People who rely on fruits and vegetables that they produce for household food consumption (subsistence farmers) often go through cycles of relative abundance and scarcity. For many families that rely on subsistence production for survival, the period immediately prior to harvest is a 'hungry period.' During these periods of scarcity, many families lack sufficient resources to meet their minimal nutritional needs. Being familiar with these cycles has enabled development practitioners to anticipate and prepare for periods of acute need for assistance.

Besides the immediate destruction caused

by natural events such as hurricanes,

environmental forces often cause acute

periods of crisis by destroying crops and

animals

Natural disasters such as hurricanes and

earthquakes have devastated communities

throughout the world. Developing countries

often suffer much more extensive and

acute crises at the hands of natural

disasters, because limited resources inhibit

the construction of adequate housing,

infrastructure, and mechanisms for

responding to crises.

Good governance is an essential pre-condition for pro-poor growth as it establishes the enabling regulatory and legal framework essential for the sound functioning of land, labor, capital and other factors of market. Whereas, good governance is considered to be non-existent in Pakistan and poor governance is taken one of the key underlying causes of poverty in Pakistan. Poor governance has not only enhanced vulnerability, but is the prime cause of low business confidence, which in turn translates into lower investment levels and growth.

Political stability is fundamental to the

creation of an enabling environment for

growth and development. Economic

agents, particularly investors, must be

reassured with regard to the continuation

of policies, should have confidence in the

government’s credibility in order to operate

effectively, and in the case of investors, be

induced to take risks.

Economic factors have also contributed in

making life difficult for all sections of

society except the very rich. Decline in the

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth

rate is the immediate cause of the increase

in poverty. According to the latest data

released by the State Bank, GDP is

unlikely to grow by more than 2 per cent

this year.

Poverty in many developed countries can be linked to economic trends.

Changes in labor markets in developed countries have also contributed to increased poverty levels. For instance, the number of relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs has declined, while the demand for workers in service- and technology-related industries has increased. Historically, people have learned the skills required for jobs that involve manual labor, such as those in manufacturing, either on the job or through easily accessible school vocational programs. As these jobs are replaced by service- and technology-related jobs—jobs that usually require skills taught at the college level—people who cannot afford a college education find it increasingly difficult to obtain well-paying work

The country’s education indicators portray a dismal picture when compared with other countries at the similar level of GDP per capita. More specifically, the public expenditure on education as percent of GNP have been around 2% in Pakistan compared to other (low income) countries of the region. Since, foundation of any development in socio-economic sector is corollary to the level of education / skills of its human capital therefore, general perception that one of the main causes of the poverty in Pakistan is pitiable state of education across the country

In many developing countries, the problems of poverty are massive and pervasive. In recent decades most of these countries have tried to develop their economies with industry and technology with varying levels of success. Many developing countries, however, lack essential raw materials and the knowledge and skills gained through formal education and training. Because these things are necessary for the development of industry, developing countries generally must rely on trade with developed countries for manufactured goods, but they cannot afford much

Some researchers also cite demographic shifts as contributing to increases in overall poverty. In particular, demographic shifts have led to increases in poverty among children.

In the United States, for instance, typical family structures have changed significantly, leading to an increase in single-parent families, which tend to be poorer.

- Unemployment is rampant now that the global financial crisis has ravaged the world's economy. With a higher number of unemployed people, crime rates in these cities will increase as people grow desperate to survive. It is also believed, however, that some governments of the world intentionally keep a "sufficient" number of people out of work as a replacement batch when the need arrives.High rate of unemployment

Typically if rural workers’ wages go up, so will that of urban workers. People in cities need higher wages when farmers make more money because they need to be able to afford the higher food prices. And that way businesses can also lure more rural workers into working in better-paying factories. What does it mean? That only higher productivity will increase salary of rural workers. So farmers that offer a low productivity are partly to blame for the poverty in rural and urban areas.

Being from an agricultural country, most of the people of Pakistan have farming as their primary source of living. This source is shrinking with the division of lands amongst the family members and depriving honorable way of living to the families- once well of. Only 37% of rural households own land and around 35 million people in rural areas are poor- representing about 80% of Pakistan’s poor.

