Global Hunger Index.5
In this section, the poverty situation in the World and in the OIC member countries will be
examined in both monetary and non-monetary terms. As the first aspect, poverty will be
investigated in monetary terms by examining GDP per capita levels and poverty headcount
ratios at US$1.90 a day, (because this level is the most prevalent method that is used to reveal
the extreme poverty). As the second aspect, poverty will be investigated in non-monetary
terms by looking at Human Development and Multidimensional Poverty indices as well as state
of hunger (state of food deficiency and Global Hunger Index values) for the countries.
However, the human development performance of OIC will be elaborated in more detail in a
separate section, namely in Section 2. The state of poverty in the OIC member countries will be
analyzed with respect to the four income groups defined by the World Bank.
1.1. Poverty Status in the World
1.1.1. Monetary Poverty
For the year 2015 while the world's average GDP per capita PPP is $15,465, this average is
$44,696 for the high income countries, $15,697 for the upper-middle income countries, $6,423
for the lower-middle income countries and $1,645 for the low income countries6 .
These numbers imply deep income discrepancies between countries.
2 Fields 1994:3.
3 The World Bank updated international poverty line in 2015. The previous poverty line was US$1.25.
4 Haughton and Khandker, 2009:2.
5 See Annex 1 for the explanation of the mentioned indices.
6 See Annex 4.