The characteristics of the poor

Institutional analysis that aims to contribute to the reduction of rural poverty needs to focus first of all on the ways in which institutions influence poverty and the livelihoods of the poor. Therefore the starting point has to be poor people themselves. This means understanding their diversity and the different characteristics of people who are affected by poverty and experience it in different ways. The tendency to define “the poor” as a homogeneous group with broadly similar characteristics should be avoided as the differences among different groups of poor people often lies at the root of their poverty. The features that characterize the poor vary considerably from society to society and location to location, but among the factors that are often important are: O gender – women are commonly among the poorest members of society as they are often subject to forms of cultural and social discrimination that exceed those experienced by men in the same situation; moreover their role in child birth, child rearing and household labour constitutes a major burden in addition to their income-generating and food production roles; O age often plays an important role in determining how people experience poverty – the old and the young are frequently among the most vulnerable to poverty and the most difficult for agencies concerned with poverty reduction to reach;