In order to effectively address poverty alleviation the state needs to properly define the poor and their needs says poverty experts.
USP Academic Professor Vijay Naidu made these remarks at a consultative workshop on the definition of the poor and their needs.
Professor Naidu argued that in a society there are certain number of people that are denied access to education, nutrition, opportunities, participation and 'freedom' or better classified as poverty access.
"We need to define the poor and count them so that the poor do count in our policy formulation. The 2005 statistics show that the majority of people poor are Indigenous Fijians while the intensity of poverty (poverty gap) is greater for the Indo-Fijians."
Professor Naidu suggested the need for institutional strengthening at the Bureau of Statistics in Fiji to provide improved data and policy implementation on poverty. He further argued that one way to tackle poverty would be to give people access to resources where they can apply their labour and provide education and training.
Father Kevin Barr said to properly define the poor, perhaps there should be an indicator of poverty line for each country in the form of income and access.
"When a person or family is unable to meet their basic needs, food, clothing, education, and health care they are living below the poverty line."
Fr Barr said around 40 percent of the Fiji population are living in poverty. Of this figure only three percent is covered under the family assistance scheme. Fifteen percent of Fiji's population live in over 200 squatter settlements around the country and about 20 percent reside in the greater Suva area.
"They need to learn to keep a domestic budget and to set priorities in their spending. Today 80 percent of Fiji's population are in Viti Levu residing in the urban areas mostly in squatter."
Fr Barr added that poverty can also be defined within household, according to gender and child impacts, and how much wage workers are paid as 60 percent of workers are paid less relative to the high cost of living.