Chronic Poverty Research Centre

Chronic poverty trends cannot be examined without considering the impact of various social conflicts afflicting a region. It is true that all forms of poverty cannot be explained by conflicts as much as all conflicts cannot be attributed to poverty. But, in many economically backward states, poverty and conflict have largely a two-way relationship; poverty is both a cause and consequence of conflict. There is a broad consensus on the definition of chronic poverty as severe deprivation of basic human needs over an extended period of time. But there is no unanimity as to what constitutes the basic needs. Over a period of time, the 'basic needs' has expanded to encompass not only food, water, shelter and clothing, but access to other assets such as education, health, participation in political process, security and dignity. Those who are chronically poor are poor in several ways and often suffer multi-dimensional poverty - food scarcity; lack of resources to send their children to school or provide health care for the sick (Hulme, Moore and Shepherd 2005).