Human Poverty: a practical and analytical study on Less Developed Countries

AbstractThe poverty problem is no longer a problem embodied in only one country, or bounded by a certain geographic area. It has become a problem with heavily international concerns. Poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon that outreaches low or no incomes to the so called human poverty. Human poverty is one of the major obstacles to development particularly in the so called least developing countries (LDCs). In this paper, efforts were concentrating on defining the problem of human poverty, its measurement methods and the underlying causes of it in these countries. Empirically and by the use of OLS regression method and cross-sectional data from some poor countries (Human Development Report, 2005), three models tried to tackle the research problem. The first model was a combination of both low and medium income poor countries, the second was medium income and the third was low income poor countries. Among the results of this research is that variables of general expenditure on education and health and the growth rate in total domestic product are major causes of human poverty. Significantly, the results showed that there were very low growth rates levels in total domestic product, very low general expenditures on education and health which indicate serious symptoms of higher human poverty indices. Finally, the study recommends that governments might better concentrate on more expenditure on education and health as a main priority to eradicate all types of poverty particularly the human poverty