# WhilePovertyisaGlobalProblemResultingfromGlobalIssuesitsDefinitionandSolutioncanonlybeFoundLocally # Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: Abstract-There is a debate on whether there should be a global definition of poverty that applies to all countries. Many people ask questions why we not have a more universal approach to address poverty. Is it too pragmatic to think that a universal approach is needed to address global poverty? However, the author thinks external agencies universal definition of poverty and poverty prescriptions for social and economic development are not effective to local living socioeconomic development and to develop ecological economics rather contextually designed good governance programs suite for local development and to address the issue of poverty. For example, Grameen Bank micro-finance, Grameen America USA, Desjadin Credit Union Canada, Mondragon Spain, Natural Agriculture Thailand, Participatory Budget Brazil, BRAC non-formal education and BIKASH Bangladesh, and SWEA of Indian women cooperatives are well known local initiatives to address the issue of local poverty and unemployment. Therefore, the article emphasis that while poverty is a global problem resulting from global issues, its solution can only be found locally and therefore the nature of poverty must be defined locally. # Introduction overty is a threat to human survival and development. Thomas Allen (2002) says, "It is a part of global crisis" (p-16). It is not an isolated social catastrophe rather, it is socially constructed (Rouf, 2015). It is a process of social exclusion of the poor, and is a product of uneven development across and within the state. Capitalism and globalization of the free market economy make poverty global and the third world more impoverished. Polani says (1957), "This big transformation is self-destruction" (p-4). According to Professor John O'Neil (2007) of York University, capitalism is the production of wealth and poverty. It is advantageous to wealthy nations, but developing countries have less wealth and significant social problems that are not encouraging to resource creation. As a result, the world has become an increasingly unequal place-the gap between the haves and havenots has widened. For example, over fifty countries are now poorer than they were ten years ago. Life expectancy has fallen in over thirty countries (Bibby & Shaw, 2005). Martin Wolf (2004) says, "It is the net result of massive growth in inequality" (p.139). There is no turning point from this process unless there is an alternative development strategy for the world. Hence, this paper argues that while poverty is a global problem resulting from global issues, its solution can only be found locally and therefore the nature of poverty must be defined locally. The paper attempts to demonstrate that the way we define poverty has a direct relationship with how we propose to eliminate it. For the author, poverty is depriving poor people of access to local public resources to achieve anything beyond fulfilling their basic needs in both developing countries and developed countries. This leads to suffering from malnutrition, ill heath, lower life expectancy, infant mortality, unemployment and injustice to poor people in society. One of the major problems among the poorer communities is increased violence because of poverty. Therefore, poverty is one of the most important issues to be examined in development studies. Poverty eradication is targeted as the number one Millennium Development Goal (MDG) by United Nations (UN) in the 21 st Century. However, one of the first questions is: who is included in the definition of poverty and who is excluded? If we define one person as living in poverty and in need of assistance based on an absolute definition (poor people suffer from basic necessities of life like food, shelter, clothing, education and heath care) then are we excluding their neighbors because they have no extra change of clothing? The objective of paper is to discern roots of causes of poverty and find alternative local tools that can assist local people to get out of sufferings of poverty misery. Most international social agencies spend considerable effort creating rules and deciding who qualifies for support and who does not. This is a complex process, and no matter how sophisticated the rules, the rules cannot account for each unique situation (Hick, 2004). Families have different types of numbers of family members, some face chronic illness, some are limited in their ability to work, some live in remote P Abstract-There is a debate on whether there should be a global definition of poverty that applies to all countries. Many people ask questions why we not have a more universal approach to address poverty. Is it too pragmatic to think that a universal approach is needed to address global poverty? However, the author thinks external agencies universal definition of poverty and poverty prescriptions for social and economic development are not effective to local living socioeconomic development and to develop ecological economics rather contextually designed good governance programs suite for local development and to address the issue of poverty. For example, Grameen Bank micro-finance, Grameen America USA, Desjadin Credit Union Canada, Mondragon Spain, Natural Agriculture Thailand, Participatory Budget Brazil, BRAC non-formal education and BIKASH Bangladesh, and SWEA of Indian women cooperatives are well known local initiatives to address the issue of local poverty and unemployment. Therefore, the article emphasis that while poverty is a global problem resulting from global issues, its solution can only be found locally and therefore the nature of poverty must be defined locally. depressed areas of the country, some have little or no education, some have the