The recent revision of the World Bank’s global poverty estimates based on a new $1.25 (2005 PPP)
poverty line underlines their unreliability and lack of meaningfulness. It is very difficult to justify
various aspects of the Bank’s approach. In the short term, less weight should be given to the Bank’s
poverty estimates in monitoring the first MDG. In the longer term, a solution to the observed
problems requires adopting an altogether different method. Such an alternative exists but requires
global institutional coordination. Until it is implemented, the crisis in the monitoring of global
consumption poverty can be expected to intensify. Subsequent versions of this paper, correcting
errors or extending the argument, will be made available on socialanalysis.org