Exiting Poverty: Globally Comparative Policy Approaches for Improved Population Health

Poverty puts basic needs at risk (e.g., healthcare, shelter, adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, sanitation, electricity, and education). Despite progress against poverty over the last three decades, 2.4 billion people still live below the global poverty line of $2/day, well under the living wage. Creating and supporting national social protection policies ensuring economic security across population segments are essential first steps in alleviating poverty and improving population health. The WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD) at the University of California, Los Angeles, developed quantitatively comparable databases on social policies in 193 United Nations countries aimed directly at reducing poverty. Using WORLD data, this analysis will explore whether countries are enacting key poverty-related policies that play fundamental roles in shaping population health: minimum wage protections ensuring all working adults earn incomes enabling them to escape poverty; income protection during circumstances endangering income security (e.g., unemployment, serious illness, and following work-related injuries), and for potentially vulnerable groups (e.g., persons with disabilities, families with children, and the elderly); and how these protections vary by region and income group. The World Bank estimates 1 billion people will still live in extreme poverty by 2015. Adequate social policies are essential first steps in affecting these projections. To date, there has been little readily accessible, easily comparable information on national policies and laws, making arguments for improving legal policy frameworks difficult. This study contributes to filling this knowledge gap, and shows that more can be done to measure and facilitate national action on social determinants of health.