spirit to escape poverty, and other are just worn out. Therefore features of poverty problem are different. Therefore, poverty solution needs to be addressed by identifying the particular elements of poverty for particular segment of the local people as well as finding out what local resources available for them and what process can engage them that can enhanced them their participations in the community to be social actors and economic actors and accelerate their socioeconomic benefits to fulfill their basic needs. Poverty usually measured in terms of income and therefore, fiscal economists decide how could provide assistance and select who gets assistance from the state based on specific data (e.g., income, money in the bank, assets). However, maximum marginalized people do not have such statistics in the developing countries. Therefore maximum poor people are excluded from the state acute poverty accounting, but usually state fiscal policy and poverty measures are based on relative poverty. This relative poverty is measured against standards that make sense within each country. However, this sometimes presents a challenge when evaluating the situation of remotest marginalized poor, tribes, immigrants and refugees (Hick, 2004, p. 123). Therefore, in this paper, the author is first going to discuss what it means to examine poverty from a universal and local perspective. Secondly, he discusses poverty measures suggested by different institutions and scholars, and the effects of globalization on poverty. Lastly, the paper looks at the poverty definition and discusses how poverty could be addressed in the local context. In early Britain, English Poor Laws were promoted as a way to address widespread poverty in England and to stop the commoners from begging. The laws classified the poor as being either worthy or unworthy of relief. The worthy ones are children, along with the aged, sick or disabled (Hick, 2004, pp. 34-35). The poor laws did not develop sustainable income generating programs and services for the poor rather relief services keep poor in the vicious circle of poverty among marginalized poor in London. There is a debate on whether there should be a global definition of poverty that applies to all countries. Why do we not have a more universal approach to address poverty? Is it too pragmatic to think that a universal approach is needed to address global poverty? Although the depth of poverty (poverty gap measurement of how much additional income would be required to raise an individual or household out of poverty) varies from region to region, country to country, poverty exists all over the world. Poverty is the direct result of global forces and actions by the various global actors (Sen, 1981). The rich and poor can be found between countries and within a country because the world is connected through globalization. Globalization is closely associated with poverty because it creates great inequality between rich and poor, as well as international conflicts and environmental degradation (Ibid, 1981). Companies now operate globally, so it is becoming more difficult to limit their activities as they move from country looking for cheap resources and exploiting cheap labor. So poverty is not just only a local problem; it has global connections. How can a 'one-world view' ever justify the gross social differences that exist in our integrated global system? Therefore many experts believe poverty solutions should be global. In a capitalist society, poverty relates to those who live 'outside' the consumer society. They are blamed for not fitting in, but really they are victims of unemployment, falling wages, downsizing, and a growing sense of insecurity. Poverty victims are suffering from powerlessness due to a lack of formal and informal representations from them. Therefore they are freedom from elite' dominations and deprivations. So it is a societal problem, not a matter of individual failures. It is an outcome of the value system of global international capitalism. It is made worse through baldly reputed poverty brokers: IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO) and multinational corporations (MNCs). Although these organizations talk a lot about poverty, they are not reducing absolute poverty. Rather, they are the institutions which help induce misery and famine all over the world (Dickson, 1997)). They prescribe poverty solutions as external actors of the impoverished society. Therefore Jeffry Sacks (2005) finds that the rich world dominates third world countries by employing Ph.D. economists in international institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. However, it is a wrong strategy of the World Bank and IMF because rich countries' economic development policies, strategies and paths are different from those of developing countries. Hence it is appropriate to let the developing countries themselves identify their own resource strengths, resource gaps, and resource needs, and possible solutions for their own socioeconomic development. The international organizations (IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization) exist to regulate the global economy under the sponsorship and direction of the Poverty has a long history and is present everywhere in the world. Poverty is often directly related to exploitation of one group of people by a more aggressive or wealthier group of people. For instance, for 200 years, India's wealth has been transferred to Britain through British colonization. Moreover, the plantation economy and slavery systems have been introduced in Central and Latin America by the Europeans (Korten, 1995a). However, the plantation economy has been creating inequalities and poverty there. # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XV Issue VII Version I Year 2015 ( B ) U.S. (Thomas & Allen. 