Editing Poverty threshold (section)

===Basic needs===
{{See also|Basic needs}}

The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of [[absolute poverty]] in developing countries. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term [[physical well-being]], usually in terms of [[Consumption (economics)|consumption goods]]. The poverty line is then defined as the amount of [[income]] required to satisfy those needs. The 'basic needs' approach was introduced by the International Labour Organization's World Employment Conference in 1976.<ref name=ILO_WEC1976>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/genericdocument/wcms_193047.pdf|title=The World Employment Programme at ILO|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319063854/http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/genericdocument/wcms_193047.pdf|archive-date=19 March 2014}}</ref><ref name=ILO1976>{{cite journal|title=The World Employment Conference: The Enthronement of Basic Needs|last1=Jolly|first1=Richard| doi=10.1111/j.1467-7679.1976.tb00338.x|journal=Development Policy Review|volume=A9|number=2|pages=31–44|date=October 1976}}</ref> "Perhaps the high point of the WEP was the World Employment Conference of 1976, which proposed the satisfaction of basic human needs as the overriding objective of national and international development policy. The basic needs approach to development was endorsed by governments and workers' and employers' organizations from all over the world. It influenced the programs and policies of major multilateral and bilateral development agencies, and was the precursor to the human development approach."<ref name=ILO_WEC1976 /><ref name=ILO1976 />

A traditional list of immediate "basic needs" is food (including water), shelter, and clothing.<ref name="isbn0-930390-94-6">{{cite book |author=Denton, John A. |title=Society and the official world: a reintroduction to sociology |publisher=General Hall |location=Dix Hills, N.Y |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-930390-94-5 |page=17}}</ref> Many modern lists emphasize the minimum level of consumption of 'basic needs' of not just food, water, and shelter, but also sanitation, education, and health care. Different agencies use different lists.
According to a UN declaration that resulted from the [[Commission for Social Development|World Summit on Social Development]] in Copenhagen in 1995, absolute poverty is "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. It depends not only on income, but also on access to services."<ref name="Indicators of Poverty and Hunger">{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/ydiDavidGordon_poverty.pdf |title=Indicators of Poverty and Hunger|access-date=14 February 2008 }}</ref>

David Gordon's paper, "Indicators of Poverty and Hunger", for the United Nations, further defines absolute poverty as the absence of any two of the following eight basic needs:<ref name="Indicators of Poverty and Hunger"/>
[[File:Homeless man sleeping under a bench.jpg|thumb|A homeless man seeks shelter under a public bench.]]
* Food: [[Body mass index]] must be above 16.
* Safe drinking water: Water must not come solely from rivers and ponds, and must be available nearby (fewer than 15 minutes' walk each way).
* Sanitation facilities: Toilets or [[latrine]]s must be accessible in or near the home.
* Health: Treatment must be received for serious illnesses and pregnancy.
* Shelter: Homes must have fewer than four people living in each room. Floors must not be made of soil, mud, or clay.
* Education: Everyone must attend school or otherwise learn to read.
* Information: Everyone must have access to newspapers, radios, televisions, computers, or telephones at home.
* Access to services: This item is undefined by Gordon, but normally is used to indicate the complete panoply of education, health, legal, social, and financial ([[credit (finance)|credit]]) services.

In 1978, Ghai investigated the literature that criticized the basic needs approach. Critics argued that the basic needs approach lacked scientific rigour; it was consumption-oriented and antigrowth. Some considered it to be "a recipe for perpetuating economic backwardness" and for giving the impression "that poverty elimination is all too easy".<ref name=basicneeds1978>{{cite journal|title=Basic Needs and its Critics|first1=Dharam|last1=Ghai|journal=Institute of Development Studies|volume=9|number=4|pages=16–18|date=June 1978|doi=10.1111/j.1759-5436.1978.mp9004004.x|url=http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/10859}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> [[Amartya Sen]] focused on 'capabilities' rather than consumption.

In the [[Economic development|development]] discourse, the basic needs model focuses on the measurement of what is believed to be an eradicable level of [[poverty]].