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This analytical tool illustrates how to define “absolute” poverty lines, i.e poverty lines based on approaches that consider the welfare position of each individual or household as if it were independent of the conditions of other individuals or households belonging to the same community. In particular, this module will discuss the following methods:

• the food energy intake (FEI)
• the cost of basic needs (CBN)
• the consumption insufficiency method (CI)
• the budget standard method (BS)

The analogies and differences of the above methods will be highlighted and we shall also illustrate how they can be made operational and how they work, by means of stepby-step procedures and examples. 

For more information, see also:

• Impacts of Policies on Poverty. The Definition of Poverty. EASYPol Series 004
• Poverty Analysis: Poverty and Dominance. EASYPol Series 035

This paper is part of a FAO Policy series: EASYPol-Resources for policy making (in agriculture, rural development and food security). To find other EASYPol series' resources, go to the Policy Support and Governance website>Resources and type "EASYPol" in the free text search.