2002: p-204). Their effort often result in damage to the local economy, and to other local social and environmental institutions. Their mandate and ideology may be to support countries' economies, but through lack of understanding of the local culture and short-term as opposed to long-term projects, they usually hinder marginalized people's development rather than help. Recently, the pressures of debt payments, debt crisis, and structural adjustment policies have made less developed countries (LDCs) vulnerable to these institutions. As a result, poor people tend to experience more poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, and health problems, and they are at a higher risk for substance abuse and violence. This is because developed countries impose their own policies on LDCs in the name of democracy, aid, investments, technical support and development. Moreover, capitalism and globalization processes focus entirely on economic growth at the cost of human dignity. Although neoliberalism and capitalism are two global forces which some argue work towards solving poverty, capitalism widens the wealth gap and leaves a large group marginalized in severe poverty with no effective means of improving their situation. Because the capitalist system dominates and controls the local market and continually threatens the local economy. Trade liberalization, export oriented markets, globalization and the structural adjustment policy (SAP) of IMF all have some negative effects on poverty. Although all of them are working under liberal democracy, they create inequality and unemployment in societies. Since the 1980s, the market forces have gained headway (Thomas 2000a, p-40). SAP through IMF intervention has led to rapid increases in prices which contributed to a recession in the Latin American countries in the 1980s. Although the SAP of IMF attempts to solve poverty and improve economies, in practice, it is opposite. # Every country has its own 'Economic Master Plan' and 'Five Year Plan', but they are following Western orthodox economics. These plans are political and serve as eye wash to the public. In addition to this, geopolitics, globalization, misrule of the rich countries (particularly US and Britain) leads the poor countries to poverty and to be dependent on them. Hence Kazi Rouf (2014) believes poor countries should challenge the prescriptions of Western donors and develop their country's economics considering local context and situation. From the above discussion, we see that poverty is a global systemic issue that is a by-product of the global capitalist system. Therefore, poverty should be considered as a result of internationally exploited because it is a global problem caused by global systems. Hence how can local governments hope to deal with poverty which results from global forces well beyond their control? In practice, global capitalism is an example of a failed universalistic attempt at solving poverty. In almost every case, capitalist institutions fail to take into account the local contextual conditions, preferring to impose a set of conditions which are seen as suitable to every situation. This has largely failed, and has only resulted in increases in poverty, particularly in countries already subjected to SAPs. Therefore, an anti-SAP movement is needed against globalization's hegemonic policies. If we define poverty without defining it at a local level and conceptualize it as a global problem, we are then denying that poverty is in fact a local issue. Because here the question is global solutions not simply a continuation of the oppressor pushing their ideas on the oppressed? Therefore, for the sake of practicality, "poverty must be defined in relation to its local conditions which can promote people centered development and contribute to human wellbeing" (Korten 1995b, pp.178-9). The face of poverty is extremely different in each country. In Canada, for example, poverty counts those whose annual income is below $19,256 annually (National Council of Welfare 2002), while in Bangladesh it means living off less than $1 a day. So each country defines its own low-income cut-off (LICO) in relation to its individual situation. Some people think welfare and free health care will address poverty. However, Professor Muhammed Yunus (2013), founder of the Grameen Bank, does not believe in handouts. Rather, he prefers self-reliant strategies for poor people where they can utilize their own skills to meet their needs. Political heritage, various religious and cultural beliefs have an effect on how a country addresses poverty issues. Therefore, local definitions are more meaningful since they take into account the local conditions. Because universal definitions fail to capture local conditions and local reference points. In Bangladesh, the hardcore poor are defined as those who are landless and 'wealth less'. For example the Grameen Bank defines the poor as those who have household total assets amounting to less than $250. The urban poor are those who live in slums and are fully dependent on temporary manual daily labor. In Canada, the poor are those who spend 56.2% or more of their household income (either paid income or government assistance) on basic necessities and therefore, they are 'in need' (National Council of Welfare, 1999a; Chappell, 2001: p.182). Here in Canada, the social safety net is fairly well developed for dealing with poverty. However, in Bangladesh the poor live by on their own resources and must survive on their own effort. There is no state supported safety net there. Thus, both the poverty definition and its solutions are different in these two countries. Hence Professor Peter Penz (1998) criticizes 'income poverty' and suggests poverty should be seen © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) 1 ( B )10 Year 2015 While Poverty is a Global Problem Resulting from Global Issues, its Definition and Solution can only be Found Locally from people's capacity to purchase/afford their basic needs. