"The extent and consequences of poverty in poorer countries is highlighted; the World Bank estimate that 800 million people in the third world lived in absolute poverty at the time, some 40 % of the South’s population not being able to secure the most basic necessities of life. A differentiation is made between poverty in the North, where the relatively high levels of wealth could be redistributed more effectively, and the acute poverty of the South, where there is less wealth to redistribute and very little opportunity to acquire more."