Arab Definition of Poverty

Poverty in the Arab region has gained little international attention because of the lower rate of poverty compared to other regions. High overall wealth masks significant levels of hardship among the population. Some of the least developed countries within the region, such as Yemen and Sudan, have seen a large number of their population dip into poverty, and they represent some of the poorest countries in the world. In general, the region has witnessed very little reduction in poverty since the 1990s. More importantly, the region had some of the poorest per capita gross domestic product (GDP) rates in the 1990s and early part of the current decade, which resulted in poor human development when compared to equivalent developing countries. The percentage of the poor ...