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are expanding their socio-economic power over the state through trade agreements, but there are no international bodies which can make and enforce laws. Thus, it is up to the local governments to create and enforce laws which limit global companies and limit the actions of the local economy to ensure a reduction in poverty. Although NGO initiatives are incapable of dealing with the root of the problem and are only band-aid solutions, they work locally for poverty because the solutions can only be found and implemented locally. United Nations Development Program (UNDP) explains poverty in more relative terms, but it also has different criteria for explaining poverty depending on whether we're talking about developing countries more industrialized nations. UNDP uses the Human Development Index (HDI) and Human Poverty Index (HPI) for poverty management (Thomas, 2000, p. 16). This is a composite measure which includes different indicators from local perspectives. A lack of health care, education, and social involvement, along with inadequate environmental quality, can also be referred to as poverty. Thus, it is multi-dimensional. Although human development (HDI) developed by UN is widely used now, there is no separate UN agency solely dedicated to poverty eradication. Now development has both positive and negative effects on society. It could either decrease or increase human wellbeing because dominant business elites are greedy for profit, and they exercise control over people through the market economy. Development ethics really don't exist (Gasper, 2004, p.1). They decide what areas of wealth increase and in what ways. The designs of wealth creation and distribution affect the whole world. Power decides what resources go to which third world country with what conditions. It is even determined in UN voting, IMF voting and G-8 meetings. These voting decisions affect the third world because the first world has forced their ideas onto the third world countries. However, those ideas do not fit appropriately into the third world poverty reduction strategies. For example, first world ideas of GNP calculation ignore female/domestic labor. Their work is not included in the GNP calculation, rather devaluing their effort. Therefore, a universal poverty definition and universal solution policy cannot cover all the different pockets of poverty in different societies even within a different society. Moreover, multinational corporations (MNCs), the source of a lot of 'working poverty' do not generally focus on local conditions. Their owners and operators are located in far away rich countries. Moreover, MNCs are care only about profits and their business. Local poverty and the environment is not one of their concerns. To address the issue of poverty, there are different opinions/ approaches developed by different institutions and experts discuss below. # II. # Approaches to Poverty Analysis A number of ideas have been proposed for measuring the rate of poverty. Here are three approaches to poverty analysis: (1) the Poverty Line Approach focuses on economic measures for meeting basic needs, but it says less about the depth of poverty (poverty gap); (2) The Capabilities Approach explores endowments and entitlements of functioning achievements; and (3) Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) explores the cause and effect of poverty in a specific context. The PPA looks at the experience of poverty from the poor people's perspective. It is a bottom-up evaluation where the poor give input, and it encourages active participation in finding comprehensive policies to address poverty. Participatory budget of town house meeting in Argentina and Brazil are an example of PPA approach to prepare and to develop budgets and projects for the public specially for the disadvantaged people in Argentina and Brazil. Toronto Community Housing (TCH) has introduced the participatory budget analysis meetings for the tenants of the TCH in Toronto. The TCH participatory budget analysis meeting provides opportunity to tenants of TCH to be involved in budget analysis that enhanced marginalized TCH tenants benefits in Canada. Now the paper is going to discuss how poverty is viewed by economists as the lack of money, income or capital resources to provide for oneself and one's family. The poverty line, the GNP and LICO are a few of the major elements used to measure poverty from an economic perspective. The poverty line identifies poverty as the limitation in earnings and purchasing power. LICO is used in Canada to measure absolute poverty (acute poverty) and relative poverty. The poverty line approach separates the poor from the rich (cut-off point) and focuses on (a) the national per capita income at the micro level, and (b) the per capita household income. It defines daily income to be the minimum level necessary for survival of household members. About one-quarter of the world's population lives on less than $1 per day and over half lives on $1 per day and are suffering from absolute poverty (Daley-Harris, 2002). The highest poverty region in the world is South Asia (44%). 