Poverty alleviation in the context of "Georgism"

Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse environmental, legal, social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures: absolute poverty which compares income against the amount needed to meet basic personal needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter; secondly, relative poverty measures when a person cannot meet a minimum level of living standards, compared to others in the same time and place. The definition of relative poverty varies from one country to another, or from one society to another.

Statistically, as of 2019, most of the world's population live in poverty: in PPP dollars, 85% of people live on less than $30 per day, two-thirds live on less than $10 per day, and 10% live on less than $1.90 per day. According to the World Bank Group in 2020, more than 40% of the poor live in conflict-affected countries. Even when countries experience economic development, the poorest citizens of middle-income countries frequently do not gain an adequate share of their countries' increased wealth to leave poverty. Governments and non-governmental organizations have experimented with a number of different policies and programs for poverty alleviation, such as electrification in rural areas or housing first policies in urban areas. The international policy frameworks for poverty alleviation, established by the United Nations in 2015, are summarized in Sustainable Development Goal 1: "No Poverty".

Sustainable Livelihood emerges at the intersection of development and environmental studies to offer a new way to think about work, production and distribution. Specifically, the work of vulnerable populations (e.g., low income population living in the bottom of the pyramid, indigenous communities, etc.) are discussed in this concept to build a sustainable future where inequality is eliminated in households. The term reflects a concern with extending the focus of poverty studies beyond the physical manifestations of poverty to include also vulnerability and social exclusion.

The term sustainable refers to an individual's ability to provide for themselves in a viably long manner. "Sustainability" also refers to the ability to undergo external shocks or stresses and recover from such traumas by maintaining or improving one's livelihood. The sustainable livelihood framework provides a structure for holistic poverty alleviation action. The sustainable livelihood approach focuses on finding resolutions to the problems of vulnerable communities by creating human-centered, participatory, and dynamic development opportunities. It is a bridge connecting the environment and humans to live in harmony. One example of an activity that aims for enhancing sustainable livelihood is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations. All of their 17 goals for 2030 are the aimings that the world needs to be achieved to ensure that "no one is left behind" and a sustainable world. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all 17 goals are experiencing significant delay and need to be tackled in a collaborative way beyond the flame of the goals.