indeed there is no guarantee that results on the capacity of a social programme to reduce poverty by a given amount will translate to another country if the poverty line is set in a different way we propose that this line be set at a multiple of median income which makes the poverty line sensitive to the distribution of welfare in the country rather than being solely determined by the mean of the welfare metric used this relative poverty line can fruitfully be used alongside an absolute poverty line which we set at the level of the international dollaraday poverty line considering that the international dollaraday poverty line sets a minimum income for fulfilling survival needs the dollaraday line may appear more relevant when the relative poverty line falls below this level