841 million people worldwide are malnourished and 885 million adults worldwide are illiterate (World Bank Report 2000). Within these huge numbers of poor, women are the most affected (67%) and children are the worst victims (Hick, 2004, p. 147). Poverty also exists in developed countries (11%) for people that have less than $14.40 per day of income. In Canada, 3.3 million people (14.4%) live below the poverty line (Chappell, 2001). # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XV Issue VII Version I Year 2015 # ( B ) While Poverty is a Global Problem Resulting from Global Issues, its Definition and Solution can only be Found Locally Although GNP per capita and GDP are used as tools to measure poverty at the macro level, they are not appropriate to measure poverty because they are based on the average GNP income of a state. The advantages of the poverty line approach are that it provides empirical data which enables the planners to map the extent of poverty. However, macro level economics and statistics cannot measure local conditions especially when it comes to health and quality of life. Free trade and global investments do not decrease the gap between rich countries and the poor. In 1960, the gap between developed countries (DCs) and under developed countries (UDCs) average income was only 20 times, while in 1990 the ratio had increased to 55 times (Hick, 2000. p-147). Therefore, Professor Jeffry Sacks (2005) and Professor Peter Penz (1997) say that neo-liberal democratic capitalism is increasing income poverty. As a result global inequality among individuals has increased the poverty gap. Conversely, the poor world is suffering not only from income shortages, but other concerns such as unequal access to assets, opportunities and universal education. Economic growth does not always benefit poor people and reduce poverty (Jackson, 2011). Hence Nailla Kabeer (1994) says, "Human needs go far beyond the ability to afford daily nutritional needs, but can be extended to living a healthy and active life and participating in community activities" (p-139). The capabilities approach, participatory poverty assessment, and the 'hierarchy of needs' approach all go beyond human economic needs and promote social aspects of human life. For example, the capabilities approach developed by Amarta Sen (1984) explores endowments and entitlements (means) of functioning achievements (ends) for the poor. This approach talks about means and ends (social inclusion) and it appears to respond to economic growth which fails to benefit (trickle down to) the poor. Economic growth fails to meet all people's essential needs: water, sanitation, shelter, clothing, public health, and transportation. The advantages of this human capabilities approach are the focus on monitoring basic achievements across country borders, gender relations, and gender inequalities. Although the capability approach is inclusive of social aspects, intangible social conditions are not quantifiable. The capability approach tailored to the Human Development Index (HDI) of UNDP includes income, life expectancy and educational attainment as human development measurement. The benefits of HDI are the measurement of basic achievements across the country and the focus on gender inequality. UNDP also monitors the gender inequality index (GDI) which uses three indices of HDI, but GDI focuses on gender inequality. GDI helps to identify gender inequality and low status of women, and promotes change. This gender-based approach helps to identify the human rights approach to social welfare. It further defines social entitlements as a right of citizenship. Another multidimensional poverty assessment is the Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) that explores the cause and effects of poverty in a specific context. It looks at the experience of poverty from the poor people's perspective. It is a bottom up approach to measure poverty. The advantages of PPA are: it looks not only at the basic needs but also the security, accumulation, social standing, and self respect. It also includes unskilled labor and social networks. Hence the capability approach, HDI, and participatory poverty assessment are more important in addressing poverty at the local level; much more so, than the poverty line approach. Feminization of poverty is a terrible ordeal both in LDCs and DCs. For example, in Bangladesh more than 70% of rural women live below the poverty line. In Canada, 37% of single mothers live below the income poverty line. The women's nurturing activities and household responsibilities devalue them and leave them vulnerable to exploitation. The growing poverty rates give them no choice, voice, value, power, or status in society. Rather, they are exploited by upper class people and employers. For example, industrialized jobs are currently filled by females and thus, increasingly more exploitative" (Kabeer, 2003: p. 69) Patriarchal societies favor and give power via customary laws to men. This has a negative effect on women. All these factors are responsible for rural female poverty. However, the Dollar & Gatti study (1999) finds gender inequalities had a significantly negative impact on economic growth. Gender equality has positive effects on per capita income in society (Kabeer, 2003: p. 40). Hence gender equality would be one of the approaches to address the issue of the feminization of poverty. There are many other poverty relief strategies developed by different scholars and institutions including: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), Gender Responsive Budgets (GRB), and Sectored Strategy for Poverty Policy (SSPP) and Gender Management System (GMS). All of these programs are useful in macroeconomic policy. For example, PRSP deals with a country's macro-economic structural and social policies to promote economic growth and reduce poverty. Although PRSP explores opportunity for poverty reduction, it has rapidly become an integral component of aid-cooperation agencies. It is heavily influenced by the World Bank/IMF. Furthermore, it is heavily reliant on external technical advice. It expands global rules of trade and global market expansion that is regulated by bi-lateral and multilateral trading agreements (Kabeer 2003, p. 211). The "Hierarchy of Needs" developed by the Fraser Institute uses an absolute approach. This hierarchy of