Revisiting the definition of poverty

Defining poverty, how it could be measured and alleviated have always been contested issues. Over the decades, different authors have proposed different definitions and measurement methods that have been applauded for a while before being discarded as inadequate. This paper examines some definitions of poverty in detail and argues that the way poverty has been defined over the years has influenced the kind of poverty alleviation initiatives that have been designed and implemented. The paper further argues that these poverty alleviation initiatives have been temporal and unsustainable because they have been trying to solve a wrongly defined concept. The prevalent definitions of poverty would best be described as fruits of poverty, rather than poverty itself. This paper will, therefore, examine these definitions of poverty and how these definitions have ill-informed the current ineffective and unsustainable poverty eradication strategies. It will then put forward a new definition of poverty that came out of a qualitative, rights-based approach to participative action research, which was a part of a Ph.D. field study, conducted in rural Malawi and its implications