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The need to reduce poverty in all its forms remains a priority around the world. The fact that countries with higher incidences of growth have an associated reduction in poverty levels is uncontested both in theory and in empirical findings. The channels through which growth results into poverty reduction are not clear. This study looks at education as a channel through which economic growth and poverty reduction are linked. Using data on districts in Malawi, we estimate a regression with the headcount poverty as a dependent variable and education at different levels as independent variables. The results show that there is a significant relationship between education qualification and poverty reduction at district level in Malawi. MSCE qualification has the highest coefficient, meaning that policies that would encourage attaining an MSCE (O-level equivalent) would have a more significant impact on poverty reduction than just attaining primary level qualification

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In this article a more accurate methodology for the measurement of absolute poverty, developed by Slabbert, is discussed and compared to the methodology applied by Statistics South Africa in 2000 for the mapping of poverty in South Africa. When both methodologies were applied on the same set of data of Sharpeville Township, the poverty rate measured by the Slabbert method was over three times higher than the poverty rate measured by the Stats SA method (43.1% compared to 13.7%). The study shows that both the use of a standard national poverty line as well as proxy incomes could lead to huge inaccuracies in the measurement of poverty. On the whole, the application of a less accurate method to measure poverty was found to lead to lower determined poverty rates. When the poverty rate is lower, it leads to a lower number of households and people that are being determined as poor (5,621 people were determined to be poor in Sharpeville by the Stats SA method, compared to 17,685 by the Slabbert method). This will lead to a totally different kind of action and degree of urgency in the formulation of policies aimed at the alleviation of poverty.

Poverty studies have received unprecedented attention in the past