basic needs pyramid theory suggests that © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) 1 ( B )12 Year 2015 While Poverty is a Global Problem Resulting from Global Issues, its Definition and Solution can only be Found Locally "for poor people, the notion of self-esteem itself might be more closely tied to the ability to feed their children than to middle class, which would hamper their survival strategies" (Kabeer, 1994, p. 140). Although this is not a direct measurement tool for poverty, this ideology provides just another social theoretical framework from which sociologists examine the issue of poverty. From the above definitions and approaches to poverty, it is clear that the economic and social theoretical viewpoints directly affect how policies are developed in recognition of these pressing issues. Therefore, poverty analysis and solutions should be considered both at the universal and local levels to define and to solve the poverty different components. Now the paper is going to discuss the Grameen Bank (GB) micro-financing program, as an example, that deals with poverty that is based on a combination of economic and social dimensions at the local level. Grameen Bank pioneered 'microfinance', giving funds to women once considered unbankable, and allowing them to engage in agriculture, commerce and food processing businesses. Through Grameen Bank, BRAC, ASA and many other micro-financings institutions (MFIs), many of the women engaging in microcredit etc. earned more income, developed networks leadership skills and citizenship skills among them, moreover; they have less children and want less children; fewer children will also help get out of the cycle of poverty. Hence the Grameen Bank group based micro-credit approach is an example of a local solution to address poverty in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh is not out of the grip of extreme poverty, young women are working in garment factories in inhumane working conditions and are lowpaid, these young women are trying to earn income and contribute to their families and to the Bangladesh economy. Although the author finds the garment workers are suffering in exploitive sweatshop job environments where these women are working, at the same time they (garment workers) talked about their greatest opportunity for their empowerment in Bangladesh. For example, they could imagine being able to save surpluses from their pay, manage their own income, have their own rooms, and choose when and whom to date and marry, choose when to have children, and use their savings to go back to school. According to Jaffrey Sacks (2005) this is an example and the first step on the ladder out of poverty for Bangladesh. Neither economic nor social viewpoints alone are enough to address poverty. Rather a combination of the two is needed. Most meaningful solutions to poverty work are at the local level. Even international aid, which is delivered globally, must eventually be administered locally. Grameen Bank is a very good example of an integrative approach to work with local poor people. GB extends its collateral free banking service, which caters primarily to rural women in Bangladesh, and mobilizes Microfinance is not designed to support large companies at the national or international levels. Rather, its success is entirely local, through improving local conditions for residents, teaching them to manage money, and plan for their lives beyond a day-to-day subsistence. GB is an example which demonstrates that the concept of microfinance is rooted in local conditions. The loans are small and given to individuals who are rooted in local villages. They then use the loans to create small businesses which serve the local population. Likewise local NGOs are also doing the social development jobs for the marginalized poor in Bangladesh. Microfinance is part of the framework of interventionism as it is defined as the "need for intentional development alongside capitalism in order to ameliorate the disordered faults of progress" (Thomas, 2002, p.28). Interventionism looks to combine state and market forces. Microfinance is an intentional attempt at development using the capitalist methodology. Through borrowing small amounts of money, GB borrowers become entrepreneurs and owner-operators of small enterprises that conduct business independently in their communities. In this way, they increase their family income and savings, educate their children and plan for their future. GB helps to mentor businesses within their local market by providing a supportive community and teaching basic business management skills. A key part of GB is the strategy of bringing women together on a weekly basis not only to pay their loans, but also to share experiences, support one another's business, and to hear from the grameen bank staff about how to keep their family healthy and prepare for natural disasters. Microfinance and other social development schemes of NGOs are targeted at those people who are normally excluded from mainstream banking services, training programs, and business development advice. Their goal for each person they help is self-sufficiency and self-confidence. Only when an individual gains the poor. It is a 'self-sustaining process' and makes its members work both individually and collectively to move up the social and economic tiers. Grameen Bank provides $16.7 billion in credit to 8.6 million rural landless in Bangladesh (Grameen Dialogue-93, 2014). GB narrows down its poverty measurement to the borrower level. It uses ten indicators to measure poverty for its members (Appendix-1). Here the GB poverty measurement is combination of social and economic holistic development drives the Bangladeshi rural poor towards self-employment, independence. They are encouraged to make decisions on behalf of families, plan and save for