The lack of transparency in public sector

planning, budgeting and allocation of

resources in Pakistan has been the

hallmark of our financial resource planners

and policy makers. Political or the ruling

leadership has never responded to the real

needs of the populace and accountable to

the promises they made with the public.

In many developing countries, political power is disproportionately centralized. Instead of having a network of political representatives distributed equally throughout society, in centralized systems of governance one major party, politician, or region is responsible for decision-making throughout the country. This often causes development problems. For example, in these situations politicians make decisions about places that they are unfamiliar with, lacking sufficient knowledge about the context to design effective and appropriate policies and programs

Warfare contributes to more entrenched poverty by diverting scarce resources from fighting poverty to maintaining a military. Take, for example, the cases of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The most recent conflict over borders between the two countries erupted into war during 1999 and 2000, a period when both countries faced severe food shortages due to drough

High subsidies and protective tariffs for agriculture in the developed world drains the taxed money and increases prices for consumers in the developed world, decreasing competition and efficiency and preventing exports by more competitive agricultural and other sectors in the developed world due to retaliatory trade barriers and undermining the very type of industry in which developing countires do.

Corruption is one of the most dangerous

factor that eroded Pakistan’s economic

and governance system since its inception.

The corruption and corrupt practices are

not restricted to public servant only rather,

social dishonesty and irresponsible

behavior of people as well. Every one tries

to become rich in nighttime by using unfair

means

Governance is defined as the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's social and economic resources for development.

Good governance implies a capacity to turn public income into human development outcomes. Good governance is an essential pre-condition for pro-poor growth as it establishes the enabling regulatory and legal framework essential for the sound functioning of land, labor, capital and other factor markets.

One of the more entrenched sources of poverty throughout the world is social inequality that stems from cultural ideas about the relative worth of different genders, races, ethnic groups, and social classes. Ascribed inequality works by placing individuals in different social categories at birth, often based on religious, ethnic, or 'racial' characteristics. In South African history, apartheid laws defined a binary caste system that assigned different rights (or lack thereof) and social spaces to Whites and Blacks, using skin color to automatically determine the opportunities available to individuals in each group.

Awareness and concern about environmental degradation have grown around the world over the last few decades, and are currently shared by people of different nations, cultures, religions, and social classes. However, the negative impacts of environmental degradation are disproportionately felt by the poor. Throughout the developing world, the poor often rely on natural resources to meet their basic needs through agricultural production and gathering resources essential for household maintenance, such as water, firewood, and wild plants for consumption and medicine. Thus, the depletion and contamination of water sources directly threaten the livelihoods of those who depend on them.

in Karachi, Balochistan and other parts of the country supplemented with war against terror has retarded Pakistan production process. The worsening situation is affecting the social order as a whole and adding to uncertainties in business circles, resultantly stock markets are crumbling, investors are loosing and uncertain increase in commodity prices is leading to poverty for common man.

is yielding opposite results then the intended ones. National assets are going in to foreign hands, companies are monopolizing their ownership and common consumers are being exploited and charged heavily. Performance of KESC has gone further down and people of Karachi are being asked to pay more against the poor services marred with long spells of load shedding/ power shortage after the privatization. Similarly gas prices in the country have shot up after privatization of some of the gas plants.

Owing to number of factors Pakistan has

not been able to attract needed level of

FDI despite its pro liberalization and

investor friendly policies

: Inflation in prices of every item of goods and service in Pakistan has been sky rocketing for the last few years but the current year is setting new records in this regard. This phenomenon has rapidly undermined the purchasing power of low income groups though the price hike in every consumable and non-consumable item has direct or indirect price shocks for the low-income families but the food and energy price shocks have serious impacts on the poverty environment in rural and urban areas

Due to rapidly increasing population the problem of food shortage in most developing countries are compounded by inadequate provision of basic services such as health and sanitation facilities, shelter and safe drinking water, also lack of education and increasing unemployment. Owing to shrinking developmental funds visa vise population growth. Resultantly the phenomenon gives further rise to the poverty line upward