the future, and alleviate the burden of poverty from their lives and their children's. Grameen Bank Statistics 2006) state that 58% of its borrowers have successfully graduated from poverty through the use of Grameen loans. # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XV Issue VII Version I Year 2015 # ( B ) While Poverty is a Global Problem Resulting from Global Issues, its Definition and Solution can only be Found Locally these important qualities can they pull themselves out of the depths of poverty for good. Although the World Development Report (1990) says "Reducing poverty is the fundamental objective of economic development" (p-24), safe and sustainable environmental policy, programs and projects are also vital for poverty eradication and human development. Several NGOs and many international organizations are attempting to address poverty, but they are working piecemeal and often cancel out each other's efforts. An inclusive poverty definition and an integrated program for income development, education, health, and legal services for poor women at the village level are urgently needed. For poor women, their poverty is not just an issue of nutrition and basic needs, but of justice, voice, choice and fundamental human rights. A globally-unified poverty definition and a uniform global poverty reduction strategy may not be appropriate for all poverty pockets in the world because the depth of poverty and causes of poverty differ from society to society. Therefore, we need to identify the poverty headcount of both absolute and relative poverty (Slayter, 2003, p. 297). At the same time the public policy should be reviewed and updated, and povertyrelated trends and conditions must be monitored. This can play a crucial role in giving people the ability to develop their potential as well as to convert available resources into an economically and socially advantageous small business. # III. # Conclusion From the above discussions/arguments, the author draws conclusion poverty is depriving poor people of access to resources to achieve anything beyond fulfilling their basic needs and they are suffering from misery, injustice inequality, ill health, malnutrition, lack of quality life, powerless and exploitation in the society. Hence it is one of the most important issues to be examined in development studies because the world has become an increasingly unequal place, as the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened. Poverty, injustice and inequality are worst in capitalism. Because capitalism and globalization of the free market economy makes poverty global and the third world is more impoverished. It is advantageous to wealthy nations, but developing countries have less wealth and they have significant social problems that are not encouraging to resource creation. Over fifty countries are now poorer than they were ten years ago (Bibby & Shaw (2005). It is because the world is increasingly becoming globalised. However, people living in poverty are citizens who have rights to the benefits of development. Currently many thinkers are questioning is there no turning back from the social impoverishing process. Many development thinkers are suggesting for traditional cooperatives managed by marginalized people could be an alternatives for their development and poverty eradication because cooperatives are based on social and ethical values and on the principles of democracy and self-help; poor people can work for themselves through cooperatives and work for their social life improvement. However many developmental practitioners consider traditional cooperatives are like an old furniture model of development because this alternative developmental model unable to function properly in many countries including Bangladesh past even in the present time. Therefore, Barbara Slyter (2003) suggests for an approach to address poverty, which should be considered that closely analyzes its causes and implications to address issue of poverty (p. 286). To reduce poverty and to promote the Brundtland Commission's human need-centered nine conditions could be considered for development and eradicating poverty: justice, sustainability, inclusiveness, gender equity, good literacy, human security and reduce poverty (in Thomas, 1996, p-99). Moreover, the state should deregulate free-trade within their country to protect its local products and businesses from imported competition. Moreover, UDCs need to work on a sustainable development agenda that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet local people's own need" (Allen & Thomas, 2000, p. 158). Therefore, it is important to identify poverty issues locally; find resources/alternative paths that are suitable to marginalized people in their local context as well that are adaptable to marginalized people to uplift them from their sufferings of poverty, injustice and misery. Microfinance institutions aimed at the poor require some kind of a means-test to identify the extremely poor (Gibbons, 1994, pp. 116-117). Meanstests are also used in Canada to evaluate the assets and income of welfare recipients. It is found that credit unions in Canada are local solutions to mobilize the poor and facilitate networking among them. They are local solutions that promote local small businesses and examples of work to meet their banking needs. © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) 1 ( B ) 14 Year 2015 1![Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000](image-2.png "Bibliography 1 .") 2. Bangladesh Profile, (2001). Bangladesh Statistics.Retrieved on June 08, 2005 from http://-www.southasiafoundation.org/saf/bangladesh/ban-glastats.asp3. Bibby, A. and Shaw, L. (2005). Making a Difference:CooperativeSolutionstoGlobalPoverty.Toronto. © 2015 Global Journals Inc. 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